WWE SmackDown results, grades: Daniel Bryan earns Universal Title match, Apollo Crews gets militia

WWE SmackDown ended with Daniel Bryan earning a Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns at Fastlane.

The leader of the Yes Movement triumphed with great moments bookending an entertaining Friday night show as the blue brand set its stage for Fastlane on March 21.

The evening opened up Bryan absolutely on fire as he delivered a long, passionate promo about his upcoming main event Steel Cage Match against Jey Uso, and the importance of going on to face the Tribal Chief later this month.

It was D-Bry at his best, putting over the importance of the title shot and positioning himself against management once again by noting their desire for Reigns and Edge at WrestleMania 37.

After an ad break, Roman and Paul Heyman hit the ring with the former suggested Bryan doesn’t have the drive needed to be a winner like him.

Jey tried to sneak attack his opponent for the main event, only for Bryan to throw him out of the ring as Reigns watched on.

Backstage, Uso didn’t have the best time, first getting berated by his cousin and then getting jumped backstage by Bryan.

The match itself was a worthy main event, with both men going all out and battering each other to make sure they delivered something special inside the cage.

In the end, Bryan made Jey tap out to the Yes Lock to earn himself a title shot against Reigns – who looked disappointed – at Fastlane.

Apollo Crews has new accent, militia and a spear, and Reginald gets fired

King Corbin refused to team up with Sami Zayn again this week, leading to a one-on-one match against Montez Ford instead – which he won thanks to a distraction from Zayn.

The latter then wanted Corbin to help him, but it didn’t pan out that way and Angelo Dawkins rolled him up for a win when Ford was messing with his camera crew.

Sami attacked his own documentary team after the bell, as he continued to rant about conspiracy theories.

Dominik Mysterio put on a strong – but quick – showing against Chad Gable as they worked well together with Rey’s son picking up a big win.

We also got a preview for the Women’s Tag Team Championship match at Fastlane, with Bianca Belair – accompanied by Sasha Banks and Reginald – taking on Shayna Baszler with Niax Jax in her corner.

These two work well together from their NXT days and are strong superstars in their own right, and thankfully Reginald’s involvement – while unnecessary – didn’t overshadow things too much en route to the EST of WWE’s big win.

After the bell the Legit Boss told the sommelier to stay out of their way, and during the night Carmella sacked him, before Jax suggested he was actually ‘kinda cute’.

Elsewhere, Cesaro took on the returning Murphy – who was ignored by Seth Rollins when he offered to help earlier on – in a very fun sprint with the SmackDown Saviour at ringside as the Swiss Cyborg got the victory.

It was another big night for Apollo Crews, who came out with new percussion over his theme, holding a spear and accompanied by his own militia.

Sticking with his African accent, he ranted about showing the real him, the ‘real African American’ and introduced his henchman as the Nigerian elite guard who have long protected his family’s wealth.

The accent will divide some people, but it can’t be denied that Apollo absolutely nailed this promo as he showed more character and intensity than ever before en route to challenging Big E for one more IC Title shot.

Backstage, Bayley hosted Ding Dong, Hello as she did a Sweet Tweet segment reading out lovely tweets instead of mean ones, until she accidentally started reading a nasty one and bolted back through the door.

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