WWE ran Smackdown at the Performance Center in front of no audience due to the Coronavirus on Friday night.  The show was originally scheduled for Little Caesars Arena in Detroit but after the NBA decided to suspend their season the other dominoes started falling.  They are lucky to have the PC because even Full Sail University where they tape NXT has cancelled for the future.  As I am writing this Wrestlemania in Tampa Bay is still on but I cannot imagine it will be for much longer.  It looks like this might have to be where they do TV for the foreseeable future.  If that is the case then consider me intrigued.  I enjoyed the show quite a bit.  Maybe it was because it was different. Maybe I liked it because it gave me a break from the Coronavirus. Maybe the WWE is great when their backs are against the wall and they can’t overthink things.  Either way I had a really fun time watching it.  The show opened with a message from HHH to the fans and then he moved to commentary with Michael Cole.  I thought the pairing of Michael Cole and HHH had great chemistry and kept the show fun all night.  I hope these two are together for Raw, which will also be live from the PC.

Bailey and Sasha were next to come out and it was initially odd and kind of jarring to see them playing to a crowd that didn’t exist.  They were having fun with it so it made the entrance entertaining.  They grabbed a microphone and started complaining about Paige not being there.  They were told Paige had travel issues, which is understandable considering the circumstances.  Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross interrupted them, which led to a match between the two teams.  It was a fun match that ended when Asuka attacked Alexa giving Bailey and Sasha the win.  At one point Nikki was trying to a crowd chant going for Alexa but it was to no avail.

Next, they showed a recap of Roman Reigns/Bill Goldberg feud for Mania.  I was kind of excited for the sit down interview with Reigns as I really feel like he can shine in these types of interviews.  I was left feeling a little flat afterwards but it wasn’t terrible.  I liked how he ended it by saying, “He’s a part-timer and we just don’t have time for that here. “ I have a feeling much of the roster feels the same way if not stronger about the WWE part-timers. 

Jeff Hardy came out and they set up a match with King Corbin for later in the show.

We then recapped the Drew Gulak/Daniel Bryan match at Elimination Chamber.  We then see Bryan and Gulak talking about the match in the back.  Bryan is trying to learn from Drew where the holes are in his game.  The Artist Collective comes out and interrupts them to set up a match between Bryand Caesaro later on.

We are then give a replay of the Tag Team Elimination Chamber match.  This is a pretty fun match that I suggest giving a watch if you can. It’s not a “must see” but you will be happy you watched it.

They do a MizTV segment with Miz and Morrison.  It was pretty funny and they were making jokes about how great their movies are.

They announced Rob Gronkowski will be on Smackdown next week to discuss his contract negotiations with WWE. I wouldn’t be surprised if we get Mojo vs Gronk at Mania.

Bryan and Caesaro had a short, fun match that ended with a Bryan win.  Bryan had a scary moment where he came up kind of short on a suicide dive.

Jeff Hardy returned to defeat King Corbin in a relatively short match.  Jeff looked great although they changed the name of the Twist of Fate to Twist of Fury.  After the match Reby Hardy implied on Twitter that Matt Hardy owns the trademark.  As long as the WWE didn’t decide that this sounds better because it doesn’t.

A contract signing between Roman Reigns and Bill Goldberg was announced for next week’s Smackdown.

The main event of the evening was John Cena.  I always forget how great he is until he comes back.  I even wrote in my notes while watching the show that I miss him.  Cena took a shot at Alex Riley and others like him that have blamed Cena for holding them back and not getting pushed.  Bray Wyatt appeared through the “audience” to confront Cena.  Bray told Cena that Cena needs the spotlight and that is why he is constantly holding other guys back.  Bray also tells Cena that Cena broke him when they faced each other at Wrestlemania 30.  Bray said that The Fiend was the one to put Bray back together.  This whole thing was phenomenal.
From Cena, to Bray and everything in-between it was great.  The lack of an audience I think added to the eeriness of the whole angle.  The audience was not there so they couldn’t take away from the angle as they tend to do sometimes with their “What!?” chants. It ended with
Bray telling Cena to let him in.

Overall this show was way better than it should have or could have been.  Three fun matches and then simple booking across the entire show made for an entertaining show.  It looks like this is where they will be for at least the next week.  It will be interesting to see if they add fans going forward and when they do it.  I am also interested to see how AEW handles their situation on Dynamite this Wednesday.

Overall, I would give tonight’s show 7 Hulk Hogan Leg Drops out of 10.

-Blake the Snake