Charlotte Flair wins WWE SmackDown women’s title ahead of WrestleMania 35 main event clash with Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey
WITH just over a week until WrestleMania 35, WWE is putting together the final pieces for its annual super-show – which comes from the MetLife Stadium on April 7. Here are five things we learnt from last night’s edition of SmackDown LIVE. FLAIR NEW SMACKDOWN CHAMP Becky Lynch appeared backstage, all pleased with herself for […]
WITH just over a week until WrestleMania 35, WWE is putting together the final pieces for its annual super-show – which comes from the MetLife Stadium on April 7.
Here are five things we learnt from last night’s edition of SmackDown LIVE.
FLAIR NEW SMACKDOWN CHAMP
Becky Lynch appeared backstage, all pleased with herself for with winning the beat the clock challenge on Raw the previous night.
But “The Man” had a question about her WrestleMania main event match against Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair.
Becky asked: “I bring the people, Ronnie brings the title, but can you tell me what does Charlotte Flair bring?”
Charlotte quickly answered that by beating Asuka for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
Asuka tried to apply various submissions – an abdominal stretch, an armbar, a triangle choke, and the Asuka Lock – but eventually, Charlotte trapped “The Empress” in a leg-twisting Figure-8 for a tap out victory.
It’s bad news for Asuka. She’s been an afterthought ever since winning the title and now she probably won’t even make it onto the main WrestleMania card.
But it’s raised the stakes considerably for Ronda v Becky v Charlotte. Presumably, BOTH women’s titles will now be on the line.
KOFI OFFER
The New Day had opened the show by confronting Mr McMahon about the treatment of Kofi, who was screwed out of a WrestleMania title match last week.
Daniel Bryan also came out to stir things up and call Kofi a B+ player – the nickname that ironically the McMahons gave to Bryan several years ago.
But despite Bryan’s protests, McMahon (who seems to have forgotten he’s meant to be screwing the longsuffering Kofi out of things) gave Kofi one more chance at the gold.
But this time it would be Kofi’s New Day partners Big E and Xavier fighting on his behalf.
If they could beat another five other duos in a tag team gauntlet, Kofi would get his shot against Daniel Bryan.
GAUNTLET MATCH
We’ve known all along where this storyline was going, but The New Day finally made it official by winning an exciting 30-minute tag team gauntlet match.
First up they beat Gallows and Anderson by hitting the Midnight Hour – and then eliminated Rusev and Nakamura when they nailed Nak with the same double-team manoeuvre.
In the third round, they faced The Bar and got the win when Xavier – who was impressively fired up in this match – rolled up Sheamus.
But Sheamus and Cesaro retaliated by smashing Big E through a table afterwards.
Next up were The Usos. Out of respect for their old rivals The New Day they forfeited the match and walked away.
Lastly, Big E and Woods battled Daniel Bryan and Rowan. In a creative finish, Big E buried Rowan under an upturned announce desk and got a count out win.
Mr McMahon confirmed afterwards that Kofi is indeed going to Mania. But don’t be surprised if there’s a twist stipulation added to the Kofi v Bryan match next week.
WRESTLEMANIA 35 - How can you be there?
ALL rise for The Showcase Of The Immortals!
WWE’s annual showpiece WrestleMania takes place on April 7 from the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, but when can you get tickets for it?
And what is the best way to get there from the UK?
Click here to find out all you need to know so you can start planning your trip.
THE MIZ v SHANE McMAHON
Miz came out to say he wanted a falls count anywhere stipulation added to his match against Shane at Mania (it’s a bit random but we’ll go with it).
Shane then arrived with a team of security and a job squad of Primo Colon, Shelton Benjamin, and SAnitY.
Shane gloated about beating up Miz and assaulting his father at Fastlane, so The Miz charged up the ramp to lay out Shane’s security and then fought around ringside with Primo, Shelton, and the SAnitY members.
It was the kind of ridiculous, totally unbelievable beating that Shane usually dishes out. But Miz is over as a babyface hero for the first time ever.
And the falls count anywhere stipulation should crank up the fun factor of their Mania scrap.
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TIGHT ANGLE
As part of his farewell tour, Angle appeared for his final ever match on SmackDown, battling against his old TNA rival AJ Styles.
Styles began the match by trapping Angle in the Calf Crusher and Angle reversed it into the ankle lock.
But Randy Orton spoiled the action when he rushed into the ring and hit AJ with an RKO.
Orton stomped on Styles, so Kurt smashed Orton with an Angle Slam to make the save.
It was a shame the Angle v AJ match was interrupted for the sake of building AJ’s feud with Orton.
It’s an even bigger shame WWE didn’t get to book an Angle v AJ match back when Kurt’s body was still in top working condition.
