The SmackDown after Mania came to us last night from Fort Worth, Texas. Let’s jump right to it.
Supplemental Reading
Well it seems now that Roman is champion again, the Bloodline is going to seep into both TV shows.
Coming off Monday’s closing segment where Jacob Fatu challenged Roman Reigns for the world title, SmackDown opened with a whole damn family affair. The Usos interrupted a Jacob promo to follow their Tribal Chief’s instruction to talk some sense into the Samoan Werewolf. But even they didn’t seem on the same
page.
Big Jim suggested Jacob fall in line behind Roman and learn on the job. Jey suggested it was too late for that because he already stepped up so he needs to prepare for war.
Then came the loser of the family as Solo Sikoa and the MFTs joined the fray. (Or is it just MFT?) His pitch was Fatu would fare better against Roman with his own MFT army. No chance Jacob would subject himself to that but Solo did bring up something salient. He holds all the wins in his feud with Fatu. And that just can’t stand for a guy who’s about to step up to the top guy in the company.
So to rectify that, the main event was Jacob vs. Solo where Fatu could finally get his win over the man who brought him in to WWE. I’d argue the win was a bit too hard for the Werewolf given where he and his opponent stand within the company now. But I understand not squashing the former US champion.
No, the squashing came after the match. Jacob scored the victory as the Usos watched on. Then the rest of the MFTs attacked Fatu (minus Talla Tonga, who was not there). Jey & Jimmy slowly walked to the ring to assist their cousin, but by the time they got there, he beat the crap out of each MFT. (That’s likely why Talla wasn’t there. They’re still protecting him.) For this group to take a beating from one man may be the beginning of the end (or maybe just the end?) of their run. They have Talla still and probably want the group to showcase him more, but man, it’s tough to recover from that.
This allowed Jacob to look like a total badass, which he needs if we’re going to buy him stepping up to the Trible Chief.
That said, it was all fine.
My biggest issue is that the main program on SmackDown, what opened and closed the show, was an auxiliary story for Monday Night Raw’s title. You could tune into Raw last week and tune into Raw next week and follow the story completely without having watched any of this. It’s supplemental reading.
It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t necessary. It wasn’t impactful. Joe Tess mentioned the SmackDown After Mania multiple times, but narratively, this felt entirely skippable. And maybe Cody’s injury is keeping him from getting cleared so they have to hold on his program. But what it really feels like is that Roman is champion for less than a week and his influence is spanning both shows.
New Kids on the Block
The only true NXT call up on this show was Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, & Lainey Reid). And it was quite the first impression.
I should note that I don’t watch NXT. My knowledge of these three are pretty minimal. Some I’m approaching this as “Oh what do we have here?” as opposed to bringing a strong familiarity from their prior work.
They introduced themselves by interrupting a tag title match between the champs Paige & Brie Bella and challengers Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, taking out all women before the match could finish.
That could have been enough, but they decided to level up their debut by stepping to Rhea Ripley. That’s the true ticket if you want to present yourself as the real deal. There’s the tag division, which to be fair is full of former singles champions, and then there’s Rhea bloody Ripley. If you’re going to step, step to the top dog.
The trio received a deluge of boos when confronting the champion, which is the best anyone could have asked for. I don’t even know why this crowd was so rabid when it came to hating on the newcomers. Yes it’s a post Mania show, but the smarky crowds don’t usually apply to the lesser anticipated SmackDown After Mania because it’s not the Mania crowd. It was a local Dallas-Fort Worth crowd. Maybe they really wanted to see Paige in that tag match (she’s been super over since her return). Maybe Jacy had enough exposure in NXT and TNA that enough folks were familiar with her work. Maybe they just wanted to have a good time by getting their jeers on. It was clear that loudly booing was something everyone wanted to get in on as time moved on. It took on a life of its own.
No matter the cause, it’s great for the new crew. Audiences like to copycat each other. Everyone watching tonight saw a crowd have a grand ol’ time booing Jayne & co and will want to get in on the action in weeks to come.
To cap off a strong night, Jacy received a non-title match against the new WWE women’s champion.
She held her own against the top woman on the roster but it ended in DQ when the rest of Fatal Influence attacked the champ to prevent a Rip Tide.
Listen, I understand why they went with the DQ. Rhea isn’t going to lose and you don’t want someone clearly positioned as a potential big piece of the women’s division to suffer a loss on their first night. But it’s so damned predictable.
I’d almost prefer Jayne lose but really take Rhea far so we have the idea that next time, maybe she can do it. But even then, she cannot have Henley & Reid on the outside and not get involved. This match immediately booked themselves in the corner where there was really only one outcome that was feasible without taking a big swing: The disappointing DQ finish.
All that said, it was a strong debut for Fatal Influence. Took it to Paige, Brie Bella, Charlotte, & Alexas. Took it to Rhea. There are a lot of folks for these new women to mix it up with. Fallon & Lainey can challenge for the tag titles while Jayce can be the singles star of the group. As someone who doesn’t know much about them, I’m excited to see what they do next week. Can’t ask for more than that for night one.
Not Much to Talk About
Cody Rhodes cut a babyface promo, sporting a nice shiner to that left eye of his.
Not much to it. He called out Randy Orton for giving him his best and not getting it done. He called out Sami Zayn for calling him the “golden boy,” letting us know that his golden outfit on WrestleMania Saturday was an acknowledgment of that. And finally, he called out TKO, though not by name. Rhodes mentioned the “outside forces” who kept interfering in his man events and failing. Called them 0 for 3 (Mania 40, 41, 42).
That’s an approved (or encouraged) shot to get folks talking and nothing more. It’s meant to relay to the fans that “Hey, we don’t like this either” but it doesn’t mean anything outside that.
No direction for the champ was revealed though. Again, maybe his eye injury puts that in a holding pattern. Or now that Roman’s champ, his story gets top billing even on Cody’s show.
And New…
Tiffany Stratton captured the United States champion from Giulia.
The two former NXT champions had quite the fun match. Kiana James tried to interfere, but not successfully, causing a minor collision between the two. Though that didn’t directly impact the finish.
You could probably have guessed the outcome prior. Clearly they see more in Stratton than Giulia. Even as United States champion, Giulia has felt like an afterthought and even a vehicle to showcase Kiana James. In fact, I expect their partnership to be over sooner than later and if you’re buying stock in one of those two, it’s not going to be the more accomplished wrestler. Hell, if I read that they released Giulia when she walked back from that match, I wouldn’t have been completely shocked.
Stratton as US champion could be interesting. Of all the women’s singles titles in WWE, it’s the one that has received the least amount of care. Stratton has the resume to change that. And she can do that without having to overhaul her character. If she wants to enter the title picture again, I don’t know if the babyface version of Tiffy is the way. But she can surely elevate the US title.
Cursed
Fantatics fave Danhausen received a good amount of time tonight.
First we got a two part remote bit at Miz’s house. It was solid. Danhausen always has a line or two that gets at least a chuckle and the Miz is very good at being exasperated. But I enjoy Danhausen most when the humor is more subtle and plays off the more unsuspecting. This was more over top with Danhausen in Miz’s pool and accidentally hitting him in his (tiny?) balls with a golf club. That’s all fine, but for me (because humor almost more than anything is super subjective), that loses the rather clever aspect of the bit.
Later in the evening, DH & Miz had a match. The two time Grand Slam champion took the L to the demon man when a curse led to another pyro malfunction and then to a roll up. Then came my recent favorite bit – Danhausen failing to perform a disappearing act after tossing a smoke bomb so he has to run under the ring to escape.
I want to shout out Wade Barrett & Joe Tessitore because they are pretty great as the Danhausen hater and super fan feeding off each other and it really adds to what is being presented.
Gingerbread Man
We heard from Trick Williams and Michael Cole’s guy (Lil Yachty) tonight, but throughout the entire segment, I was just waiting for Sami Zayn to reveal he was in the Gingerbread outfit tonight.
That is a pretty classic trope so bound to happen eventually. And this week, Gingy was a foot taller than last week.
So yes, Sami attacked both Trick and Yachty. It looks like this feud will get the classic Backlash treatment (a straight up Mania rematch). What will be the most interesting aspect to watch is whether or not Trick walks out of this more settled on the babyface side. Because Sami is clearly the heel now. You can’t beat Yachty with a candy cane and expect cheers.
I love Sami and have always wanted to see his Underdog from the Underground persona claw his way to a world title win. But my hopes of that have pretty much dwindled into nothing at this point. It’s obvious he’s got a villain’s path in front of him. And objectively, he’s a good heel. He’ll make some hay with it. Personally, I’ll take a bit longer to fully bite because of where I’d like to see him. But that’s not really on creative.
Quick Hits
- We saw a Blake Monroe video teaser so looks like she’s coming to SmackDown. While I didn’t watch her run in NXT, I quite enjoyed her in AEW – though being linked with Toni Storm the entire time sure helped. Looking forward to what she brings to Friday nights.
- MFT (Tama Tonga & JC Mateo) failed to win the tag titles from R-Truth & Damian Priest. I mean this is another piece of evidence that we should be packing it up with MFT at this point, right? Damian is a former world heavyweight champion and Truth has decades of experience, but this is still the comedy team.
- Ricky Saints will also be joining the SmackDown brand, which we learned by video promo.
The SmackDown After Mania has never had the juice that its Raw counterpart has had. (Though I wasn’t to enamored with this last Monday’s show either.) But there were some noteworthy bits, especially the emergence of Jacy Jayne and Fatal Influence. Add that to Tiffany’s US title win, which is a real chance to elevate that belt, and you could say the women’s side of things look bright for the blue brand.
Right now, I can’t say that about the men’s side. The main story was a continuation of Monday Night Raw’s top program, just without its top guy. Maybe due to injury but Cody cut a promo that gave us no hint of direction. And the US title program is leading towards a straight rematch.
Not a bad show but enough stuff that felt too skippable to warrant Joe Tess mentioning that it was After Mania multiple times.
Grade: B-
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