The Road to WrestleMania continues on for the WWE’s blue brand with this episode of SmackDown hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There was an Olympic gold medal buzz in the air even though there never was an appearance from Kurt Angle.
What we did get instead was a truly spectacular moment courtesy of AJ Styles and Shane McMahon.
The backstage brawl became the big story of the night as it offered a firing, visible head trauma, and officially set up a WrestleMania singles match. A couple of the entries this time around revolve around those developments and they will be broken down thoroughly.
Other botchy highlights from the night include a decimated announce team that was unintentionally refreshing as well as a stomach-turning taunt by Mojo Rawley. The Mojo moment doesn’t necessarily warrant an advisory or caution but you might want to dismiss small children from the room before seeing that gif.
So without any further delay, here are the 5 botchiest and most outrageous moments from this episode of SmackDown Live!
#5 Shane McMahon’s head blood
WWE generally operates under a no blood policy, but not on this night. AJ Styles defied that rule when he decided to jump the SmackDown Commissioner in a parking lot. He engaged in a one-sided brawl with Shane McMahon that culminated with a bloody skull and a broken car window.
As if the bloody mess on the side of Shane’s head wasn’t enough of an outrageous moment for this episode of SmackDown, he then defied the orders of the medical professionals tending to him and opted not to go to a hospital. Sure, this is all in kayfabe but what kind of example was this for the wrestlers on the roster?
I guess we should at least be thankful that he wasn’t given a Z-Pak and sent on his way.
#4 Tears for a missing Mauro
Sometimes you’ve got to take the good with the bad. Due to some late season winter weather, SmackDown’s typically crowded four-man announce table was cut in half. The bad in this scenario was that Mauro Ranallo wasn’t there to handle the play-by-play. That’s an absence that will always be felt.
The good in this is that WWE had no choice but to run a two-man team. Not only was this just refreshing not to have so many voices competing but JBL and Tom Phillips are a decent pair.
Also, David Otunga was missing. His case wasn’t necessarily due to the weather; he filming a movie or something. For one magnificent night, the husband of Jennifer Hudson was not there. It was heavenly.
#3 Unfair consequences
AJ Styles was being a punk on SmackDown, there’s no debate about that. His behaviour was worthy of a reprimand of some sort, that’s for sure. But to fire the guy and have security or police or whoever those guys in badges were, escort him out of the building was just a tad extreme.
Let’s remember what Styles himself pointed out in his opening promo. Randy Orton has recently trespassed on another man’s property and burned his house to the ground. Styles was fired and potentially arrested while Randy gets a main event title match at WrestleMania match. That’s a little inconsistent.
#2 That’s gross, Mojo
What is going on with Mojo Rawley here? It’s understandable to taunt your opponent, but this is just strange.
In a moment that might haunt the collective dreams of wrestling fans for weeks to come, this former Hype Bro rubbed every inch of his bare chest to collect all of the sweat off of him. He then flicked it towards Dolph Ziggler in an attempt at a psychological gain.
This Greco-roman sweat flick must’ve helped because Dolph grew increasingly frustrated after being thrown out of the ring several times. He finally opted to take the count out and lose the match. It might’ve been odd, but this tactic helped score a win.
Mojo should think about spending an hour in a sauna before stepping in the ring with the likes of Big Show during the upcoming Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania.
#1 No Kurt tonight
Rumours of Kurt Angle being backstage during this episode of SmackDown gave the fans in attendance in Pittsburgh some false hope. When it became evident that American Alpha were in the main event, a duo that receives more than their fair share of Haas & Benjamin comparisons, it seemed like an appearance could’ve been possible.
Even though an appearance would’ve been a memorable ending to this show, it just didn’t happen. There were several chants of “We want Angle,” but other than that the crowd was pretty quiet for this match. They really were hoping for Kurt.
The actual ending came when Shane McMahon hobbled out to announce that he’d be AJ Styles’ opponent at WrestleMania. Shane barely got his announcement out before the show went off the air. It’s odd that SmackDown isn’t offered the same overrun priveledges as Raw.
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