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Tonight's throwback edition of WWE SmackDown kicked off with a WrestleMania rematch between Seth Rollins and Cesaro.
However, the stakes of this bout were raised by WWE Hall of Famer and former SmackDown General Manager, Teddy Long. Long announced if Cesaro was able to defeat Rollins, he would get a shot at the Universal Title at WrestleMania Backlash.
The match delivered as expected and thanks to outside interference from a returning Jimmy Uso, Cesaro defeated Rollins and became the new No. 1 contender to Reigns' Universal Title.
Cesaro will now face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash on May 16, 2021, in one of the most important matches of his career.
Cesaro capitalized on the confrontation between Rollins and Jimmy Uso
After being out of in-ring action for nearly a year, Roman Reigns' cousin and Jey Uso's brother Jimmy returned to SmackDown on tonight's episode. Jimmy appeared to be aligned with Reigns and Jey Uso and was at ringside along with his brother to keep an eye on Cesaro's match against Rollins.
During the closing moments of the match, The Messiah got into a heated argument with Jimmy outside the ring and Rollins ended up pushing Uso down to the floor.
This obviously did not sit well with the returning star, who superkicked Rollins while the referee was not watching.
This allowed the Swiss star to capitalize on the situation. He took Jimmy out with a dive and then got the pin over Rollins with the Gotch Neutralizer.
As stated by Michael Cole after the match, this will be Cesaro's first-ever one-on-one opportunity for the WWE Universal Championship. This didn't sit well with Roman Reigns
The Universal Champion later blamed Seth Rollins for handing Cesaro the opportunity. He also had a war of words with Jimmy in his personal lounge but ended up getting silenced by his cousin.
It remains to be seen whether the dissension between The Bloodline will affect the outcome of the Universal Title match between Cesaro and Roman Reigns at WrestleMania Backlash.
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