:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/58918085/20180305_SD_AJ_Dolph__29c6a440c2cdc6fce7b7ffa3659437a0.0.jpg)
WWE SmackDown Live comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Mar. 6, 2018) from the Resch Center in Green Bay, Wisconsin, featuring the go home show to the upcoming Fastlane pay-per-view (PPV) scheduled for this coming Sunday night in Columbus, Ohio.
Advertised for tonight: AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler, Charlotte Flair and Ruby Riott come face-to-face, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on USA. It will be below this line here. (REMINDER: NO GIFS OR PICS ARE ALLOWED IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. OFFENDERS WILL BE BANNED.)
WWE SMACKDOWN RESULTS AND LIVE BLOG FOR MAR. 6
I better think of my answers now because I know the questions will be asked, like if I brought the joy I found in the confessions of a mask. The tip of my tongue’s already touching the top of my mouth. It’s meaning manifest in mercy, and in liveblogging this here pro wrestling show for you, folks.
The show opens with Dasha Fuentes in the ring introducing WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair and her challenger at Fastlane Ruby Riott in turn.
She begins with Ruby, who quickly corrects her and shoos her off. Riott says it all began on November 14, 2017, when Charlotte became champion. All her life she was set up to be champion, tall, blonde, athletic, cunning and the daughter of a two-time WWE Hall of Famer, and when she won the title, she became the first superstar to ever hold the NXT, Divas, Raw, and SmackDown Women’s Championships.
Ruby watched as the myth that Flair was the personification of the women’s revolution began to form and that’s why she formed the Riott Squad two weeks after that victory, with one purpose-- to destroy the myth. Charlotte says the only myth that exists about her is that she’s been handed anything in life, and she claims being who she is has had to make her work harder than others.
She has the weight of expectation on her shoulders, and how hard is that to live up to? Her failures are magnified and she can’t just succeed to be successful, she has to be transcendant. And the fact that she’s achieved what Riott just said proves that she’s transcended any myth about her, and the reality is she’s standing right here every bit as good as you’ve heard.
Ruby says that’s what makes this so exciting, because whether she was placed there or put herself there, she’s on a pedestal, and all of that is on the line on Sunday. So when she takes her crown, she’ll no longer be the Queen, her reality is gonna crumble and she’s just gonna be another bleach blonde failure with a famous last name.
This gets Charlotte to step up to Riott, and the Squad rolls into the ring in response. Ruby puts her mic down, Flair starts taking off her robe ready to fight--
And Bobby Roode’s music hits?
Commentary informs us Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal is after the break so, uh... that’s the segment, I guess.
Back from commercial, we’re shown Bobby Roode joining the commentary booth.
Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton
Circling, collar and elbow, Orton with a go-behind but Mahal grabs a wristlock, shift to a top wristlock, reversed to a hammerlock but Jinder breaks with a back elbow. Side headlock, shot off, shoulder block, off the ropes, leapfrog and Randy returns the back elbow! Kick to the midsection, club, Mahal backing him into the corner, shot to the gut, whip across but the Viper ducks a lariat and goes for an RKO that Jinder barely escapes to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Jinder has a half nelson neck crank in but Randy’s just about out of it so he boots him in the midsection. Off the ropes, kick gets a knee, Orton’s laid out but the cover’s only good for two. Off the ropes, a knee drop to the face, knees to the back, crossface strikes and back to the neck crank, which the Viper gets out of with a back suplex this time.
Lariats connect, ducked one in return, the snap scoop powerslam connects and Mahal tries to bail to the apron, where Randy tries the DDT but Jinder gets away. Orton shifts gears, fallaway slam, uppercuts against the ropes, whip reversed and reversed again and into the back-to-back backbreaker! Mahal runs away, Orton back suplexes Sunil Singh into the announce desk but gets tied up with Jinder after and ends up throwing him into Bobby Roode at commentary!
Back inside, the rope-hung DDT hits this time, Randy goes to that place but Bobby gets on the apron and interrupts him, letting Jinder catch him from behind...
Jinder Mahal wins by pinfall with Khallas.
Backstage, Sami Zayn is giving Kevin Owens a pep talk about Sunday. KO says it’s every man for himself and Sami tries to deflect it, saying that’s how it’s billed, but Kev remembers something from a few weeks again, that Zayn said he’d be willing to lie down for him. Sami says he said that and he meant it, and Owens says he almost can’t believe that he’d do that, but he’s such an amazing guy and if he really means it...
Zayn cuts him off and says he knows exactly how good he is but nobody noticed until he hooked up with Owens and there’s no doubt in his mind that his time will come, but right now KO is one win away from headlining WrestleMania as champion and becoming Grand Slam Champion (uh, no tag titles, Sami), and again he thanks Owens for everything he’s done and promises to lie down for him, which gets him a big hug from his best friend and sends us to break.
Back from commercial we get a handcam promo from Baron Corbin about how he’s grateful that John Cena is in the title match on Sunday and he’ll repay him for costing him his Money in the Bank briefcase.
This is followed by a video package recapping the feud between the New Day and the Usos.
Backstage, Shinsuke Nakamura is interviewed. He hopes AJ Styles wins at Fastlane so he can beat him at WrestleMania with a knee to the... Rusev Day roll up. Aiden English goes to speak but clutches his throat and Rusev accuses Nakamura of doing permanent damage to Aiden’s voice, like breaking Billy Joel’s hands. No piano for the Piano Man and no Rusev Day song for Rusev.
Shinsuke points out that English isn’t Billy Joel and Rusev challenges Nakamura to a match at Fastlane so he can break him like he broke his Aiden. Shinsuke says when he wins at Fastlane it’ll be Nakamura Day and struts off with Rusev in disbelief that he’d make up his own holiday.
Becky Lynch makes her entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial in time for Carmella’s entrance.
Becky Lynch vs. Carmella
Collar and elbow, Lynch pushes her into the ropes but Carmella escapes with a knee. Up and over into a headscissors, deflect to the apron, shoulder block but Becky gets cut off in the turnbuckles with an elbow and Frankensteinered to the mat for a nearfall! Carmella scraping Lynch’s face across the mat but Becky’s able to get a punch to the midsection, block a tilt-a-whirl and try to set up Dis-Arm-Her but it’s blocked.
In the corner, big slap to Lynch, climbing up behind her... FIGURE FOUR HEADSCISSORS OVER THE ROPES! Choking her on the apron some more, another slap and the cover gets two back in the ring. Outside again, Carmella puts her into the barricade a couple times, face-first into the post but still no cover and the Princess of Staten Island gives referee Mike Chioda a piece of her mind.
Reverse chinlock applied, Lynch to her feet and out with elbows, and a leg lariat leaves both women down and out. Carmella’s up first, they trade forearms in the middle of the ring, Becky pulls ahead but a lariat gets ducked, superkick... LYNCH GETS A FOOT ON THE ROPE! Carmella freaks out and kicks the bottom rope, giving Becky time to recover and hit an exploder suplex.
Off the ropes, wheelbarrow arm drag, transitioning out of it...
Becky Lynch wins by submission with Dis-Arm-Her.
We go backstage where Naomi was watching on a monitor and Natalya walks up with the slow clap. Nattie claims Carmella had the flu but Naomi doesn’t buy it. Neidhart says anybody that’s friends with Becky ends up burned and Naomi accuses her of hating and asks her to name a friend that isn’t a cat. Nattie refuses and says she saw Carmella challenge Lynch and that she wouldn’t challenge her because she’s Uncle Bret’s catchphrase.
Naomi uses that to challenge her to a tag match, Naomi & Lynch vs. Carmella & Neidhart. Natalya accepts and says she’s gonna challenge the winner of the title match, but Naomi says the only thing she’s gonna be doing at WrestleMania is fighting for couch space with 2Pawz.
AJ Styles is shown walking backstage.
Commentary runs us through the announcement of the Greatest Royal Rumble, to be held next month in Saudi Arabia and then we go to break.
Back from commercial we get an outside shot of the arena and man walking past a statue in shorts in the snow slips and falls and commentary finds it so amusing that we need to see it again and in slow motion. Pro wrestling!
Commentary then shills for the WWE Network, running through the card for Fastlane.
AJ Styles makes his entrance and gets in the ring to cut a promo.
He takes in the chants for a moment and begins, saying it wasn’t too long ago he only cared about one person, but after winning the WWE Championship for a second time, he sees the world a little different. He talks about the years he spent grinding here and how he’s still grinding and how that leads him to Fastlane. It’s a six-pack challenge, he doesn’t have to get pinned to lost the title.
What a surprise, the odds are stacked against him once again, but here’s the thing-- he’s not gonna stand in the ring and cry and complain and say it’s not fair. The hell with fair, he’s gonna fight, that’s what he does and who he is, and this is SmackDown, the House That AJ Styles Built. The thing is, no matter how much they train and how hard they try, sometimes life gets the best of us and we don’t win.
Last week, John Cena pinned him clean in the middle of the ring. The thing is, Cena’s world-class and he’s not taking anything from him. Not that he needs any extra motivation, but Cena’s never at a loss for words, and AJ plays a clip of John’s promo from Raw last night. Cena’s not the only that has to win at Fastlane to pave the road to WrestleMania, and Styles brings up the triple threat John brought up and says that’s not what he wants and it’s not what the WWE Universe wants. (I’d be pretty okay with it, for the record.)
AJ wants his WrestleMania moment, and he wants that to be taking it to the grandest stage of them all and defending it against the best, and he has every right to call himself the best, Shinsuke Nakamura. Who would have ever dreamed that this match would happen in WWE? So at Fastlane, he’s not just fighting for himself, he’s fighting for us, because trust him when he says it, it’ll be nothing short of Phenomenal.
Dolph Ziggler makes his entrance and asks if he heard right and what happened to AJ, he used to be cool. SmackDown was the House That AJ Styles Built, but he changed, and he’s not Phenomenal anymore, he’s just... desperate. Styles fires back that he hasn’t been in WWE for 13 years and failed to reach his full potential, and Dolph returns with AJ taking a decade to walk into the house that he built.
Ziggler says on Sunday Styles is gonna lose, and it’s not the math, it’s not the numbers game, it’s AJ’s head being in the wrong place, saying he’s gonna do it for these people. The second you let them down one inch they’ll all stab you in the back and it happened to him. He was told to his face that he’d never be champion here, ever, and somehow he kicked every road block out of his way.
Every time the rug was pulled out from underneath him, he overcame it, and somehow he won Money in the Bank and cashed in and become World Heavyweight Champion, and everyone shared in that moment together. There’s only one catch... they didn’t deserve it, sitting on the sidelines doing nothing. Meanwhile Dolph was proving night-in, night-out, that he was the best thing that ever happened to his company.
And the fact that Ziggler’s yet to have one singles match at WrestleMania is criminal. AJ can talk about whatever he wants but the facts don’t give a damn about his feelings, and he can take his dream match and shove it. Styles says he’s talking a lot, so why not just have their match right now?
We go to break before the match can begin.
Back from commercial in time for the bell.
AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler
Dolph goes for a superkick out the gates, AJ blocks, thinking Styles Clash but Ziggler bails to the floor! Back inside, circling, collar and elbow, Dolph grabs a hold but AJ rolls him through, front chancery and we have a stalemate in the ropes. Go behind to a waistlock, Ziggler breaks with an elbow, a straight right hand, front chancery into a small package, only two and they square back up.
Another go behind, big waistlock takedown and Styles keeps the hold before switching to a reverse chinlock. Dolph pries at his hair and posts to his feet, snapmare into a big dropkick, nearfall off an elbow drop and he grabs a reverse chinlock of his own to take AJ to the mat. Styles to his feet, Ziggler keeps a hold on it, shoot off, leapfrog, drop down, big dropkick from the WWE Champion and Dolph rolls to the floor!
Slingshot forearm connects and we go to break with Styles well in control.
Back from commercial, Dolph is looking to take a countout victory, demanding referee Charles Robinson make the count but Styles rolls back inside. Raking his boot across AJ’s face, putting him in the corner for a punch, a kick, scraping his eyes along the top rope but he taunts and struts a moment and Styles comes back with chops. Off the ropes, back body drop gets Ziggler a cover but he can’t put the WWE Champion away like that.
Back in the corner for a forearm strike, AJ pushes back with strikes, strike rush and he decapitates Dolph with a lariat! Off the ropes, sliding forearm connects, leaping lariat in the corner, fireman’s carry but Ziggler escapes, rakes the eyes, kicks him in the kneecap and hits the Fameasser... NOPE! Both men slow to rise, trading punches in the middle of the ring, and Dolph clobbers AJ’s knee against the ropes.
Styles rolls to the apron, Ziggler draws him up, thinking about a suplex to the inside but they block each other’s attempts and eventually AJ gets Dolph on the apron with him. Ziggler with a double leg... CATAPULT INTO THE RINGPOST AND WE’RE OFF TO BREAK!
Back from commercial and AJ is in the corner with Dolph punching him in the face. Ziggler pulls him away, into position for the Styles Clash but Styles rolls out, thinking Calf Killer, denied, superkick countered and Dolph hits the Zig Zag... NOT ENOUGH! Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn hit the ring...
The match ends in a no contest, presumably.
Owens and Zayn beat them down for a long beat but eventually they turn the tables on the best friends and run them out of the ring.
Enter Shane McMahon. He asks if Sami and Kevin are trying to take their opponents out, but if they’re so invested in the spirit of competition he wants them to turn around and get in the ring. He knows what we’re thinking, the commissioner is about to make a tag team match, and while that would be an amazing matchup, one of the mantras they have is to always try and bring the best to SmackDown.
So instead he turns it into a fatal five-way, adding And This Man in, who turns out to be Baron Corbin.
The new match will have to wait until after the break.
AJ Styles vs. Baron Corbin vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
The match is in chaos on the floor when we return, dudes putting dudes into barricades left and right. Corbin comes over and stops Zayn from attacking Styles, putting him into the barricade a few times before bringing him back in to beat on him in the corner. The other three guys all filter in and Baron beats on AJ only to get cut off by Owens. He beats KO down, goes to Dolph and drops him with one punch.
Whipping Styles hard into the turnbuckles, a biel follows but Ziggler low bridges the Lone Wolf and Owens and Zayn are on the hunt, putting him into the steps! The friends go back in and put boots to the two remaining dudes, Sami whips Dolph across into a lariat, Kev follows with a senton but it’s only good for two. Zayn kicks Corbin away and turns to AJ, punching him in the face before drawing him up for another couple right hands.
Another kick for Baron, Owens turns to attack Styles with stomps. A nice hug between friends as they continue moving from man to man to beat him down but Corbin goozles Sami across the ring. Owens gets him with a superkick, Dolph hits the Fameasser, Sami in with Helluva Kicks but AJ drops him with the Pele kick and all five men are down and out as we go to break.
Back from commercial and Styles and Zayn are struggling over a superplex when Ziggler, Corbin, and Owens come in to turn it into a Tower of Doom! Baron has Ziggler and Zayn in opposite corners, charging forearms, Dolph gets away, body avalanches, Sami gets away but Corbin kicks him in the face. Zayn puts Dolph into Corbin and hits the Blue Thunder Driver but AJ breaks the pin up!
Ziggler manages to put Zayn out of the ring only to get German suplexed by KO. The cannonball set up, he sidesteps Corbin hard into the post, cannonball on Dolph and a Vader Bomb elbow drop on the Lone Wolf! Big DDT from Dolph, Corbin back in and he gets Zig Zagged! Sami with the knucklelock, he steps up but Ziggler out-maneuvers him, superkick... AND AGAIN STYLES BREAKS THE PIN UP!
Baron catches AJ on a springboard with a hard right hand, takes Zayn out, catches a superkick from Dolph and hits the chokebreaker on him! Corbin runs into a boot but catches KO with Deep Six right after but AJ again breaks a pin up! He and Corbin back to their feet first, Styles with an enzuigiri and a lariat to the floor, Dolph thinking German suplex, blocked, reverse roundhouse from the champion, boot up on Zayn and into the moonsault inverted DDT!
In position for the Phenomenal Forearm, he takes a moment to knee the Lone Wolf, he runs Dolph off but Sami and Kev take him out! Back in... SAMI CHARGES OVER...
Sami Zayn wins by pinfall with the Helluva Kick on Kevin Owens.
AJ and Kevin look on in disbelief, Styles realizing that if this were Sunday he’d have lost the title and Owens with obvious doubts as to whether his best friend in the world would actually lay down for him.
Sami is interviewed on the stage and says “why?” is a vague question and that he’s the best WWE has and ever since he came to SmackDown he’s been the most underlooked performer on the roster. Why? Don’t ask him stupid questions, tonight wasn’t for the WWE Championship, it was about one thing, who’s the best, and he proved that it’s Sami Zayn.
That’s the show, folks.