WWE SmackDown Grades (April 3, 2020): Superstar puts on impressive performance ahead of WrestleMania match; former World Champion gets destroyed
This week's episode of WWE SmackDown was the final episode for the Blue show before WrestleMania 36 and it had its fair share of special moments.
The recently returned Tamina gave a dominant performance in a Triple Threat match ahead of the Fatal Five-Way match at WrestleMania 36 for the SmackDown Women's Championship. She also claimed that from now on she will be doing things only for herself.
Secrets were spewed out and culprits were revealed as a mysterious hooded figure helped clear the air around Otis and Mandy's sabotaged date that took place on Valentine's Day. It was revealed that Sonya Deville was the one who sent the infamous text message to Otis pretending to be Mandy Rose.
After Drew Gulak bagged a title opportunity for Daniel Bryan, the leader of the Yes Movement took on Shinsuke Nakamura tonight. Bryan is slated to face Sami Zayn for his Intercontinental Championship this weekend at WrestleMania.
Cesaro intervened in the match which awarded Bryan a DQ victory. But, he did not get the chance to accelerate as Zayn and the rest of The Artist Collective destroyed Bryan and Gulak.
Also, John Cena accepted 'The Fiend' Bray Wyatt's challenge of facing him in a Firefly Fun House match this weekend at The Grandest Stage of Them All. He then got a staredown from The Fiend who stood atop the perch and later got spooked by Bray Wyatt inside the ring within seconds in a chilling segment.
Now, without further ado, we will present our readers with the analysis of all the matches that took place, and the matches have also been graded based on their overall quality.
#1 Tamina vs Lacey Evans vs Naomi
Ahead of their fatal five-way bout at WrestleMania 36 for the SmackDown Women's Championship, these three Superstars faced each other in a triple-threat match on this week's SmackDown. Each Superstar had the goal of going into the match by picking up a win. Meanwhile, the other two competitors from the WrestleMania match, the Women's Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks, joined Michael Cole on commentary.
The match began with Tamina mounting some offense on the other two opponents with Evans countering a move and dropping Tamina with a basement dropkick. Tamina did not give much room to either Naomi or Evans to launch a counter-attack on her. Towards the closing moments of the match, Naomi delivered a kick that sent Evans outside the ring.
The Sassy Southern Belle landed near the announce table and Banks took the opportunity to launch her into the steel steps. However, The Legit Boss ended up getting kicked in the face by Naomi when she turned around.
In the closing moments of the match, a momentary distraction from Bayley caused Naomi to lose her focus. She ended up getting superkicked by Tamina who covered her to get the pinfall victory.
Results: Tamina defeated Naomi and Lacey Evans
Grades: B
#2 Dolph Ziggler vs Tucker
The much larger Tucker got the early advantage on Ziggler by overpowering him with his strength and leveling him on the mat. He then worked on Ziggler while he was down on the mat. But, The Showoff broke free by kicking Tucky in his knees followed by a neck-breaker.
Tucker tried to get his revenge on Ziggler for making life miserable for his friend and tag team partner Otis by stealing Mandy Rose from him. After some back and forth moves, Ziggler then got the advantage over the big man by nailing him with a DDT.
Some blows were traded following that. Tucker then tossed Ziggler outside the ring and followed it up by slamming him face-first onto the announce table. He then launched him onto a barricade, before launching Ziggler into the steel ring steps.
Tucker brought Ziggler back into the ring and nailed a sideslam to get a two-count. At this point, Tucker started showing signs of frustration as Ziggler rolled outside to catch a breather. Tucker went outside to slam Ziggler onto the steel steps but the former World Champion slid out and poked him in the eye.
Following this, Ziggler dropped Tucker on the steel steps with the ZigZag. The referee stopped the match and awarded Tucker with the DQ victory. After the match was over, Ziggler proceeded to bash Tucker with another steel step but Mandy Rose along with Sonya Deville came out to stop him followed by Otis.
After this, the Titantron showed the familiar glitch with the message 'the truth will be heard'. A mysterious figure appeared on screen to reveal who was responsible for sabotaging Otis' dinner date with Mandy. Although the match was fairly decent, the segment that followed was one of the highlight moments of the night.
Results: Tucker won via DQ
Grades: B
#3 Shinsuke Nakamura vs Daniel Bryan
Drew Gulak earned Daniel Bryan's Intercontinental Title shot for WrestleMania 36 from Sami Zayn by defeating Nakamura last week. On this week's edition of SmackDown, Bryan took on The King of Strong Style. Zayn joined commentary while Cesaro and Gulak looked on from ringside.
Both Superstars, who are proficient strikers and great at their own game, looked to outsmart each other with their varied arsenal of moves. Bryan tried to get an early advantage on Nakamura but he got back into the match by dropping Bryan from the top rope when he tried to attempt the hurricanrana on Shinsuke.
Nakamura then floored Bryan by leaping on him from the top and pinned him. But, the Leader of the Yes Movement kicked out at two. Nakamura and Bryan then went at each other by trading shots and blocking and countering moves.
Nakamura went for the Kinshasa but Bryan avoided it by grabbing his leg and went for a submission. Towards the end, Bryan applied the Yes Lock on Nakamura but Cesaro hit the ring to break it which resulted in Bryan getting the victory via DQ.
After the match, The Swiss Superman and Sami Zayn joined Nakamura in the ring to pummel both Gulak and Bryan. All three members of The Artist Collective then performed their finishers on Bryan and left him lying in the middle of the ring.
Results: Daniel Bryan won via DQ
Grades: A