SmackDown In A Nutshell: Friday Night In A Steel Cage!

We’ve got another SmackDown In A Nutshell, and we are going to spend at least some of Friday night in a steel cage!

OK, we aren’t…but we will enjoy the fun from a Friday night in a steel cage.

Drew McIntyre gets Sami Zayn in that twisted structure, because who doesn’t love a steel cage.

Perhaps the Superstars inside the structure don’t…but fans do, right?

Things are certainly heating up as we move closer to WrestleMania Backlash.

Other than the Friday night steel cage fun, we’ve got…Shanky with a title shot?

He takes on Ricochet, in a most unexpected title opportunity.

All that and more, so let’s get into things. It is time for…

SmackDown In A Nutshell: Friday Night In A Steel Cage!

Let’s crack open this Nutshell and find out!

Best Match of the night:

Honestly not much to go on here. But, Drew and Sami was good enough to get this nod.

Worst match of the night:

Raquel Rodriguez and Cat Cardoza.

Why does it get here? Well…Cardoza was a jobber…but she got in way too much offense.

You want to make Raquel a monster, heel or face, you have her show off her power and you squash Cat there.

Star of the Night

I am going with Drew McIntyre here.

Sami gets an honorable mention, he’s doing some of his best work, and honestly…another IC title run would not be the worst thing.

But Drew did work in the cage, and then got him in what will likely be the Backlash main event.

Perhaps he even gets a shot, one on one, against the Tribal Chief? I doubt that’s the SummerSlam play…but…

I mean…he’s no Brock..but he was one who carried WWE during the pandemic, and if you want to boost his star power?

Having him pin Reigns for the title would do the trick…

Spot of the Night:

Superplex in the cage is one way to go. Not much else stood out.

Jobber of the Night:

Cat Cardoza, losing to Raquel Rodriguez.

Or, Shotzi. Aliyah managed to survive, sort of.

And then…poor Drew Gulak.

Upset of the Night:

I guess having Charlotte lose, basically, is one way to go. Sure, she didn’t lose…but she did not beat the clock.

Took it out on Gulak though…

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

We have a Shotzi sighting!

Botch of the night:

So, the WWE account tweeted this during SmackDown.

Was the show taped (yes, it was)? Or was this from the 1st Round, and the timing of the post just sucked?

Or…both.

Well, it was definitely taped. But…

Even though it was taped…maybe, just maybe…don’t show photos of your Superstars in one place…when they are also on the “live” show.

LOL Moment of the night:

Not a good LOL…but what the heck is WWE going to do with Madcap Moss and Happy Corbin after Backlash?

Moss got his trophy back, and got a measure of revenge on Corbin…but he needs to ditch the country club duds and do something different.

Noteworthy Moment:

So, we’ve been waiting to hear what Roman Reigns was going to do at Backlash.

One pitch from Heyman? Scrap the tag title unification, make it a six man with Reigns and McIntyre joining the fun.

And, that pitch was accepted…but in doing so, the unification of tag belts was scrapped apparently.

Curious move. Wonder if the six man was the easy way out.

Like, gets Drew involved, but also protects him. And then, they’ve aborted the latest unification, and this was a way to not kill the build completely…but avoid killing the match.

Overall lowlights:

Well, it was a taped show…and on top of that, much of it felt like it was phoned in.

Largely a show where you didn’t have a reason to watch it.

Overall highlights:

After what I just wrote?

Not much.

The cage match was good enough. Not great, but good enough.

I think I like that they are pausing the tag title unification, if not aborting completely. But…we shall see.

After the final bell:

Well, not sure a Friday night in a steel cage could have ended up any more underwhelming.

Not the steel cage match…but so much of the rest was just…yep, underwhelming.