SmackDown In A Nutshell: Who’s Down With The Sickness?

Well, we wrap up another crazy week (that, to me, doesn’t feel like a week) with another SmackDown In A Nutshell.  At this point, it’s abundantly clear things are taped-the Orange County stay at home order kicked in Thursday evening. But that isn’t going to prevent us from having fun with our SmackDown In A Nutshell. Why should it? We just want to know: who’s down with the sickness? It’s a fair question, especially as rumors and reports broke in the last day or so indicating major changes to the pre-taped WrestleMania lineup. Specifically, no more Roman Reigns. Maybe he is being cautious? Is he out because someone on the roster is down with the sickness? Is it both? It’s an interesting item to digest on this particular SmackDown In A Nutshell, isn’t it? In any case, hopefully none of our awesome readers are down with the sickness. And just like that, let’s crack open this SmackDown In A Nutshell!

Best Match of the night:

From a match perspective, I will take The Usos versus The New Day. Strong main event this evening, even if the ending, tied with recent developments, calls into question the match it set up.

From a non-match perspective? The Firefly Fun House was pretty solid.

Worst match of the night:

Not that it was bad…but I wanted to see more out of Nakamura and Gulak.

Crowd Chants of the Night:

No crowd, but we did get some chants from Miz and Morrison…

Star of the Night

I am going to give this to Bray Wyatt, because I think it was just that strong of a Firefly Fun House.

Spot of the Night:

Nothing. I really think without a crowd, this section will be hard to fill. I am curious to see how WrestleMania does with big spots, to be quite honest.

This was at least a decent effort…

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Well, news broke on Thursday that Roman Reigns was out of WrestleMania due to health concerns. One report indicated that it was related to Reigns’ concerns stemming from his past battles with Leukemia. Others indicated The Miz may be sick, and Jimmy and Jey were ticked off, and Reigns pulled out as part of that. No matter what, we know that Reigns isn’t getting his shot, because the match happened. Reigns wasn’t in it.

The bigger holy sh$% is, with this all taped now, WWE had time to do some quick edit and remove the teaser for next week. Instead, they left in that Reigns and Goldberg will be going face to face to talk. Interesting choice. I figured they would have gone with the news, since even ESPN covered Reigns being out of ‘Mania.

One thing seems really clear now though: the closer we get to the first ever taped WrestleMania in the midst of a pandemic, the worse the idea looks.

Botch of the night:

Playing off the point above…WWE still having Reigns in the title match, when the whole world basically knows he’s not in it anymore. Questionable optics. We know he’s down with some sickness, or doing what he can to avoid it.

LOL Moment of the night:

Miz and Morrison on commentary has been interesting, if nothing else. They have kept things entertaining, and tonight was no different. The rub here, of course, is if Miz is/was sick, him being out there was very irresponsible.

Of course, this is worth a mention too..

Noteworthy Moment:

Drew Gulak got a big win over Shinsuke Nakamura. A short match, but it sets up Daniel Bryan against Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship next weekend, taped a few days ago. Big win for Gulak, even if it seemed destined to happen.

Overall lowlights:

I don’t think any of us are ever going to be fans of the taped shows, or the shows in front of no fans. But at least things are improving.

Overall highlights:

I think for me, my top 3:

1-Gulak getting the win. Talk of him and Bryan getting a stable is, at the very least, mildly intriguing. I like where things are trending for Gulak. Yes, it helps that he, too, is a Philly guy.

2-The tag team main event. It was a good match.

3-The Firefly Fun House. With things being pre-recorded, a segment like this makes great sense, and this one was one of the better ones.

After the final bell:

Things are getting interesting for WrestleMania, and not in a terribly good way. Names are seemingly falling like flies. I can’t imagine all the talent is thrilled about putting a show on during this-as much as people might like the distraction. If it’s true that some of the roster is sick (and by sick, I mean, corona virus) then pushing forward with the taped matches looks more and more questionable. It would not be a good look for WWE, even if they were playing within the rules.