5 Things We Learned From SmackDown Last Night

With most of the focus this week on WWE RAW building toward their final PPV before WrestleMania, Elimination Chamber this Sunday, much of the focus has been off of the SmackDown brand.

That hasn’t stopped Tuesday night’s show from continuing to build toward their final pre-WrestleMania PPV show, Fastlane in March. Just last week, we saw the main event of that show shaken up in a big way with what had previously been a three-way match turned into a fatal five-way.

This week, the focus was on the tag team division and setting up some contenders for the Usos at Fastlane. The question, would they continue to play the hot-hand with Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable or return to the tried and true pairing of the New Day vs. the Usos?

We had that question answered and a lot more on Tuesday night. Here are five things we learned from the show.

1. The Work Horses Opened The Show, Just Like RAW

Following an amazing performance by Seth Rollins on Monday Night RAW, SmackDown brought out two of its best workers to open the show in the ring: Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler.

The match wasn’t the first thing on the show, as AJ Styles came out to let everyone know his thoughts on having to defend his WWE championship again four competitors at Fastlane (it was two prior to last week). After being interrupted by both Baron Corbin and Kevin Owens, Shane McMahon came out and said he was going to see if Owens could do what his buddy Sami Zayn couldn’t do last week: beat Dolph Ziggler.

Ziggler and Owens had a very good match, as one would expect. Given ample time to build a very good television match (nearly 20 minutes), they took that opportunity and swung for the fences. Though Ziggler’s character continues to be lackluster at best, he’s always been very talented in the ring and has been outstanding since his return from his hiatus.

Owens was able to kick out of both a Famouser and Zig-Zag, with two very close near falls that had the crowd on the edge of their seat. In the end, Sami Zayn’s theme came on and Sami ran down to the ring but stopped just before jumping in the ring. A distracted Ziggler was then hit by an absolutely brutal kick from behind by Owens and was pinned.

2. Jinder Mahal Fueled the Fire Between Roode and Orton

Jinder Mahal came out promising a “rude (Roode) awakening.” It turned out to be him claiming to have possession of Bobby Roode’s top ten ballot. Two weeks later, the crowd had apparently already forgot about that list, as this revelation was made to little to no response from the crowd.

The deal here was that Roode supposedly voted himself number one and didn’t even have Randy Orton on the ballot. Mahal ran down the ballot, especially Roode voting himself number one, which brought out Bobby. He claimed it wasn’t his ballot. Mahal then lambasted him for thinking he’s better than Orton, and Roode refused to admit he actually thinks that. This was…odd.

Eventually, Roode turned the tables and said this isn’t about Orton it’s about he and Mahal. This prompted Orton to run out and we got a fight, which ended up with Roode standing tall. In the back, Shane McMahon announced that we should see Roode vs. Orton for the title at Fastlane. A lethargic and demoralized Daniel Bryan agreed, saying “whatever you think, boss.”

3. The Yep Movement = On The Same Page Again

After several weeks of building up heat between between Owens and Zayn, all appears to be forgiven. Or is it?

Owens and Zayn had a backstage segment where Zayn talked about using Shane McMahon’s actions, which are designed to cause contention, and use them against him. He talked about how in the five-way match at Fastlane, they need to use their collective abilities to eliminate all of the other competition, one by one. Sami then promised he’d “do the right” thing after everyone else was gone. He explained he would lay down and let Owens pin him so that Kevin can go on to WrestleMania as champion.

Owens seemed as confused at this revelation as all of us were. What is Sami Zayn up to?

4. Number One Contenders Crowned

The New Day defeated Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable to earn a title shot against the Usos at WWE Fastlane. This will be their 554th match (approximately) of the last year. Only a little sarcasm there.

Benjamin and Gable continue to show a lot of promise, with Gable in particular shining in the ring once again on Tuesday night.

Considering the way that Benjamin and Gable were unceremoniously defeated in two straight falls at the Royal Rumble, it’s kind of surprising to see them not get a title rematch and apparently pushed down the tag team ladder already. Woods defeated Benjamin clean with the Shining Wizard, though there was some confusion with the referee and who was the legal man.

That said, it still remains obvious that the Bludgeon Brothers are the team they want to go with in the long term. After New Day celebrated their victory, the Bludgeon’s theme came on and they slowly walked down the ramp as the New Day looked horrified off to the side. This was very similar to their interaction with the Usos a couple weeks back.

Though the Usos and New Day will go toe to toe at Fastlane, it’s a good bet that’s just bridging the gap before we get to WrestleMania. Whether it will be the New Day or Usos who carry the belts into Mania is kind of a toss-up at this point, but it’s a near certainty that the winning team will be facing the Bludgeons at the Showcase of the Immortals.

5. This Face Still Runs The Place

It feels like it has been a really long time since we’ve seen AJ Styles in action on SmackDown Live, but we finally got that on Tuesday night as the WWE champion took on Baron Corbin in the main event.

In fact, this was the first time Styles has wrestled on SmackDown since January 30, when he and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a tag team match just two days after the Royal Rumble. Speaking of Nakamura, that was also the last SmackDown television match for this year’s Royal Rumble winner. Perhaps we’ll get him next week?

Tuesday’s main event saw Styles get a pretty good match out of Corbin, who no doubt has improved tremendously since being brought up to the main roster (despite several star and then stop pushes from the booking committee). Tuesday was clearly the Styles show, who was his usual phenomenal self.

If you didn’t figure it out from the GIF above, Styles won with the Phenomenal Forearm.

Despite his loss, Corbin was made to look strong in the aftermath of the match. Owens and Zayn ran out to attack Styles. Corbin ended up giving both of them an End of Days and stood strong to end the broadcast.

Other Thoughts From The Show

• Charlotte Flair pulled double duty, teaming with Bobby Roode in the Facebook challenge after the show to defeat Apollo (Crews) and Nia Jax.
• Please bring Shinsuke Nakamura back soon.
• The Riott Squad defeated Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Naomi. It’s very apparent at this point that of the two new NXT female stables (Riott Squad/Absolution), the Squad are the superior group.
• The whole Daniel Bryan situation the past couple of weeks has been weird. He’s just been made to look ambivalent to everything like he just doesn’t give a damn.
• So when is the Top Ten list going to be updated? It shouldn’t be shocking the fans didn’t care about it when it was mentioned in the U.S. title story.