WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER 5/7: Throwback Episode of Smackdown, Cesaro vs. Rollins

WWE FRIDAY NIGHT SMACKDOWN PRIMER
MAY 7, 2021
TAMPA, FL. IN THE THUNDERDOME AT THE YUENGLING CENTER
AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EDT
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH.COM CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Michael Cole and Pat McAfee

Match Results and Exclusives from Last Week

• Smackdown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair and the Street Profits defeated Smackdown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode and Bayley in an intergender six-person tag match.

• Tamina & Natalya defeated WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax in a non-title match.
• Big E defeated Apollo Crews via DQ when Commander Azeez interfered, allowing Crews to retain the Intercontinental Championship. Kevin Owens came out to attack Azeez, followed by Sami Zayn attacking Kevin. When Sami was admiring the IC title, Azeez gave him the Nigerian Nail.

• Roman Reigns defeated Daniel Bryan to retain the Universal Championship. Bryan is now banished from Smackdown and has been moved to the WWE Alumni section on their website. Following the match, Cesaro rescued Bryan from getting a chair shot, but then Jey Uso attacked Cesaro. Throughout the night various wrestlers, past and present, weighed in on the match. It has been reported that Bryan’s contract with WWE is expired.

Key Non-Wrestling Segments

Aleister Black was featured in another vignette as he continues to re-introduce himself.

Items Advertised by WWE

We continue on our way towards WrestleMania Backlash with another edition of Smackdown. Last week we found out that tonight’s episode will be of the throwback variety and advertised that Cesaro will take on Seth Rollins in a WrestleMania rematch. Here’s the video WWE has put out:

WWE does not have anything else in their preview.

Cesaro (Zazarow) vs. Seth Rollins

At WrestleMania, Cesaro got seemingly the biggest win of his career when he defeated Seth Rollins in a one-on-one match. He previously won the Andre the Giant memorial battle royal, but no victory was hailed as much as this one especially by the announce team. Rollins has continued to take issue with Cesaro and has said “it’s not over until I say it’s over.” Two weeks ago, Cesaro paired with Daniel Bryan to defeat Rollins and Jey Uso. Last week, Rollins incorrectly predicted that Bryan would defeat Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship.

Tonight, in a WrestleMania rematch, Cesaro and Rollins go one-on-one. In addition to Rollins’ incorrect prediction, he said Cesaro would never get a crack at the Universal Championship because he wouldn’t make it past next week (tonight). Here’s a little Twitter trash talk from both men.

https://twitter.com/WWECesaro/status/1390416321742000130?s=20

OHHH BABY! The greatest technical wrestler in all of @WWE vs ZAZAZAZAROW THIS FRIDAY!!! Can you say “MATCH OF THE CENTURY?!?” https://t.co/dVukSTgy0Q

— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) May 4, 2021

Frank’s Analysis: I suspect this will be a great match, although with WrestleMania Backlash around the corner and in need of more matches, I suspect a potential non-finish leading to a match with a stipulation at that event. I wouldn’t mind another match, depending on how things are handled tonight.

Latest WWE Then and Now

If I may, I’d like to plug my recent edition of WWE Then and Now that dropped yesterday for PWTorch VIP members. Torch assistant editor Zack Heydorn joined me to discuss WrestleMania 22 from 2006 with an in-person perspective as Zack was in attendance. We talked over many topics, past and present, including is there someone Edge can put over the way Mick Foley did for him on that show? Despite a fun match with Shawn Michaels, was Vince McMahon involvement on television past its expiration date? Is there a potential Triple H to John Cena “torch passing” combination on today’s roster? We then quickly previewed WrestleMania Backlash. If you’re not already, become a Torch VIP member to hear this show along with all the other great content that comes with your membership and the convenience of ad-free reading and listening.

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