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WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Mar. 5, 2021) with a show from the ThunderDome inside Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Tonight’s main event is Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso in a high stakes steel cage match. If Bryan wins, he gets to challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal championship on Mar. 21 at Fastlane 2021. If Bryan loses, he must acknowledge that Roman Reigns is the head of the table and the best wrestler ever.
Also advertised for tonight’s card: Bianca Belair has a singles match against Raw tag team champion Shayna Baszler, and more!
Come right back here at 8 p.m. ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. 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. 5
She can’t stop pacing, she never felt so alive. Her thoughts are racing, set on overdrive. It takes a village, this she knows is true. They’re expecting her and she’s got work to do, but me? I’m just here to liveblog this pro wrestling show, folks.
The show opens with a recap of the events leading up to Edge selecting Roman Reigns as his opponent for WrestleMania.
Michael Cole is in the ring for an interview with Daniel Bryan.
Bryan makes his entrance and Cole lays out the stakes for his steel cage match tonight, as well as recounting the history of the abortive tag team match between Edge and Bryan on one team and Roman and Jey Uso on the other.
Dan says Cole is making a lot of assumptions, the biggest of which is that anyone even asked him about the tag match. Nobody ran anything by him, because they know he rolls with the punches and does whatever is asked of him and work his butt off. So he understands why Edge didn’t ask him, why Roman Reigns didn’t bother to ask him, why management didn’t bother to ask him.
He gets it, it’s a dream match and he’s the only one that doesn’t want to see it, so he’s going to do his damnedest to make sure it doesn’t happen. He asks Michael to excuse him, saying he can take it from here and he has his own package to throw to. The video package we get is a recap of the Elimination Chamber and the Universal Championship match that followed.
Bryan talks about Edge’s post-match attack, saying he’s never felt like such a failure as he did in that moment. A lot of people don’t know this, but he doesn’t have a lot of ambition, and he recounts the story of him taking a test and getting the lowest ambition score out of anybody on the roster. He says he loves wrestling and he doesn’t feel like he’s had to work a day in the last 21 years.
He hit a point where he’s gonna be more of a full-time dad than a full-time wrestler, so he’s stepped back and offered his opportunities to young guys, but in that moment he realized he failed himself when he put himself on the back burner. He realized in that moment that he’s got a lot more ambition than that test could ever show and he knew then that he needs to be in the main event of WrestleMania.
In the last three weeks he’s wrestled more matches than Roman and Edge in the last three matches, and he comes out every single week wrestling for the love of what he does, and by putting himself on the back burner he did himself a disservice, because he knows he can be the absolute best. So tonight, he steps in a steel cage with Jey Uso, and if he wins he gets a title match at Fastlane, and that’s the only way he can get into the main event of WrestleMania.
Enter Roman Reigns, flanked by Paul Heyman and Jey Uso as always, and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Roman Reigns stares Daniel Bryan down and speaks.
He says Bryan looks like the same guy, but he sounds different, and he’s confused at the notion that he could be ambitious or driven. No, he’s the underdog, the little guy, a lotto winner, the guy who waits for an opportunity and sometimes it works out. He talks about how since he was a kid he’s taken what he wanted, and says Bryan doesn’t love wrestling, he needs it because he has nothing else.
Love isn’t based on needs, it’s based on service. Take Roman for example, he loves this business and he doesn’t need to do it, but he does because everyone needs him. Soon Bryan will accept that he, too, needs Reigns, and when he does, he’ll acknowledge him. Uso snatches the mic away from Dan before he can respond, saying this is as close as he’s getting to the Universal Championship.
Jey charges him but Bryan sees it coming, hip tosses him, and dumps him out of the ring before squaring back up with Roman!
Commentary hypes tonight’s show up and plays a recap of Street Profits vs. Baron Corbin & Sami Zayn from last week.
Street Profits make their entrance and we go to break.
Back from commercial, the Street Profits are holding court in the ring when Sami Zayn interrupts.
He rants about their “fluke victory” last week before being interrupted by King Baron Corbin, who tells him they’re not tag partners or friends and he refuses, calling for a singles match against whichever Profit wants it.
King Baron Corbin vs. Montez Ford
Corbin in control early, throwing Ford around, Montez gets a sleeper briefly that sets up a kick combo, Stinger Splash, off the ropes, pop-up but he keeps it together and hits a DDT! Kip-up into a standing moonsault... NO! Baron resumes control, Zayn with a distraction...
King Baron Corbin wins by pinfall with End of Days.
Post-match, Angelo Dawkins attacks Sami Zayn and puts him into Corbin, who exits up the ramp, leaving Sami high and dry as we go to break.
Angelo Dawkins vs. Sami Zayn
Back from commercial, the match is in progress and Dawkins is driving Zayn’s face into the turnbuckles. Whip blocked, front kick, Sami grabs a side headlock, shot off, shoulder block! Off the ropes, drop down, leapfrog, duck under, duck the lariat, Angelo with a dropkick and a two count! Action to the floor, brawling back and forth, back inside, Zayn with a lariat for two.
Sami with a lariat, repeated covers but Dawkins kicks out! Angelo with a comeback, spinning Stinger Splash into the one-handed bulldog... NOPE! Underhooks... DRILL BIT CAN’T KEEP SAMI ZAYN DOWN! Sami looking for the Blue Thunder Driver, blocked, sidestep the charge, exploder suplex into the corner! Zayn gets distracted by Ford cutting a promo at his documentary crew...
Angelo Dawkins wins by pinfall with a schoolboy pin.
Post-match, Sami interrogates a man on his documentary crew he doesn’t recognize, shaking him down and hammering him with knees to the gut!
Carmella chats with Reginald the Sommelier backstage.
She wants to play a game about a snake, accusing him of betraying her. He claims he’s doing for it her, she says he’s the snake and slaps his wine tray out of his hand. He’s fired!
Dominik and Rey Mysterio make their entrance to send us to break.
Chad Gable vs. Dominik Mysterio
Gable with a waistlock takedown, another one, Mysterio with an arm drag, a wristlock, Chad rolls through and bridges into a reversal, side headlock transitioned into a drop toehold, posting the knee into the mat after! Leg pick, dragon screw, stepover toehold knee drops, cover for two. Stepover toehold applied, wrenching it in, Dominik counters with a gamengiri!
Setting him up top, diving Frankensteiner, Gable into the corner, he gets bodyscissored into the turnbuckles! Dom goes up top, tornado DDT blocked, duck a lairat, reverse it, Tiger Suplex... NO GOOD! Off the top with a moonsault, nobody home, German suplex blocked, Mysterio goes for it...
Dominik Mysterio wins by pinfall with La Casita.
Post-match, Rey attacks Otis, dropkicking him and following it up with the seated senton into the announce table!
Seth Rollins is interviewed backstage.
He accuses Cesaro of being afraid of him and his movement and says he wanted to humiliate him, and he’ll never forget that.
He looks over his shoulder and Buddy Murphy is there.
He says he was thinking that perhaps he could assist Seth with the Cesaro situation, but Rollins tells him to get out of his sight.
Shayna Baszler makes her entrance, flanked by Nia Jax, and sends us to break.
Back from commercial, Sasha Banks makes her entrance and hangs out at ringside for the next match. Reginald the Sommelier follows behind.
Bianca Belair vs. Shayna Baszler
Collar and elbow, Belair with a side headlock, backflip away, shoulder block. Dropkick caught, Bianca kicks Baszler away, schoolboy for two. Wrenching the arm, stepover, La Casita, no good, Shayna with the Jim Breaks Special, Belair fireman’s carry, slip out, up in the corner and Baszler kicks her arm out from under her! Shayna continuing to work the arm over, manipulating the wrist and hand and snapping the arm back.
Sidestep Baszler into the corner but she stays right on her, Bianca with a slam, right hand, shoulder blocks in the corner! Straight suplex, kip-up, Belair is feeling it! Back body drop, chickenwings, Shayna reverses and sends Belair crashing to the floor! She gets to her feet and shoves Reggie into Nia, returning to the ring only to be met with a kick from Shayna!
Jax shoves Reginald and charges at him, but he sidesteps and she plows into Sasha! Baszler goes for the Kirifuda Clutch, countered...
Bianca Belair wins by pinfall with KOD.
Post-match, Banks slaps Reggie across the face and tells him to stay out of her business!
Jey Uso is hanging out with Roman Reigns backstage.
Reigns tells him if he wins tonight, the Universal Championship is safe until WrestleMania, but if he doesn’t he’ll have to defend it at Fastlane. That’s fine, but if he loses, he doesn’t just embarrass himself, but the whole family. Jey says he has this and leaves.
And so we go to break.
Buddy Murphy vs. Cesaro
Seth Rollins is on commentary for this one.
Cesaro immediately starts tossing Murphy around, Karelin Lift gets one! Off the ropes, the Swiss Superman with a backbreaker for two, leg pick, Buddy scrambles for the ropes! Throwing Cesaro out of the ring, stomping his hand, off the ropes... TOPE CON GIRO! Back inside, Meteora... STILL NO! Shoving Murphy into the corner, boots up, Buddy dives... SWISS DEATH!
Uppercuts corner to corner, giant swing, step through, Sharpshooter applied! Murphy’s got nowhere to go, Michael Cole calls it before he actually taps...
Cesaro wins by submission with the Sharpshooter.
Backstage, Reginald is apparently leaving the arena when he knocks on Sasha Banks’ door.
She tells him no and slams the door in his face.
Shayna Baszler rolls up and mocks him, but Nia Jax thinks he’s kinda cute, and we go to break.
Back from commerical, Apollo Crews makes his entrance, flanked by two bodyguards in camouflage and holding a spear.
He gets on the mic and says everybody is telling him how they don’t like the new Apollo, and the good news is this isn’t the new Apollo, it’s the REAL Apollo, and this is who he is and how he talks. He’s a real African-American, and this is his Nigerian elite guard who have protected his family’s wealth for many generations.
His father told him stories of his heritage and he was ashamed to accept them because he’d be made fun of, and the only thing he wanted to do was fit in, and he was never accepted for who he was. Even his so-called friends just wanted to mock him and ask rude questions, like if he rode lions to school. He says his ancestors were among the most feared and respected warriors in Nigeria.
Big E tried to conquer him and humble him, and he knows he’s at home afraid, but he’s very excited that he’s coming back next week. He’s no longer the man he once dismissed, and he’s demanding another match for the Intercontinental Championship. He’ll leave E a broken man for the rest of his life, haunted by his complete and total victory.
Backstage, Natalya and Tamina are complaining at five-time NWA World Heavyweight Champion Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville about not being in the tag title match at Fastlane.
Pearce says the match has been made and that’s that, but Deville apologizes and says she would have made a different decision.
Jey Uso is interviewed and Daniel Bryan attacks him ahead of their match!
And so we go to break.
Back from commercial, Bayley hosts Ding Dong, Hello! from the backstage interview ring.
She’s trying out a new segment where she reads sweet Tweets about herself. Her first two are glowing with praise but she stops reading the third one, clearly frustrated, and gets up and exits through her set, slamming the door.
Corey Graves is inside the steel cage to explain the rules for tonight’s main event to us.
We get entrances for our main event, including Roman Reigns taking a seat in a chair on the ramp, and we go to break.
Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso (Steel Cage Match)
Back from commercial, the match is in progress, Bryan with right hands into the corner but Uso throws him into the steel wall of the cage! Smashing his face into the chain, fireman’s carry and he rams Dan’s face into the steel! Calling for the door, he walks over but Dan cuts him off! On the ropes, jockeying for position, Jey slips down and crotches Bryan on the top rope!
Big right hand, smashing Bryan into the steel some more, the American Dragon blocks and gives him some of his own medicine! Missile dropkick follows, Penalty Kick to the arm, arm wringer into a shoulder armbreaker and he rams Uso shoulder-first into the cage wall! More shoulder armbreakers, another shove into the steel, arm wringer, whip reversed, backflip up and over!
Headed up top, climbing the cage, Jey cuts him off and crotches him on the turnbuckles! Stomping at Dan’s injured knee as he hangs in the Tree of Woe, Uso climbs but his injured arm is giving him trouble and Bryan cuts him off. Headbutts atop the cage, he knocks Jey back down but gets caught in a fireman’s carry... AVALANCHE SAMOAN DROP! Both guys are down and out as we go to break.
Back from commercial, Bryan and Uso are jockeying for position atop the cage! Jey manhandles him over the top and back inside, Dan with chest kicks against the steel! Superkick into a splash off the top, slow to cover... NOPE! Uso crawling for the door, Bryan blocks with a grip on his foot! Trading kicks, roundhouse for a superkick, Dan kicks out! Crucifix pin from the American Dragon for two, and he transitions into his old MMA elbows spot!
Omoplata attempt, Uso fights back, wicked right hands on the mat, just clobbering Bryan! Catapult into the steel, Jey calling for it, he goes up top and then climbs the cage! Dan recovers and cuts him off, headbutts on top, staggering Uso! Bryan makes it over the wall but Jey pulls him back in with a cravate! Fighting atop the turnbuckles, smashing Uso’s arm into the steel... AVALANCHE DANIELSON SPECIAL INTO THE LEBELL LOCK! USO’S GOT NOWHERE TO GO! HE GETS THE ROPES BUT THEY DO NOTHING! BRYAN WRENCHES BACK... IT’S OVER! THE AMERICAN DRAGON GETS ANOTHER SHOT AT THE TITLE!
Daniel Bryan wins by submission with the LeBell Lock, becoming #1 contender to the WWE Universal Championship.
Bryan celebrates atop the cage while Roman Reigns stews.
That’s the show, folks.