WWE SmackDown: 4 botches you probably missed this week (March 5th, 2021)
WrestleMania is now just over five weeks away, and with two matches officially announced by the SmackDown brand, the card is already shaping up.
Likewise, WWE Fastlane is right around the corner, and Friday's episode of SmackDown added a second match to the show. In the presumed main event, Daniel Bryan will officially aim to dethrone Universal Champion Roman Reigns and set up his own WrestleMania main event match against Edge.
Overall, SmackDown delivered another solid show this week, but several superstars had issues on the microphone, and Michael Cole had a rough night as well.
Here are just four botches that the WWE Universe may have missed last night on SmackDown.
#4. Randy Orton isn't a WWE Hall of Famer
Michael Cole kicked off last night's episode of SmackDown by introducing Daniel Bryan as the man who invented the "Yes!" Movement. Cole also stated that Bryan defeated two WWE Hall of Famers in the main event of WrestleMania 30.
Bryan defeated Randy Orton and Batista on that fateful night in New Orleans, and while Batista has been added to the WWE Hall of Fame, Randy Orton has not. He's still an active competitor, as he's regularly featured on WWE RAW. Needless to say, Orton is a future WWE Hall of Famer, but Cole definitely jumped the gun on Friday night.
Several of the botches on SmackDown were particularly noticeable because the Superstars involved tried to correct them. Cole, in contrast, kept rolling rather than attempting to fix it, so his mistake was easy to miss.
#3. Daniel Bryan gets his weeks and months confused on SmackDown
Ahead of his steel cage main event match against Jey Uso, Daniel Bryan delivered a passionate promo to kick off SmackDown. He talked about his love of the business and the reason why he should main event WrestleMania.
The former world champion stated that he deserves the opportunity more than Roman Reigns and Edge because he wrestles on a regular basis. Bryan stated that in the last three weeks, he has wrestled more matches than the two men have in the past three months.
Unfortunately, Bryan tripped over his words and began his statement by focusing on the last three months rather than the recent weeks he meant to discuss. He had to go back over the promo, so many fans picked up on this botch. The mistake within Bryan's passionate promo was perfectly reasonable because he may have been overthinking his words in an attempt to deliver an emotional message.
#2. Rey Mysterio headbutts a camera at ringside
Rey Mysterio was at ringside to watch Dominik take on Chad Gable this week on SmackDown. The former world champion watched his son pick up a confidence-boosting victory over Gable after Alpha Academy had defeated the Mysterios in recent weeks.
After the match, Mysterio made sure that Otis wasn't able to involve himself in a post-match beatdown, as he delivered a senton that took him over the announcers' table. While the future Hall of Famer stood up, it seemed like he came out of the collision feeling the worst of it as he headbutted a camera at ringside.
Mysterio didn't seem to be affected by the bump, as he was quickly able to stand back up and make his way up the ramp. It appeared that either the cameraman was in the wrong place or Mysterio forgot where he was for a second when he jumped up from the announcers' table. This botch was fairly minor, and thankfully Mysterio emerged from the collision fairly unharmed.
#1. Michael Cole can see the future on SmackDown
Murphy made his return to WWE TV as part of last night's episode of SmackDown, and interestingly looked to get back into the good graces of Seth Rollins. Murphy appeared in a backstage segment where he told his former Messiah that he could fix his Cesaro problem.
Despite Rollins telling him to "get out of my sight" the former Cruiserweight Champion went on to face The Swiss Superman later in the night and came up short when he tapped to the Sharpshooter. Interestingly, Michael Cole had already announced that Murphy had tapped and Cesaro had won the match, before the action actually happened.