WWE‘s latest edition of SmackDown went down on (3/3/23) from the Capital One Center in Washington D.C.! Cody Rhodes confronted Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns ahead of their WrestleMania 39 main event and Sami Zayn once again escaped the clutches of The Bloodline!
Live Coverage
Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and The Bloodline Confrontation
The Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns makes his way down to the ring to kick off tonight’s show. The champion is flanked by Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa, and Paul Heyman. Cody Rhodes then makes his way down to the ring. Cody says he’s not here to fight, he’s here to talk to Reigns and says that he doesn’t think there’s any reason for the rest of The Bloodline to be out here. Reigns tells Jimmy, Solo, and Heyman to leave, which they reluctantly do. Roman asks Cody if he’s more comfortable now and he drops his titles before asking Cody, ‘what do you wanna talk about?’. Cody says Roman has been the champion for over 900 days and while it seems like an impossible task to defeat Roman, he’s (Cody) made career on doing the impossible. Roman says what Cody’s done is impressive but asks ‘The American Nightmare’ if he’s ever headlined WrestleMania or won the WWE Title before. Roman said Cody’s father, Dusty Rhodes prepared him (Roman) for where he is today and even remembers Dusty telling him that he’ll headline WrestleMania and win the WWE Title one day.
Roman says Cody isn’t the only one who misses Dusty and says that he wishes Dusty was here to see their WrestleMania main event. Roman says if Dusty didn’t teach Cody something, he’d be more than happy to school him (Cody). Roman tries to shake Cody’s hand and Cody says their WrestleMania match is a necessity and the only way he (Cody) can exist, is if he beats Roman Reigns and become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania 39. Cody tells Roman that the better man will win at WrestleMania and he (Cody) finally shakes Roman’s hand. Cody’s music hits and Roman exits as the crowd sings along with Cody’s theme song.
We then see Rhea Ripley, alongside Dominik Mysterio walking through the backstage area and Rhea will face Liv Morgan after the break.
Rhea Ripley (with Dominik Mysterio) def. Liv Morgan
Dominik Mysterio (with Rhea Ripley) def. Santos Escobar
Drew McIntyre makes his way down to the ring. McIntyre wastes no time and calls out the Intercontinental Champion Gunther. However, Sheamus’ music hits and out comes the leader of the Brawling Brutes. Sheamus asks McIntyre why he’s calling out Gunther since he knows how much the Intercontinental Title means to him (Sheamus). McIntyre says Sheamus isn’t his father and doesn’t need his permission to call out anyone that he wants. Sheamus calls McIntyre a ‘backstabbing b*tch’ and McIntyre says if Sheamus doesn’t like the call out, he shouldn’t have lost to Gunther not once, but twice. LA Knight’s music hits and Knight says if you’re talking about the Intercontinental Title, you’re basically talking about him…’YEAH!’. Knight says you can’t have WrestleMania in Los Angeles without him.
The New Day’s music hits and out comes Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. The former multi-time tag champions say this whole ordeal is sad and Knight needs to worry about winning a match before he’s concerned with any titles. Karrion Kross and Scarlett then interrupt and Knight attacks New Day from behind. Sheamus joins the fray, as does McIntyre, and Kross wallops Sheamus to end the brawl and we head to a commercial break.
Back from the break and we see a pre-taped segment of Shayna Baszler and Tegan Nox attacking one another backstage before the show and Ronda Rousey helped Shayna take out Tegan.
We then had back to the arena and Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey make their way down to the ring and Shayna Baszler will face Tegan Nox after the break.
Shayna Baszler (with Ronda Rousey) def. Tegan Nox (with Natalya)
We then see Adam Pearce backstage with the Intercontinental Champion Gunther, who’s with his Imperium stablemates Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci. Gunther tells Pearce that he’s a waste of an official because he’s yet to book any of the three of them in a match for WrestleMania 39.
Back to the arena and Bobby Lashley is making his way down to the ring and we’ll hear from Lashley after the break.
Back from the break and Bobby Lashley says that he’s tried to call out Bray Wyatt but since he refuses to show his face on Monday Night RAW, he decided to come do it himself on Bray’s show, SmackDown. Uncle Howdy’s music hits and Howdy pops up behind Lashley and attacks the former WWE Champion. Lashley fights back and lines Howdy up for a spear but the lights go out and when they come back up, Howdy is gone. Bray Wyatt’s logo pops up on the screen and we head to a commercial break.
Backstage, we see Roman Reigns, Jimmy Uso, Solo Sikoa, and Paul Heyman. Roman asks Jimmy if he’s spoken to his brother, Jey, and Jimmy says he has. Jimmy tells Roman that Jey told him that he needs more time…then reveals that Jey actually told him (Jimmy) to tell Roman to ‘leave him the hell alone.’ Roman said he doesn’t understand why Jey has been acting like this but he knows it started when Sami Zayn started to come around The Bloodline. Roman says if Jey doesn’t show up next week and re-join The Bloodline, he’ll stop blaming Sami Zayn and start blaming Jimmy Uso.
Solo Sikoa (with Jimmy Uso) def. Sami Zayn
After the match, Solo and Jey continue their attack on Sami but Sami fights back and breaks free as the show goes off-the-air!