WWE SmackDown Live: Analysing and grading each segment (27 February, 2018)
The penultimate WWE SmackDown Live before Fastlane took place in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday night.
There was a lot of pressure on the blue brand heading into the show, which featured the SmackDown return of John Cena, after several underwhelming episodes in recent weeks.
Four matches took place, all linked to either the WWE title, SmackDown Women’s title or SmackDown Tag Team titles, while the upcoming United States title match between Randy Orton and Bobby Roode was only highlighted in a brief backstage interview.
In this article, we take a look at all six major segments that took place and analyse what was good and bad about the show.
#1 John Cena opens the show
Storyline: John Cena is without an opponent for WrestleMania 34 after losing Sunday’s Elimination Chamber match. He revealed on Raw that he asked to face The Undertaker in New Orleans but was told “it’s not possible”, so he announced that he would switch to SmackDown Live to find a new road to WrestleMania.
Segment: Cena declared that he wants to earn a spot in the Fatal-5-Way WWE title match at Fastlane. Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan then appeared to grant him the opportunity, with Bryan announcing that he will need to defeat AJ Styles in the show’s main event to qualify for the title match.
Verdict: If the crowd chants “Rusev Day” this frequently every week, as they did again during the opening segment, WWE might just have the new “Yes Movement” on their hands. We’ve seen some tedious opening promos on SmackDown recently but this was good from Cena, who had the crowd reacting to everything he said (when they weren't chanting "Rusev Day"!).
Grade: B-