Following Fastlane PPV, the Road to Wrestlemania officially began for Smackdown Live, last night. We were about to hear a big announcement with Wrestlemania implications from Shane McMahon.
Also, the dream rivalry between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura finally started on the show. Check out full results from the show hosted by the Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
AJ Styles kicked off last night’s Smackdown Live in a big reaction from Indianapolis. He talked about headlining Wrestlemania with Shinsuke Nakamura. The crowd broke into ‘you deserve it’ chants until Nakamura interrupted the champion. The Royal Rumble winner gave a short message to Styles that said, “At WrestleMania, dreams come true. My dream…knee to face. And I become champion.”
The confrontation was cut short by Rusev and Aiden English who were out for a match. It was a singles match between Rusev and AJ Styles in the opening contest. Styles was on the verge of picking up the win by locking in the Calf Crusher on his opponent. But, Aiden English interfered to make the match disqualified. Nakamura made the save for Styles by putting both Rusev and English down.
Big E and Jimmy Uso teamed up on Smackdown after The Bludgeon Brothers ambushed them at the Fastlane PPV. They seemed irate and went right to seek redemption.
However, Harper and Rowan were unstoppable as always. Big E was sent into the steel steps, and Jimmy suffered a powerbomb from the Bludgeon Brothers to suffer the loss. The heel attacked Jimmy and Big E after the match, once again.
Asuka made her debut on Smackdown Live for the first time. Charlotte Flair was standing inside the ring and welcomed her to her show. The Queen talked about being a strong champion and how Asuka made a wise decision while choosing the very best on the women’s roster. The Empress of Tomorrow cut a short promo saying, “Asuka bows to no one. Because no one is ready for Asuka” to end the segment.
Randy Orton appeared inside the ring cutting a promo about his title win at the Fastlane PPV event. He gloated about taking the title to Wrestlemania. Later, he joined the commentary table to watch the match between Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal who was eyeing a title opportunity.
Sunil Singh was present to provide the distraction towards Roode. It allowed Jinder to push his opponent into the turnbuckle and hit the Khallas for the win. After the match, Randy Orton delivered an RKO on Mahal to lay him down. In a singles contest, Carmella defeated Naomi with a roll-up.
In the main event segment of Smackdown Live, Shane McMahon announced that he is taking an indefinite leave from the show starting from next week. Daniel Bryan will be in the charge. Furthermore, he confirmed Kevin Owens to take on Sami Zayn at Wrestlemania. These forced the two heels to come out to the ring and deliver a massive assault to the commissioner. The officials ran out to stop these two. Later, a stretcher was brought out to take Shane McMahon to the medical facility.