Smackdown – April 9, 2019: THEY DID IT!
IMG Credit: WWE
Smackdown
Date: April 9, 2019
Location: Barclays Center, New York City, New York
Commentators: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
Normally I would say how exciting this show is going to be and how a bunch of stuff is going to happen here, but last night’s Raw suggests that WWE would rather it not be any kind of a major show. I guess they’d rather just put everything on the Superstar Shakeup for the WWE Designated Exciting Show next week, because why use the hottest crowd of the year to your advantage? Let’s get to it.
Here are Sunday’s results if you need a recap.
Here’s New Day to open things up for Kofi Kingston’s big celebration, meaning a rainbow of balloons and a bunch of pancakes. The fans tell Kofi that he deserves it and Big E. talks about how Kofi won the title at Wrestlemania, bringing tears to eyes. Big E: “An A+ player….with extra credit!” Woods is all fired up too and praises Big E.’s split from last night so Big E. does it again for a bonus.
Woods talks about how people cried on Sunday because it was like seeing their heroes. The three of them got together and changed history so on behalf of everyone, congratulations Kofi. The new champ says this wasn’t in the script or in the cards, which is why it’s such a special moment. He thanks his family, in the front row tonight.
They inspire him to be the best he can be….and here’s the Bar to interrupt. Sheamus talks about how Kofi was about to lose the title last night because he’s a B+ player. A six man challenge is made with a new partner for the Bar: Drew McIntyre. I’d rather he be over on Smackdown anyway as his chances of being World Champion go up a bit.
Ricochet/Aleister Black/Ali vs. Rusev/Shinsuke Nakamura/Andrade
The fans sing Nakamura’s theme music as he works on Ricochet’s arm to start. Now it’s an NXT chant as Ricochet hooks the headscissors into a dropkick for one. Rusev knees Ricochet in the ropes and the evil foreigners start taking turns on Ricochet’s ribs. The front facelock has Ricochet in trouble until he comes back with a jumping neckbreaker. Black comes in to stomp away at Rusev and it’s already back to Ricochet for right hands. He brings Black back in again as Ali is just left standing there on the apron.
Black’s moonsault and a roll each from the other two give us a triple sitdown as we take a break. Back with Ali having to fight out of a bearhug (not a chinlock for a change) but getting turned inside out with a clothesline. A tornado DDT works a lot better for Ali and it’s off to Andrade vs. Black with Phillips mentioning their history.
The moonsault gets two on Andrade with Rusev and Andrade making the save. Ricochet springboard missile dropkicks both of them down and it’s Black Mass to knock Nakamura off the apron. Vega tries to come in and tell Black to pick up some milk but Andrade’s rollup only gets two. Ali’s reverse hurricanrana into the 450 finishes Andrade at 10:33.
Rating: C+. This was all about the rapid fire offense with everyone getting in the ring and getting to showcase themselves. I’m glad Ali got a win here as he’s fallen a good bit since his injury. I miss the 054 as a finisher but at least the 450 is still a good looking move that he can control a little better. Not bad, though PLEASE let Ali stay on Smackdown next week.
Post match Randy Orton runs in for an RKO on Ali but here’s Kevin Owens to Stun Rusev.
The Usos say they need to win tonight because they’ve never beaten the Hardys. Welcome to the Penitentiary.
Here are R-Truth and Carmella to praise Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston. Truth brags about Carmella defeating Andre the Giant in the Royal Rumble. Carmella talks about winning the Women’s Title a year ago right here, though she has since lost it. She gained a friend though….and here’s Samoa Joe to choke Truth out.
Joe talks about destroying Rey Mysterio at Wrestlemania but now he might take less time to beat up anyone in WWE….and here’s Braun Strowman. Thankfully Joe (with the most fired up look I’ve ever seen from him) doesn’t back off and grabs the Koquina Clutch but gets reversed into the powerslam. Another one against the Brand Split and that’s a good thing.
Here are the IIconics to brag about winning and promising to make the titles iconic. They even have their first title defense against the best team they can find around here.
Women’s Tag Team Titles: Brooklyn Belles vs. IIconics
The Belles (Kristen/Karissa) are billed at 45-0 and Corey can’t remember their names. Kristen gets two off a rollup but gets held up for a kick to the head for the pin at 1:32.
Paige is watching in the back and promises to bring a tag team of her own to face the IIconics next week. I’m thinking…..the Sky Pirates maybe?
Here’s a banged up Shane McMahon with the Best in the World trophy for a chat. Shane lists off all the big matches from Wrestlemania and then takes credit for the house. Miz isn’t here tonight because he’s at home taking care of his dad. Shane points out his black eye and now everyone, including the Mizanins, know that he’s the Best in the World. The fans start a CM PUNK chant, drawing an eye rolling “please” from Shane.
Before he’s done though, he wants to talk to ring announcer Greg Hamilton, who didn’t put enough energy into Shane’s entrance. Apparently fans threatened to hurt him if he did it again, which Shane understands. This is the best city in the world because he lives here so Hamilton needs to get it right. Shane isn’t pleased so he grabs Hamilton by the tie and drags him up the ramp, with Hamilton doing the intro over and over until Shane threatens violence if he doesn’t get it right on the last time. Shane is finally happy….and that’s it. Seriously Shane just leaves and we’re done.
We look back at Undertaker attacking Elias last night.
Tag Team Titles: Hardys vs. Usos
The Usos are defending. Jeff starts in on Jey’s arm and hands it off to Matt for more of the same. Jey comes in and loads up a Samoan drop with Jimmy….just running up to him and not doing anything in a bit of miscommunication (possibly from nerves due to facing the Hardys). Matt gets taken down on the floor and then sent hard into the corner as we take a break.
Back with Jeff dropping the legdrop between Jey’s legs until an enziguri takes him down. Jimmy misses a dive off the top and the Whisper in the Wind gets two. Poetry in Motion connects on Jimmy and it’s the Side Effect for two. A superkick into the Superfly Splash gets two on Jeff but the Double Us misses. It’s back to Matt for the Twist of Fate into the Swanton for the pin and the titles at 9:45.
Rating: B-. And we couldn’t do this at Wrestlemania instead of the four way tag that wasn’t all that great in the first place why? The Hardys winning again is hardly a stretch as they’re still one of the best teams around and whoever beats them will get a great rub from beating one of the best ever. Hopefully this frees the Usos up to go to Raw where they can FINALLY have some fresh opponents.
Post match here’s Lars Sullivan to smash both Hardys ala Brock Lesnar in 2002.
Here’s Becky Lynch for a chat. She talks about doing what she promised to and became Becky Two Belts on Sunday. We look back at last nit with Lacey Evans hitting a heck of a right hand that didn’t even knock Becky off her feet. The Superstar Shakeup is next week but she’s not worried because she’ll be on both shows.
There’s a tsunami of challengers coming and she says bring it on. If she has to beat everyone in the locker room and sleep with one eye open for the rest of her career, so be it. Becky goes to leave and poses on the stage as Lacey jumps her with another Woman’s Right. This one knocks Becky down and Lacey leaves before she’s back up.
New Day vs. The Bar/Drew McIntyre
Everyone is in the ring when we come back from a break. Hang on though as here’s Sami Zayn to say….that we’re not worth it before leaving. Woods kicks Sheamus in the ribs to start and it’s off to Kofi for a double stomp. Sheamus clotheslines Woods to the floor so McIntyre can hit his reverse Alabama Slam into the announcers’ table as we take a break (after being back from a break for less than three minutes). Back with Big E. getting the hot tag and hitting the Warrior Splash for two on Cesaro.
The Big Ending is broken up and Sheamus tags himself in for a jumping knee to the face. The spike White Noise gets two on Big E. as Xavier makes the save. A big clothesline drops Sheamus and it’s Kofi coming in with the top rope splash to Sheamus’ back. The dive over the top hits Cesaro and it’s Trouble in Paradise to finish Sheamus at 8:03. I don’t think I saw McIntyre once after the break.
Rating: D+. So remember last night when Kofi and a partner beat the bar and it didn’t lead anywhere to end the show? Well tonight it was a different partner as we set up the Superstar Shakeup instead of doing anything important tonight. What we got to see of the match was fine, though about half of it was in the break.
Kofi brings his family in to celebrate with New Day to end the show as….nothing else happens.
Overall Rating: D. I….what even was that? Did they just decide to take the night off for the week? Most of the night was spent talking about how awesome the new champions are and then…nothing. Oh wait the Hardys won their ninth Tag Team Titles. Really that’s it. WWE has managed to take the two most energetic shows of the year (in front of a New York crowd) and turned them into run of the mill wrestling shows. Well done WWE: you’ve managed to suck the fun out of something else.
Results
Ali/Aleister Black/Ricochet b. Andrade/Shinsuke Nakamura/Rusev – 450 to Andrade
IIconics b. Brooklyn Belles – Big boot to Kristen
Hardys b. Usos – Swanton Bomb to Jimmy
New Day b. Drew McIntyre/The Bar – Trouble in Paradise to Sheamus
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Maybe I am the only one, but I had gotten a heel vibe from Paige, and thought maybe Rhea Ripley and someone else, connecting to Paige being from UK.
Could be actually.
These guys have been working like hell all week. Just let them have a nice victory lap of a show. There’s no point in launching all the storylines this week when the shake up is coming. Plus, we got a title change and a feud set up between Braun and Joe so it’s not like nothing happened at all. D is a ridiculous rating.
It’s not ridiculous at all. WWE has made it a point that this show is one of the biggest of the year. That has been the norm for years now and to just suddenly say “eh not this year, but thanks for the ticket money and watching expecting something cool” is the ridiculous part.
As for the title change, I’ve seen it eight times now. As for Joe vs. Strowman, there’s no reason to believe that’s going to stick. Hence the point of the Shakeup next week.
this show was a B+ / A- imo, Hardyz was a very nice moment + the Kofi tag match was 10x better than the RAW one
IIconics doing us proud.
The wife was actually screaming at me to turn it down because she couldn’t stand hearing their voices. They’re doing something well.
WWE put out an interview with them backstage after they won the titles and then they had another video where they get the nameplates applied to the titles. It’s completely different tones of voice. They 100% tone up the accent up to another level to get under the skin of the audience.
The only thing better is Rhea Ripley using the word “mate” as an insult. Our women are the best. Give me all of them holding gold together at once. Throw Toni Storm in there because we steal everything good from NZ as our own anyway.
I’ll take an unpopular stance and say the shows this week were a nice change of pace. They weren’t necessarily good shows, but after all the feel good moments at Mania, it was nice to just relax a little and not have to worry about paying constant attention for fear of missing a debut or return or turn. With the Shakeup next week, I’m thankful they didn’t really set up any big story lines, save Becky and Evans, because we had all those post Mania stories last year that had super obvious winners due to people being announced as switching brands. Waiting a week, letting the switches happen, and then starting new stories seems a much better idea to me.
I get that. The problem though is these shows have a history of doing something special and now they just don’t. You can’t do something for so many years and then just stop doing it one year with no particular warning.
I’ve never understood whyt he Shakeup is the week after Wrestlemania. It makes these shows, which WWE has treated as so special that they gave them a Slammy one year, feel like run of the mill shows when theys hould be anything but that.
I’ll second Yaz on this by saying why give NY/NJ everything this time? To an extent maybe i can agree with doing the Shakeup this week coming off Mania. That being said i think we can pencil in Braun Strowman and Drew Mcintyre as two of the big Smackdown moves for next week.