WWE SmackDown results, live blog (Mar. 18, 2022): Lesnar collides with Reigns
WWE SmackDown comes waltzing back into our lives tonight (Mar. 18, 2022) with a live show emanating from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, featuring all the latest build to the upcoming WrestleMania 38 two-night extravaganza in early April in Arlington, Texas.
Advertised for tonight: WWE Champion Brock Lesnar collides with Universal Champion Roman Reigns. It’s not exactly clear what that means, but we do know Lesnar is looking for blood and revenge after the Head of the Table left him laying at a Madison Square Garden house show nearly two weeks ago.
Come right back here at 8 pm ET when the SmackDown live blog kicks off once the show starts on FOX. It will be below this line here. (Note: Going forward, there will be no ban on GIFs or images in the live blog threads. Feel free to post as you wish.)
I touched with one who made me run away from my own soul... In this world with its many illusions, we are moving like mice through a maze but me? I’m just here to liveblog this here pro wrestling show.
The show opens with a recap of last week’s Universal Championship business between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.
The Bloodline make their entrance.
Roman Reigns gets on the mic and asks the crowd to acknowledge him. He again talks up how he smashed Brock Lesnar at Madison Square Garden and says he’ll make him bleed tonight, too. Paul Heyman says Lesnar isn’t gonna be here tonight, and Roman crows about how Brock is scared of him.
And he should be, because he’s in god mode. Paul Heyman gets a text and it turns out that Brock Lesnar is actually gonna be here tonight, and the Bloodline storm off together.
We see the Bloodline storming to the loading dock and getting in a car to try and drive away, but Brock Lesnar drives up in a forklift and stabs the tines into the window as we go to break!
Back from commercial, we get a recap of what we just saw, plus the footage of what came after, as the Bloodline scrambled to get out of the car as Brock Lesnar lifted the forks until the car slid down and he was able to tip it over.
The Bloodline got a truck but Brock chased after them and tore the back door off as they sped away!
Lesnar makes his entrance, truck door in hand, and throws it in the ring. He gets on the mic and tells Roman that he can run and hide, but in two weeks at WrestleMania, he’s gonna do more than blow the doors off, and he’s coming for blood.
We get a recap of Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura earning a tag title match at WrestleMania.
Rick gives Shinsuke his usual big intro and we go to break.
Nakamura and Carrillo to start, Good Vibrations after a little feeling out, Garza tags in and takes Shinsuke off his feet! Double-team Alarm Clock, Angel throws his pants at Boogs and we get quick tags to work Nakamura over. Eventually Boogs gets the hot tag and cleans house with axehandles and a press, which leads inevitably to...
Rick Boogs & Shinsuke Nakamura win by pinfall with the Boogs Cruise.
Viking Raiders and Drew McIntyre make their entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Happy Corbin & co. are interviewed in Gorilla.
Madcap Moss jokes on Happy Talk this time and Corbin is not well-pleased to be the butt of the joke.
Shanky and Erik to start, the big man pummeling the viking into the corner only to have it turned around on him. Off the ropes, Shanky knocks him down, tag to Jinder and Erik hits a spinebuster before tagging Ivar in. Short whip into the corner, big lariat, Corbin in, back and forth, Ivar with big right hands!
Happy with a spinning spinebuster on Warbeard, cheap shot on McIntyre to get him agitated and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Mahal has Ivar grounded with a Cobra Clutch, he breaks free and tags Drew in and McIntyre runs hot! Counting down...
Drew McIntyre & Viking Raiders win by pinfall with a Claymore from McIntyre on Shanky.
Sami Zayn cuts a promo about how he should be Intercontinental Champion and that he isn’t is entirely Johnny Knoxville’s fault. He’s gotten in his head and under his skin and he seems so intent on bringing his world to him but he’s going to show him what it truly means to step into his world, so at WrestleMania he wants the match to be anything goes!
Sasha Banks and Naomi make their entrance to send us to break.
Morgan and Naomi to start, quick tags to Banks, in control but Liv kips up and a game Sasha Banks offers a handshake! She accepts, the Boss pulls her in for a side headlock and tags Naomi in for the headscissors in the corner! Ripley tags in, gets into it with Naomi, blind tag and a knee from the apron!
Tijeras follows, tags made, Naomi with the split-legged jawbreaker! The match breaks down, Rhea with a cannonball to the floor and we go to break!
Back from commercial, Ripley stalking after Naomi, tags made and Banks comes in hot! Double knees in the corner, perched on the second, Meteora connects... NOPE! Rhea in, missile dropkick gets a two count, pumphandle, Banks reverses Riptide, lungblower connects, tag to Naomi!
Vader Bomb, Naomi with the split-legged moonsault... MORGAN BREAKS IT UP! Tower of Doom spot, all four women are down and out when Natalya and Shayna Baszler hit the ring and beat them down...
The match goes to a no-contest, presumably.
Post-match, the attack continues!
Johnny Knoxville cuts a promo and says he’s built a career out of ignoring common sense and he’s still standing. He says Sami’s a great competitor but he can take anything he dishes out and if he wants the match to be anything goes, he accepts!
Michael Cole tells Pat McAfee he’s been summoned to Vince McMahon’s office and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Sonya Deville rolls up on Natalya and Shayna Baszler.
She says she likes the way they carry themselves and she’s adding them to the tag title match at WrestleMania!
We see Pat McAfee leaving Mr. McMahon’s office with a pensive look on his face.
Pat gets in the ring and on the mic and says he tuned in to USA one night when he was a kid and saw pro wrestling for the first time and saw something that inspired him, something magical that would shape him forever. On that Monday night, he found the thing that he thought he was put on this earth to do.
Other professions got in the way, but after retiring he got a call from Michael Cole asking if he wanted to work Friday nights and he said hell yeah.
Enter Austin Theory.
McAfee says he was just told that he should apologize or lose his job, and he starts apologizing but he can’t get the word “sorry” out of his mouth before finally apologizing for beating his ass, for the fact that his parents raised a douchebag, that he made him relevant (I’m sorry for that one myself, I shoulda been meaner to Theory in my Evolve recaps y’all, my fault.) and calls him a punk bitch.
Austin takes a selfie and shoves him hard before leaving.
Commentary recaps our opening angle for us.
Kofi Kingston makes his entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial we get some video updates from Big E, in good spirits despite his broken neck.
Kingston with a dropkick and hammering punches in the corner, Holland gets a side headlock takeover, shot off, drop down, leapfrog, leapfrog, Kofi drops him with a corkscrew uppercut! Ridge shoves him out of the corner, a little back and we go to break.
Back from commercial, Kofi laying in double chops and a dropkick, duck a lariat, leaping lariat of his own! Kingston off the ropes, Boom Drop, Trouble in Paradise blocked, gamengiri from the apron, Sheamus runs interference and Pete Dunne comes in with a cheap shot!
Referee Dan Engler ejects Sheamus and Dunne from ringside, Kofi with a schoolboy for two, he floats out of a slam, pop-up double knee drop! Kingston throws a stick at Sheamus, Dunne charges the ring and that distraction is enough for Holland to scoop him up...
Ridge Holland wins by pinfall with Northern Grit.
We get a recap of the SmackDown Women’s Championship scene.
Charlotte Flair makes her entrance to send us to break.
Back from commercial, Charlotte Flair gets on the mic and says she’s the most decorated woman in sports entertainment and no one has caused Ronda Rousey more pain than she.
We see Ronda watching on a screen backstage.
Flair continues, saying her legacy is bigger than Rousey’s, and when she loses at WrestleMania, she’ll cut and run and pop out another baby, but Charlotte will be here week after week because she has the love and the passion for this business.
Ronda storms off to make her entrance.
They brawl on the floor, eventually Ronda grabs the leg on a kick and applies the ankle lock! Flair grabs a kendo stick and wallops her before falling back and choking her with the stick! Charlotte slams her through the announce table and stands tall!
That’s the show, folks.