WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 4/23: Not Over Between Cesaro and Seth, Who’s Next for the Head of the Table

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
APRIL 23, 2021
TAMPA, FL. IN THE THUNDERDOME AT THE YUENGLING CENTER
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Pat McAfee

Match Results and Exclusives from Last Week

• Rey Mysterio defeated Otis of the Alpha Academy in about three minutes.
• Kevin Owens defeated Sami Zayn via count out in a WrestleMania rematch. Prior to the match he claimed he lost at WrestleMania because he was distracted wondering where Logan Paul stood. Here’s Kevin talking about Sami:

• Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode defeated the Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) to retain the Smackdown Tag Team Championship.
• Natalya defeated Shayna Baszler, Women’s Tag Team Championship co-holder, in about three minutes. Here’s Natalya and Tamina:

• Cesaro defeated Jey Uso via DQ when Seth Rollins attacked Cesaro while he was giving Jey the Cesaro Swing. He told Cesaro nothing is over until I say it’s over.

Key Non-Wrestling Segments and Exclusives

• Universal Champion Roman Reigns opened the show gloating about his victory at WrestleMania. Cesaro, who had defeated Seth Rollins, came out only to have Reigns (w/Paul Heyman and Jey Uso) walk away without having any words.
• Intercontinental Champion formally introduced Commander Azeez as the former commander of the “Elite Guard.”
• New Smackdown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair celebrated her victory over Sasha Banks at WrestleMania with her husband Montez Ford and his Street Profits tag team partner Angelo Dawkins. Here was Bianca getting emotional ahead of the celebration:

• Bayley was interviewed by Kayla Braxton where she said she will take back the Smackdown Women’s Championship.

Items Advertised by WWE

We’re on our way towards Backlash with another edition of Smackdown. WWE made a big deal out of Cesaro being attacked by Seth Rollins as evidence by the hype video they put out for tonight:

WWE is light on what they’re advertising for tonight in their preview. Aside from follow up on the Cesaro-Seth Rollins situation, they question who is next for Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Roman recently retained the Universal Championship at WrestleMania over Daniel Bryan and Edge in a triple threat match. He stacked Edge on top of Bryan and pinned both men at the same time. Edge was the winner of the 2021 Royal Rumble and chose Roman as his opponent. Daniel Bryan found his way into the match after winning Elimination Chamber but falling to Roman right away in a Universal Championship match. He later challenged Roman at Fastlane but came up short due to interference from Edge.

Frank’s Analysis: I already mentioned the happenings of last week. My guess is they will continue the feud between Seth Rollins and Cesaro on television and set up Cesaro as a challenger for Roman Reigns at Backlash. We can’t count out Daniel Bryan and Edge being involved, since we didn’t see them following WrestleMania. With WWE’s typical day-of booking, it’s hard to know what they have in mind week to week. I can’t imagine the end game being anything other than Cesaro vs. Roman for the title.

Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Thank you for reading!