14 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Mar 19)

Indianapolis becomes Screwjob City as Vince crushes Kofi's WrestleMania dreams.

by Andy H Murray
The New Day
WWE.com

SmackDown is rolling towards WrestleMania 35 with a freight train's momentum.

As illustrated by the lopsided Ups-to-Downs ratio, this was the blue brand's fourth great show in a row. Such scores are nothing new for Tuesday nights, of course, but it's refreshing to see SD's writers holding things together ahead of the year's biggest wrestling event, particularly with Raw grabbing most of Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair's best material in recent weeks.

Lynch and Flair were in the house for the returning Kevin Owens Show last night, but SmackDown wasn't built around them. This episode was all about Kofi Kingston's insurmountable gauntlet. He'd face The Bar, Rowan, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton for the right to challenge WWE Champion Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania 35, and yes, shenanigans were afoot. The New Day man was soundly screwed.

Elsewhere, there were developments in the Women's Tag Team Title division as the boastful IIconics took on Bayley and Sasha Banks. Vince McMahon was in the house again, Rey Mysterio brought back a face from the past, and AJ Styles had pointed words for a certain 'Viper.'

Let's hope SmackDown's post-WrestleMania 35 standards are as high as this, because the past few weeks have ruled.

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.