WWE SmackDown results, grades: Roman Reigns goads Daniel Bryan into high stakes match

WWE made sure SmackDown ended on a huge bombshell as Daniel Bryan agreed to a high stakes Universal Championship match next week.

The closing moments of the show saw Roman Reigns challenge the Leader of the Yes Movement to a title clash, with the added stipulation that if Bryan is unsuccessful, he’s done on the blue brand.

The night kicked off with Cesaro looking to address the fans, but he was almost immediately interrupted by Seth Rollins.

The SmackDown Saviour tried to take credit for the Swiss Superman’s WrestleMania success, and how he was responsible for him having his moment in the spotlight.

Rollins blamed the rain for his own loss, which led to Cesaro laying down a challenge only to be interrupted again, this time by Jey Uso.

Roman’s cousin was baffled the veteran felt worthy of a championship match against the Tribal Chief, and they looked ready to attack the hero before Daniel Bryan hit the ring.

He hailed Cesaro as the hardest worker and said he should get what he deserves by being allowed to challenge for the Universal Title.

Reigns appeared, boasting about his own ‘Mania win rather than leading the attack Bryan expected, shrugged off both men and left the arena.

This led to the first match of the night, which was an incredible clash seeing Bryan and Cesaro take on Rollins and Uso with all four men delivering in a big way.

This match let the Swiss star shine with everyone playing their part to perfection, but there was even more to come after the babyfaces won the contest.

Bryan called out Reigns repeatedly as Cesaro hit the swing on Jey every time the Universal Champ didn’t come out to save his cousin.

At the end of the night, Cesaro and Bryan came back out to hear Roman’s response to giving the former his due.

All this angered the Head of the Table, who came out and insisted he lays down the challenges round here, and challenged Bryan to one more title match next week.

Cesaro urged his pal to accept it, but Reigns then dropped the bombshell that if his opponent lost, he’d be done on SmackDown – which of course, he agreed to.

Commander Azeez makes an impact and Aleister Black returns in vignette

Elsewhere, the never ending feud pitting Natalya and Tamina against Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax continued, as the latter once again clashed with Tamina.

We’ve seen this before, especially the return of Reginald which caused a distraction giving Tamina the roll-up win. We go again.

Adam Pearce had revealed earlier on that Apollo Crews would defend his Intercontinental Title against Kevin Owens, which Big E would later take exception to, but he’ll have to wait for his rematch even after brawling with the champ backstage.

The match itself was a brilliant showcase, which showed good chemistry between Crews and KO, with Commander Azeez eventually causing a distraction to give the champ the win.

Owens would hit the Stunner after the bell, only to be met with Azeez’s Nigerian Nail, while Sami Zayn appeared to dance over his fallen friend.

In a fantastic move, Aleister Black made his return in a brilliant and cryptic promo as he sat in a candlelit room and read from a book called The Dark Father.

This showed his top level promo skills and gave him a defined character with real motivation, which is something he was severely lacking elsewhere in his main roster run.

Backstage, Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode were interrupted by Street Profits before Bayley broke up the party and trash talked Bianca Belair in front of her husband Montez Ford.

The EST of WWE – and reigning champion – then confronted her number one contender backstage, but the Role Model simply offered some sarcastic compliments and walked away.

Back to the tag division, the Mysterios and Alpha Academy clashed once more, with Rey and Dominik winning a really fun match.

The talent involved meant this was never going to be bad, and having the father and son duo emerge victorious was the right move if it leads to them winning the titles.

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