WWE SmackDown: Drew McIntyre makes Universal statement
By Ryan Satin
FOX Sports WWE Analyst
Drew McIntyre emerged victorious from a cage match on SmackDown this week, then sent a message to Roman Reigns.
The April 29 edition of Friday Night SmackDown featured McIntyre making his presence felt in a big way, another contract signing, and Ronda Rousey one-upping Charlotte Flair in an "I Quit" Beat the Clock challenge.
Here’s a quick rundown of the match results:
- Drew McIntyre defeated Sami Zayn in a cage match after hitting the Claymore and getting a pinfall victory
- Ricochet defeated Shanky via pinfall to retain the Intercontinental title
- Raquel Gonzalez defeated a local enhancement talent via pinfall after hitting the Chingona Bomb
- Naomi defeated Shayna Baszler via roll-up pinfall
- Xavier Woods defeated Ridge Holland via roll-up pinfall
- Sheamus defeated Kofi Kingston via pinfall after hitting the Brogue Kick
- Ronda Rousey defeated Shotzi via submission in an "I Quit" Beat the Clock Challenge
- Charlotte Flair versus Aliyah ended with the clock expiring while Flair had her opponent locked in the Figure Eight
Favorite match: Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn in a Steel Cage match
Sami Zayn is locked inside of a steel cage with Drew McIntyre to prevent his escape
This was your classic, old-school cage match that saw Drew finally get the best of his opponent after weeks of Zayn avoiding a Claymore.
That superplex off the top of the cage looked brutal, too.
In my opinion, this would have been a better main event for the show (rather than the opening match), but the reasoning became clear once McIntyre got involved in the contract signing later in the night.
Moment of the night: Drew McIntyre zeroes in on Reigns
Roman Reigns distracts RK-Bro before clashing with Drew McIntyre during contract signing
As bummed as I am about moving away from the teased program with Nakamura, McIntyre and Reigns post-WrestleMania makes much more sense.
This clash seemed inevitable once Drew was drafted to SmackDown and now they can keep each other occupied for the next few months.
My only complaint here is that it was confusing for WWE to move away from a tag title unification match after making such a big deal of it happening the last few weeks. The 3-on-3 match at WrestleMania Backlash will still be good, but it’s a bit of a letdown from what they had promoted.
Additional highlights:
Solid in-ring debut for Raquel Gonzalez on SmackDown. Her opponent Cat Cordoza, aka Leila Gray, also maximized the opportunity by making me want to see more from her (despite being an unsigned talent). That’s rare.
Ricochet’s random title defenses on TV continue to elevate his status in WWE. Hopefully, he’ll be in a real program with someone soon.
Ricochet puts the Intercontinental Title on the line vs. Shanky I WWE on FOX
Lingering question: Can we retire the "contract signing" for a bit?
Contract signings in WWE have been done to death.
Therefore, even when they’re entertaining — like the contract signing this week — it still feels like you’re watching something that was written using copy and paste.
There are other creative setups that could be done to achieve the same outcome.
The arm-wrestling segment from Raw this week is a good example. That may not have been groundbreaking TV, but it was different from what we’ve seen in every other feud as of late, which helped the segment stand out.
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