** SPOILERS ** In Person Detailed WWE Smackdown Recap: Brock Lesnar, Lawler's Reaction To Cole, More

Thanks to Wrestling Inc. reader Brian Reed-Baiotto for sending in the photo above and this in-person report for last night's WWE SmackDown taping in Ontario, CA:

* On Main Event, Paige came out to a big pop for her match. Summer Rae's music hit and she was talking trash before entering the ring on her walk down. Paige dominated throughout and got Summer Rae to tap out.

* The Social Outcasts came out (all four) and started their vignette when they mentioned the New Day not having a match for Sunday's Fastlane. Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E pull off another great promo on the stage, and the three of them come down to the ring to take on Curtis Axel, Adam Rose and Heath Slater. Bo Dallas did commentary with Jerry Lawler. The match was long, pretty athletic, funny and Xavier Woods got the win for his team.

* Smackdown is about to start and Jerry Lawler, was already at his chair for Main Event, got a big response from the crowd. But as soon as Smackdown was about to start, Michael Cole's music hits and Cole and Byron Saxton come out, and people were confused because Cole hadn't been doing Smackdown. Lawler sold the confusion by putting his hands up to Cole like "what are you doing here?"

* Smackdown starts with highlights from Raw's first match (the fatal-five way with Ambrose, Owens, Breeze, Ziggler and Stardust) that cost Dean Ambrose the title. Kevin Owens hits and he came out to do commentary.

* The first match was the Lucha Dragons and Dolph Ziggler in a six-man tag against the League of Nations (Rusev, Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio) and Wade Barrett stood ringside and cheered on his boys. The Luchas and Ziggler had their typically high-risk match, but in the end, Owens came from out of the broadcast booth and up to the apron to get Ziggler's attention, and after Ziggler turned around, Sheamus' boot hit Ziggler right in the chin and the Irishman covered Ziggler for the pin.

* Tamina Snuka came out with Naomi to take on Sasha Banks. Banks got Snuka to tap out and then both Naomi and Snuka attacked Banks. After a minute, her tag-team partner this Sunday, Becky Lynch, came out for the save. Oddly, Banks didn't want the help and left the ring area annoyed. Backstage, they sort of made up just for the sake of Sunday's match.

* Chris Jericho then came out to answer AJ Styles' request for a match at Fastlane. As he asked Styles to come out, the Miz's music hits and Jericho seemed annoyed. He asked Miz if he was coming out to announce he was quitting the business and the crowd loved it. Miz said he was a post-Grammy Award guest at the Playboy Mansion last night in LA and that if he were ever going to quit the business, it "wouldn't be in the Inland Empire," which is the Ontario area that doesn't have the same "exclusive" type areas like Orange County or Los Angeles. The crowd took the insult and booed the Miz.

* Jericho beat the Miz in a pretty long match as the Miz tapped out. On a number of occasions you could clearly see Jericho clap his hands together as he kicked Miz to make that popping sound so it seemed like the kick was more significant than it really was. It happened on at least three occasions, and people who really watch wrestling each week noticed how obvious it was. I had never seen that before, so it was a surprise. AJ finally came out. Jericho told him he thinks Styles is one of the best in the world, but that he doesn't like Styles, so "the answer is no." The crowd boos and Styles slaps Jericho out of the ring. Jericho got back up, grabbed the mic and begrudgingly accepted the match, telling Styles is was a big mistake to look for trouble with Y2J.

* The camera went backstage and JoJo was interviewing the New Day about their 'Cutting Edge' appearance this coming Sunday, and the New Day made fun of Christian and Edge and how old and out of touch they were. They said "this isn't the 90's. No one says wreaks of awesomeness anymore," and as Woods played the trumpet, Big E and Kofi did their bootie dance.

* Paul Heyman ran into Dean Ambrose backstage and warned him that Brock Lesnar was in the building, was in a bad mood and was looking for Ambrose. Dean took the bait and played like he was scared, but the fans could tell he was acting and laughed along as Heyman looked at Ambrose like he was crazy.

* After they come back, Charlotte comes out with her father, Ric Flair and she and Natalya have a very solid, technical match that Charlotte finally got the win via tap out.

* After Nattie left the ring area, Brie Bella's music hit and she came out to a physical conflict in the middle of the ring with Charlotte and got the best of Flair. Brie actually grabbed the WWE Divas belt and raised it above her head and got a huge reaction, and Ric Flair at one point tried to grab the belt or Bella and miscalculated the reach and fell on the apron and to the floor in what appeared to be a physical error that the crowd laughed at. Flair played it off like he was mad at Bella, but he looked embarrassed because of his fall. The Ontario crowd then enthusiastically did the "Yes" chant for Brie, and then it went dark.

* Bray Wyatt and his family came out and waited in the ring in the dark while a promo ran of theirs on the screen. Once they came back to the ring, Wyatt did his thing and told people if they wanted his protection they needed to get down on their knees and bow to him. As soon as they were done with their promo, they quickly exited the ring.

* Finally, the Dudleyz came out for the final match with Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns. They went for close to 10 minutes before Brock Lesnar's music hit and he came down and battled Reigns and Ambrose outside the ring and against the wall that separated the fans from the wrestlers. All three got back in the ring where Ambrose actually went for the Dirty Deeds on Reigns, and Reigns turned it and dropped him on his back with a Samoan drop. Lesnar then grabbed Reigns and suplexed him and then took Dean Ambrose to 'Suplex City.' Lesnar starts to leave the ring and Triple H's music hits and the crowd goes crazy. Hunter stood on the stage in a suit with his belt, but never approached the ring.

* After Lesnar and HHH were gone, Reigns and Ambrose made up in the ring and called the Dudley's back out to finish their match. The Dudleyz came out, including Bubba Ray without one of his shoes, and Ambrose hit the Dirty Deeds on Bubba Ray and Reigns speared Devon to a giant pop. As the Dudleyz left, Ambrose and Reigns walked around ringside and took pictures with fans and thanked people for coming on several occasions.

* It appeared that they moved people from the top level to ringside, where on the north side of the building there was no one sitting in the chairs beyond the second row. Just before the Main Event finished, all those seats were taken just in time for Smackdown.

* After everybody had finally arrived, the Ontario Citizens Business Bank Arena appeared to be about 80% full.

* One other skit ran where R-Truth pretended to be on the phone with the woman who Goldust had spilled champagne on Raw. As he walk apologizing to her on his phone, Goldust was dressed up like a rapper and talked to act like he was 'hip hop' to win R-Truth over as his 'partner,' but Truth wanted nothing to do with it, saying, "you're not my partner in the ring or in life."

* One odd note: A little kid left his seat from the upper level to go to the restroom or snack stand or wherever, but he was not allowed to leave, nor were two others. Everyone was trying to figure out why people who had just left their seat were walking right back up to their seat and it turned on they were holding people off so Roman Reigns could get to where he needed to be to make his entrance within the arena.

Comments

Recommended