Randy Orton breaks Paul Heyman; Cody Rhodes embarrassed & more

Inside: Major behind the scenes changes reported

May 04, 2024

May 4th, 2024 | Wrestling Roundup

SMACKDOWN SYNOPSIS

WWE SmackDown opened with a fun eight-woman tag team match. Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill teamed with Bayley and Naomi to take on Tiffany Stratton, Dakota Kai, Asuka, and Kairi Sane. It was a fast-paced match that allowed each participant to shine. It was also a nice touch to see Bayley and Bianca Belair's past issues still proving to be problematic and this was furthered in a post-match backstage segment.

Randy Orton and Kevin Owens debuted their new talk show, The RKO Show. It was good to get a slight explanation from The Viper for his decision to come to KO's rescue last week. They pushed The Bloodline story further with intriguing back and forth. Paul Heyman painted Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga as two barbaric monsters that Randy Orton and Kevin Owens should be afraid of. Paul Heyman's line that 'There's only one Tribal Chief' before Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga attacked their Backlash opponents was a clever cliffhanger. It leaves fans second-guessing where The Special Counsel's allegiances lie.

Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles closed out SmackDown with a brief promo exchange that wasn't overly memorable. The crowd was electric but the end goal of the segment was to try and cause doubts regarding The American Nightmare's first title defense. The most significant moment came when AJ Styles offered a too-sweet gesture before embarrassing Cody Rhodes with a slap. It was a slight callback to The Rock's infamous slap from 'Mania season but this slap on the blue brand won't be remembered as significantly.

Rikishi sends a message to The Bloodline's Tama Tonga after he wins his first two WWE matches

Tama Tonga recently made his way to WWE and has already established himself as a force to be reckoned with. He joined The Bloodline immediately upon his arrival and launched a vicious attack on Jimmy Uso.

At WWE's two recent live events, Tama Tonga teamed up with Solo Sikoa in back-to-back tag team matches against Randy Orton and LA Knight. Shortly after, Tonga shared an image from the Vienna live event, where he and Solo won their second match against Orton and Knight. Rikishi reshared the image on his Instagram story and sent Tama a Bloodline emoji.

Triple H reveals that another huge record has been broken in France after just 4 weeks

Triple H and the rest of the WWE roster arrived in Lyon, France, for a two-night special, SmackDown and Backlash 2024. Just four weeks after a huge record was set, it has been shattered in Lyon. WrestleMania season, particularly Mania week, was filled with record after record. Both the SmackDown before and the RAW after WrestleMania 40 set new records for the highest-grossing in the respective brands' history.

Just four weeks after the highest-grossing SmackDown of all time, Lyon, France shattered that record as Triple H revealed that the SmackDown before Backlash is now the highest-grossing in the blue brand's history.

FROM THE RUMOR MILL

WWE makes major change behind the scenes

According to a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, Michael Cole is no longer managing the announcement team behind the scenes. Cole has been in that position for a long time and will be focusing fully on his on-air work moving forward on WWE RAW and premium live events.

Another WWE star released hours before SmackDown

WWE continued making budget cuts this afternoon. It was reported that ten wrestlers were let go earlier today, and word now is that another star has been released after almost one decade with the company.

Boa was handed his release last afternoon, around the same time as Drew Gulak and nine others. It seems that WWE higher-ups Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and William Regal had no plans for the stars. Boa's last match on record came on December 16, 2023, at the non-televised NXT live event in Ft. Pierce, Florida. He and Dante Chen were defeated by Duke Hudson and Riley Osborne that night.