WWE SmackDown: 3/18/2022

2 more weeks until WrestleMania officially! And the cards for both nights are starting to become even more outrageous. Everything is starting to develop massively as we count the days for the biggest wrestling payperview of the year, so let’s not waste too much time and dive in on the action with…

Segment 1: Licensed forklift driver, Brock Lesnar

The reigning and defending WWE champion Brock Lesnar is out for blood, and as shown on this show he was willing to go to any extent to make Roman Reigns pay for the events that happened at the Madison Square Garden house show several weeks back. But how’s Lesnar going to retaliate? Simple: by tricking the Bloodline (The Usos, Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns) into thinking he won’t show up than show up last minute in the parking lot, using a forklift to trash their car! After making his way into the ring, Brock got a mic and declared that at WrestleMania it’d be the “Bipolar Beast” that unifies both WWE and Universal championships. The buildup for this match has been great and I can’t wait to see what they do to conclude the buildup for the last 2 episodes of SmackDown before Mania.

Match 1: Tag Team Match; Los Lotharios vs Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs. (Rating:2.75/5)

A really fun match to kick off the action. Nothing too insane happened other than Boogs being the one to dominate both Carrillo and Garza with freakishly strength! If there’s any team that will be the duo that can dethrone the Usos, it should definitely be Nakamura and Boogs. Mainly because Shinsuke deserves his genuine first feel-good WrestleMania moment but also because it would solidify the buffer version of Queen’s Freddie Mercury as a massive superstar in the years to come.

Match 2: Women’s Tag Team Match; Sasha Banks and Naomi vs Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley. (Rating:3.5/5)

This was the best women’s tag team match to have ever happened in the WWE in such a long time! 4 of the best women, each representing SmackDown and Raw, went out there and arguably had the match of the night! That being said, why did it have to end in a non-clean finish?! Ripley and Morgan really proved that their random pairing as a tag team worked for the better as both women really did have their own moments throughout the match but Naomi and Banks were also a force to be reckoned with. And it seemed that the Raw team were going to get the win over the SmackDown side until Shayna Baszler and Natalya attacked both teams, ending the match in a no contest. Following the attack, Sonya Deville made it official for WrestleMania: Carmella and Queen Zelina will defend their WWE Women’s tag team titles against Ripley/Morgan, Naomi/Banks and now Baszler/Natalya. This may in fact be better than Charlotte vs Ronda and Becky vs Bianca, and I cannot wait for it.

Segment 2: Pat McAfee loves professional wrestling.

This may actually be my most looked forward to match at WrestleMania, even more than AJ versus Edge. Seeing a guy like Pat McAfee going out there and put on an entertaining wrestling match is so fun! He’s wrestled in a War Games match and he wrestled against AEW’s Adam Cole in a singles match on NXT as well and despite losing the man really does have the athletic prowess to steal the show. And after cutting the promo of his life to Austin Theory’s face and basically badmouthing him, McAfee leaves the ring with his head held high! He seems to be the sentimental favorite to win, however I really hope they pull the trigger and give Theory the W instead.

Final Segment: Charlotte has the high ground.

This isn’t going to be the final face off between Rousey and Flair as WrestleMania is literally two weeks away, however I don’t see Charlotte gaining more momentum after this. This feud has been a long time coming as both women have had bad blood since their first encounter at Survivor Series 2018. It genuinely does blur the lines between of fiction and reality as Rousey has had a bad reputation (no pun intended) about decisions of her booking when she had her first run in the company, and this is probably why it’ll be a better match and a better feel-good moment than Lynch and Belair. The segment ends with Rousey getting absolutely destroyed by multiple kendo stick shots from Charlotte, followed by being powerbombed through the announce table. This was definitely a MUCH better show than last week’s.

Final rating:3.75/5