Winners, News And Notes On 3/25/22

WWE SmackDown advertised fallout from last week’s angle involving Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns and a forklift, Sasha Banks vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Queen Zelina in a Fatal 4-Way and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jimmy Uso.

Last week’s broadcast of Friday Night SmackDown garnered 2.147 million viewers.

• March 18, 2022—2.147 million
• March 11, 2022—2.226 million
• March 4, 2022—2.261 million
• February 25, 2022—2.114 million
• February 18, 2022—2.173 million

• WWE SmackDown Venue: Barclays Center (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
• Tickets Distributed: 7,326
• Available Tickets: 633

WWE SmackDown Total YouTube Viewership Last Friday: 7,388,506 (Down from 7,388,506)

• Most-Viewed: Brock Lesnar Attempts to Cut off Roman Reigns (2,538,438 views)
• Least-Viewed: Sheamus and Ridge Holland Destroy Big E’s ATV (113,511 views)
• Median Viewership: 456,066 views

WWE SmackDown Results | Friday, March 25, 2022

Brock Lesnar Invades Roman Reigns’ Locker Room

Brock Lesnar can’t touch Roman Reigns unless he’s provoke, so his plan is to wait in Roman Reigns’ locker room “for a good provoking.” The storyline threat tonight is “Brock Lesnar attempts to provoke Roman Reigns into provoking him.”

Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns really shouldn’t touch ahead of WrestleMania, so hopefully Lesnar’s provocations fail.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Jimmy Uso

It’s still wild to think that Shinsuke Nakamura teamed up with Triple H in what would ultimately become Triple H’s last match.

With Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs challenging for he SmackDown Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania—and after Boogs’ win over Jey Uso—Shinsuke Nakamura is a near-lock to win this match. Still, stranger things have happened.

Brock Lesnar had a perfect opportunity to get Roman Reigns’ attention by attacking his cousins, but he chose to continue trashing Reigns’ (temporary) locker room.

King Xavier Woods def. Ridge Holland

This match was basically the “Big E Get Back Invitational.”

With eight days until WrestleMania, The New Day is still off the card. Few snubs are more egregious.

Kofi Kingston introduced Xavier Woods as Ridge Holland’s surprise opponent, and when the match started, Michael Cole was surprised as soon as Woods attacked Holland.

Ronda Rousey Appears Live

This segment was dubbed “Rousey on a Rampage,” which is an odd choice of words for obvious reasons. It turned out to be very fitting, because nothing of note happened during this segment. Just like an episode of Rampage.

Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair faced off, with Flair via satellite, and the entire segment felt unnecessary. Though I expect this match to headline Night 1 of WrestleMania, it hardly feels like a match of that caliber based on this storyline.

Angel Garza def. Ricochet; Humberto Carrillo def. Ricochet

This segment was all over the place. Los Lotharios struggled with the kiss cam, however they found the plant in the crowd at the last minute. Also, Humberto Carrillo was announced as Ricochet’s opponent prior to commercial, only to be replaced by Angel.

The bad news is Ricochet lost to Angel. The good news is WWE actually let Ricochet cut a promo after and challenged Humberto.

The announcers accidentally exposed the ridiculousness of the championship contender’s match by wondering aloud whether or not Humberto vs. Ricochet was lso a championship contender’s match. Turns out it was.

Ricochet got outsmarted by the heels in back-to-back matches as WWE continues struggling to create a babyface star. Cody Rhodes cannot come soon enough.

Sasha Banks def. Shayna Baszler, Rhea Ripley, Sasha Banks and Zelina Vega

The official name for Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan is “Liv for Brutality.”

Austin Theory delivered a cheapshot to Pat McAfee, and similar to Lesnar, McAfee was told that if Theory hits McAfee again, McAfee can hit him back. WWE handles its talent like pre-schoolers.

There was one highlight in this match, and it was Sasha Banks doing a double Banks Statement.

Roman Reigns Calls out Brock Lesnar

Roman Reigns easily got the biggest reaction of anybody on the show, and it was a babyface reaction. WWE even kept the camera on the crowd to show them all rise to their feet when Reigns’ music played.

“Greatness on Demand” rolls off the tongue so much better than “Greatness on a Different Level.”

This proved to be a very anticlimactic ending as Brock Lesnar laid waste to security while Roman Reigns and The Bloodline fled.