WWE: Smackdown
April 28, 2016
Manchester, NH
Verizon Wireless Arena

The current WWE champions are as follows:
WWE World Heavyweight Champion: Roman Reigns (4/3/2016)
WWE Intercontinental Champion: The Miz (4/4/2016)
WWE United States Champion: Kalisto (1/24/2016)
WWE Tag Team Champions: The New Day (8/23/2015)
WWE Women’s Champion: Charlotte (4/3/2016)

Your hosts are Mauro Ranallo, Byron Saxton, and Jerry Lawler.

The WWE world champ Roman Reigns kicks off the show this week. He wants AJ Styles to come out and tell the truth about his collusion with Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Well, instead we get the IC champ the Miz and Maryse. I wonder when WWE will kick Jerry Lawler off the announce team when he says something that offends someone because he treats Maryse like *eye candy*. It’s coming. BELIEVE DAT. Miz is like the 1996 version of Goldust: he’s wearing IC gold, got a blonde chick by his side, and spouting off movie references to tie in with WWE storylines. He has yet to hit on Razor Ramon, sexually assault the Undertaker, or give Ahmed Johnson mouth to mouth though. But hey! Anything can happen in WWE! Anyways, Miz stirs the pot about AJ Styles, gets a kiss from Maryse, and then a right hand from Reigns. I feel like we just got our main event planned here, folks. Are they seriously trying to make us like Reigns more by putting him up against the Miz?

Renee Young is standing by with the League of Nations. She thinks this group is stronger than ever after excommunicating Wade Barrett. DANG. They all seem to agree with her. LEAGUE OF NATIONSSSSS!

• The League of Nations vs. Kalisto, Sami Zayn & Cesaro
  

Quite the odd tag team here. Does Kalisto even need Sin Cara anymore? The LON talk about how strong they are and can’t decide who starts first. They finally decide on Sheamus against Kalisto. Kalisto gets forced into the LON corner and dominated. He fights out of a bearhug from Rusev and hot tags Zayn. Sheamus distracts him allowing Rusev to kick Zayn in the head. Commercials! Tag to Del Rio, he continues to keep Zayn on the LON side of town. Backcracker leads to what would be the Low Superkick, but Rusev tags himself into the match. Del Rio doesn’t care for that move and they start getting aggressive with each other. Sheamus has to prevent Zayn from tagging out and get his boys back on track. Nobody here is successful as Del Rio walks out on his team. Sheamus comes off the top for a double sledge intended for Zayn and hits Rusev by mistake. Oh boy. Now they’re shoving each other around. Rusev walks out on Sheamus and I think we know where the rest of this match is heading. Hot tag to Kalisto, he headscissors Sheamus out to the floor. When he considers leaving, Cesaro runs over to him with a European uppercut. Back inside, a flying body press to Sheamus gets two. More European uppercuts from corner to corner sets up a dropkick. Time for the CESARO SWING, but Sheamus decides to leave and get counted out, fella. (8:34 shown) So that’s that. I guess Sheamus was beyond being pinned for some reason. **¼

Backstage, the League of Nations continue to dissolve as they beat each other up for walking out of the match. Sheamus announces that “the League is finished”. That is true, Sheamus. It was a fun show, but it lasted seven seasons. Of all the characters, I must say that I miss Rafi the most. GATTACA!

They air a vignette highlighting the history of the friendship and breakup between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. They meet in three days at Payback!

• Baron Corbin vs. Damien Sandow
  

I don’t imagine this will last long. Corbin is on Sandow from the bell and finishes him with the END OF DAYS in 2:09.

Elsewhere, Renee Young is now with AJ Styles. AJ doesn’t care what Roman Reigns thinks and the canned shock of the crowd gets piped in. He will take the WWE world title Sunday at Payback. Reigns won’t be calling him a liar then, he’ll be calling him “the champ”. Styles says he doesn’t answer to Reigns and will step on Roman’s cape when he wants to. In fact, he’ll be at ringside during his match tonight against the Miz. So yeah, we’ll see how that goes.

AMBROSE ASYLUM: Before his guests come out, Ambrose cuts a promo on Chris Jericho telling us all what he’s going to do to him this Sunday at Payback. He plans on turning Bon Jovi into meatloaf. He’ll do anything for wrestling, but Jericho won’t do that. Love the expensive set design for the Ambrose Asylum. There’s a whiteboard on a stand and a potted plant sitting on a stool. He welcomes Natalya to the ring. They show a clip of Natalya tapping out Charlotte on RAW from three weeks ago, but Charlotte’s daddy Ric Flair kept the ref from seeing anything. Natalya informs us that uncle Bret will be in her corner at Payback to keep Flair at bay. Poor Jim Neidhart. Always a groomsman, but never the groom. Time for the WWE women’s champ Charlotte and Ric Flair to head out to the ring. Charlotte points out that Natalya shouldn’t be parading her poor uncle around after all he’s been through lately. Speaking of parading around her family, Natalya can say the same about Charlotte. Well, Charlotte puts over her dad as a legendary hall of famer and her coach. Natalya calls Flair a lying, scheming, creepy old man. Flair gets the mic and I was REALLY hoping he would make a space mountain joke, but no dice. Flair says he won’t be stopped by Bret Hart at Payback because he beat Bret in WWE (nope) and beat him in WCW as well (never happened). Flair says if Vince McMahon wants him to face Bret Hart on the moon, he’d beat him there too. WOO! Natalya plans on tapping out Charlotte at Payback because the fans deserve a better champion. What does Dean Ambrose possibly have to do with this situation? Give injured wrestlers or retirees talk shows, not Dean FN Ambrose who has been booked off a cliff since WrestleMania. Come on now, WWE.

• Enzo Amore & Big Cass vs. Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel (w/Heath Slater)
  

The New Day take over the commentary table for this next match. Byron is sitting on the floor like a complete loser. Enzo and Cass will face the Vaudevillians on Sunday at Payback for the #1 contenders match to the WWE tag titles. Enzo gets owned a little bit while the Vaudevillians watch from the stage. Hot tag to Cass, and the Rocket Launcher on Axel gets the win in 2:47. After the bell, Enzo and Cass call the Vaudevillians sawft.

In the back, Goldust catches up with R-Truth. Tyler Breeze shows up (this is what it’s come to for him now) and sticks his furry selfie stick (because that’s a thing now) in Goldust’s face. Truth tells Goldust that T-Breeze is his partner now. WILL THIS EVER END? Fandango shows up and tries to make Goldust feel better. He can’t help but shake his hips though and it gets weird.

• Apollo Crews vs. Stardust
  

This is sort of a Lex Luger match as Stardust does all the work on Apollo and gets beat with two moves: a pumphandle powerslam and a SPIN OUT POWERBOMB in 3:00. Crews does a decent job selling the knee – almost to the point where he think he’s shooting. Hopefully not though.

When we return, they take us back to Monday Night Raw where Shane McMahon kicks his sister out of the building.

• Roman Reigns vs. The Miz (w/Maryse)
  

AJ Styles gets his own chair to watch this match. Miz is looking for an opportunity to nab Reigns to start. Before that happens, he takes the sliding dropkick from Reigns. Roman steps to AJ and gets attacked by the Miz finally giving him the opportunity he’s wanted. He smashes Roman’s face off the table and into the ringpost. Back inside, he covers Reigns for two. Commercials! Miz has Reigns in a chinlock. AJ Styles is still standing intently watching this match. Corner clothesline and double sledge gets two. Bossman straddle gets a nearfall as well. Back to the chinlock, Reigns fights out and Samoan drops Miz. HERE COMES REIGNS. Clotheslines aplenty here. As Reigns sets up for the Superman Punch, Maryse gets her hubby out of the ring. When Reigns comes after him, Miz dropkicks the steps into his knees. He clips Reigns from behind and brings him back in the ring for the FIGURE-FOUR, but Reigns kicks him away. DDT by the Miz gets 1-2-NO! The Skull Crushing Finale gets elbowed away and Reigns hits the SPEAR for the three-count. (7:11 shown) AJ Styles comes face to face with Reigns in the ring. Now Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows do another number on Roman Reigns. AJ Styles just stands there and does nothing with a disapproving look on his face. Here come the Usos to help out their cousin. When AJ tries to get Jimmy Uso to calm down, Jimmy pops him in the mouth. DON’T TOUCH JIMMY! AJ refuses to take a punch without giving something back, so he enziguri kicks Jimmy down. Jimmy slides under the Phenomenal Forearm, but Gallows is there to clothesline Jimmy to the floor. Reigns goes to SPEAR AJ, but Gallows pushes him out of the way and takes the brunt of the move. Reigns backdrops the STYLES CLASH away, but AJ avoids the Superman Punch as he drops to the floor. IT’S ON THIS SUNDAY AT PAYBACK, SON. **½

Until next time, so long for now.