Winners, News And Notes On April 15, 2022

WWE Friday Night SmackDown advertised Ricochet vs. Jinder Mahal for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. SmackDown also advertised Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn and RK-O “coming for the Bloodline.”

Last week’s broadcast of Friday Night SmackDown garnered 2.230 million viewers.

• April 8, 2022—2.230 million
• April 1, 2022—2.359 million
• March 25, 2022—2.180 million
• March 18, 2022—2.147 million
• March 11, 2022—2.226 million

• WWE SmackDown Venue: DCU Center (Worchester, Mass.)
• Tickets Distributed: 6,505
• Available Tickets: 629

Tony Khan Comes for Anti-AEW Twitter Bots! (Pro Wrestling Bits)

WWE SmackDown Total YouTube Viewership Last Friday: 7,855,834 (Up from 2,871,341)

• Most-Viewed: Reigns Orders Usos to Unify Titles (2,375,155 views)
• Least-Viewed: Xavier Woods vs. Butch (350,946 views)
• Median Viewership: 542,921 views

WWE SmackDown Results | Friday, April 15, 2022

RK-Bro Confronts The Usos

RK-Bro vs. The Usos will be official for WrestleMania Backlash in a Winners-Take-All match.

WWE is doing a good job building up this Usos-RK-Bro feud. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the main event of WrestleMania Backlash, especially if Shinsuke Nakamura is Roman Reigns’ next opponent.

Naomi def. Rhea Ripley

If Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan get as far as I think they will in this business, it’s crazy to think that this tag team flamed out so quickly with both young stars in their prime.

The positive in the soon-to-be violent collapse of the Rhea Ripley-Liv Morgan tag team is that Sasha Banks and Naomi seem to be getting a chance to be credible WWE women’s tag team champions. Though it’s a low bar, Sasha Banks might be one-half of the two greatest women’s tag teams since this title was introduced.

Madcap Moss def. Humberto Carrillo

Madcap Moss’ new gimmick is to get fans to give him two thumbs up.

Humberto Carrillo sold like crazy for Madcap Moss. Based on how he was selling, WWE clearly has plans to give Moss a real push as a singles star.

Fans were very much into Madcap Moss, but he has to ditch this joke gimmick and get new gear.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but WWE is teasing a breakup angle. This time, between Carrillo and Angel Garza.

Drew Gulak Interviews Charlotte Flair

Drew Gulak might be one of the most overqualified interviewers in the history of this business. You can’t convince me this is the best they can do with such a creative force of nature and (less importantly) a great wrestler to boot.

It took poor Drew to get this interview started as he awkwardly waited for his cue.

Pat McAfee muttering “great question” after Drew Gulak’s first question was hilarious.

It was only last year that Drew Gulak was promoted as an expert grappler alongside Daniel Bryan & now he can’t reverse a Figure Four from Charlotte Flair? How did he go from Gene LeBell to Gene Okerlund?

Drew McIntyre def. Sami Zayn via Countout

Drew McIntyre gave Pat McAfee a High Five, and this place went crazy for it. Pat McAfee’s star power is getting so out of control, MFers are getting over just by touching him.

For the second consecutive match, Sami Zayn ran away from Sami Zayn through the crowd, but this time McIntyre actually bothered to chase him.

Here I thought Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn was going to be a one-off, but it’s a full-blown feud, which tells me we’re going to have to wait at least another month for McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns.

Ricochet def. Jinder Mahal

This was a basic match, but more importantly, a clean win for Ricochet. As expected, WWE appears to be resuming Ricochet’s push now that WrestleMania is behind them.

Backstage, Butch attacked Xavier Woods right after Woods made a GI Jane joke. By next week, the mentally unstable Butch to be singing “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” while holding an Oscar.

Riddle def. Jimmy Uso

By the time this match came back from commercial, Riddle was in the middle of a full-on comeback, and Randy Orton was selling a head injury. I guess the WWE concept of not doing much during commercial break didn’t apply to this match.

Riddle delivered an RKO for the finish, and Randy Orton was so excited, he hilariously ran around in the ring during the three count, which should have been a disqualification.