{"id":78565,"date":"2019-04-23T13:59:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T18:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=78565"},"modified":"2019-04-23T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T18:59:08","slug":"wwe-smackdown-primer-4-23-big-bad-dog-kofi-vs-the-artist-the-man-and-the-queen-meet-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/04\/23\/wwe-smackdown-primer-4-23-big-bad-dog-kofi-vs-the-artist-the-man-and-the-queen-meet-again\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 4\/23: Big Bad Dog, Kofi vs. The Artist, The Man and The Queen meet again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1825080676\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER<br \/>\nAPRIL 23, 2019<br \/>\nLINCOLN, NE. AT THE PINNACLE BANK ARENA<br \/>\nAIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 P.M. EST<br \/>\nBY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR<\/h3>\n<p><em>Announcers: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Arena and Items Advertised by WWE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>WWE continues its stay in the midwest tonight as Smackdown will emanate from the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb. The nearly six-year old arena last hosted Smackdown in September of 2016, just few months after the introduction of the current roster split. This will only be the fourth time the arena had hosted the \u201cblue brand\u201d and has never hosted Raw.<\/p>\n<p>Here is what\u2019s on the menu for tonight according to WWE.com:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matches &amp; Segments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>WWE Champion Kofi Kingston to battle Shinsuke Nakamura<\/li>\n<li>Becky Lynch to come face-to-face with Charlotte Flair for the first time since WrestleMania<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Storyline Follow-Up<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Will Roman Reigns be fired?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Smackdown\u2019s New \u201cTenants\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before we look at what\u2019s on tap for tonight, here\u2019s who has moved into Smackdown:<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-1042429132\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor<\/li>\n<li>Ember Moon<\/li>\n<li>Bayley<\/li>\n<li>Kairi Sane<\/li>\n<li>Lars Sullivan<\/li>\n<li>Buddy Murphy<\/li>\n<li>Elias<\/li>\n<li>Roman Reigns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The following were announced on WWE.com only and not TV:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Liv Morgan<\/li>\n<li>Chad Gable<\/li>\n<li>Apollo Crews<\/li>\n<li>Mickie James<\/li>\n<li>Heavy Machinery (Otis &amp; Tucker)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The following were moved back to Smackdown as announced by the Wrestling Observer yesterday before Raw and took a year and a half it feels like to update WWE.com:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Andrade<\/li>\n<li>Zelina Vega<\/li>\n<li>Aleister Black (technically he was never on Smackdown but wasn\u2019t announced officially on Raw last week as the fabulous commentary team didn\u2019t know if that were the case.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: Do me a favor please, WWE. If you make changes it\u2019s fine, but at least announce it either before the show or acknowledge it upon the wrestlers\u2019 entrance. Fans pay attention to things like this and if you don\u2019t acknowledge that, it creates frustration. When watching a baseball game the announcers talk about a roster move before the game starts, don\u2019t they?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I spoke a lot about the changes in yesterday\u2019s primer. Today, I want to hit on Smackdown\u2019s tag team division which took a big hit. With the Usos to Raw, the Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Hardys move into the #1 babyface team position. The issue is who are their opponents? You\u2019re looking at Rusev &amp; Shinsuke Nakamura if they\u2019re not broken up and moved back into being singles acts.. Then you have The Colons (Primo &amp; Epico), The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson &amp; Luke Gallows), and Heavy Machinery. We don\u2019t know what to expect from Machinery but the other teams I mentioned haven\u2019t been and shouldn\u2019t be expected to get a push. You can\u2019t include Sanity because Eric Young is now on Raw and Alexander Wolfe is with NXT UK. It\u2019s not that they were being used anyway, but still could have been elevated. It does free up Killian Dane who could help in the singles scene. The Authors of Pain lurk once Akam is ready to return from injury and could be moved to Smackdown.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I get the sense the women will be more heavily featured on Smackdown with the additions of Bayley, Ember Moon, and Kairi Sane. Vince McMahon tends to stay out of Smackdown writing which could bode well for all parties involved.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Non-Title Match: WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Last week, Kevin Owens joined WWE Champion Kofi Kingston &amp; Xavier Woods of New Day and became an honorary member. He would call himself \u201cBig O,\u201d and completed his indoctrination I suppose by breaking Big E\u2019s record of eating a plate of pancakes in under 5:37, girating his hips, and doing the New Day introduction in gorilla. They went on to defeat Rusev, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Cesaro when Kofi hit Rusev with Trouble in Paradise and Owens followed with his version of the Stunner to score the pin.<\/p>\n<p>Tonight, Kofi takes on Nakamura in a non-title match. Owens and Woods will be in Kofi\u2019s corner as Owens continues to be an honorary New Day member. Rusev &amp; Lana will be in Nakamura\u2019s corner. Nakamura spent a good portion of 2018 in the WWE Championship picture when feuding with then-champion A.J. Styles, now of Raw.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2869441762\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Big E didn\u2019t seem to pleased to see Owens be an honorary New Day member as is evidence on his Twitter account:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"qme\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SDLive?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SDLive<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/O9MfRK6sxU\">pic.twitter.com\/O9MfRK6sxU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ettore \u201cBig E\u201d Ewen (@WWEBigE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWEBigE\/status\/1118326356453003266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 17, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: It\u2019s hard to know what to make of Big E\u2019s post and Owens hanging out with New Day. Personally I don\u2019t sense a heel turn for Owens as I think this is just to way to keep him occupied. Bear in mind he wrestled a triple threat at Fastlane and has worked mostly tag matches since his return in February. It could lead to Big E turning on the New Day though upon his return from injury. As far as the match tonight there\u2019s not much to really say, other than it should be good. Everyone at ringside suggests there may be shenanigans and looking at these two opponents it would be nice to see them work without the distractions. We\u2019ll see where this all leads in the near future.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Raw &amp; Smackdown Women\u2019s Champion Becky Lynch Face-to-Face with Charlotte Flair<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In what has probably felt like an eternity to WWE, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair have not crossed paths on TV since WrestleMania (a long two weeks and two days ago\u2026the horror). Becky of course defeated Charlotte and the hopeful mother-to-be Ronda Rousey in a triple threat match at \u2018Mania in a Winner Take All match to walk away with both the Raw &amp; Smackdown Women\u2019s Championships.<\/p>\n<p>Becky has since been contending with Lacey Evans, who earned the #1 contender-ship to the Raw title by defeating Natalya. Charlotte meanwhile defeated Women\u2019s Battle Royal winner Carmella last week on Smackdown. From dealing with a \u201clady,\u201d Becky will now deal with the \u201cqueen\u201d and they go face-to-face in an in-ring segment for the first time since WrestleMania<\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: You know WWE can\u2019t help themselves. God forbid they give this feud a break which it desperately needed after everything they\u2019ve been through since before SummerSlam last year. This is the challenge of Becky holding both the Smackdown and Raw titles. Had they had Becky win the Raw title and just move her to that show, and kept the Smackdown title on Charlotte, you could have separated them. They would have had their own matches such as Becky vs. Lacey Evans, Alexa Bliss, Ruby Riott, etc. and Charlotte vs. Ember Moon, Bayley, even Carmella for a short while. That could still be the plan as I don\u2019t see Becky holding both titles for very long if they\u2019re not unifying them.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Does Roman Reigns Get Fired?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the final segment of Smackdown last week, WWE Chairman &amp; CEO Vince McMahon announced the biggest acquisition in Smackdown\u2019s history. That turned out to be Elias. Elias came out and showed his appreciation to Mr. McMahon and went so far as to say he\u2019s got his \u201cfinger on the pulse\u201d in regard to what fans want (I\u2019d tell you to stop laughing, but what\u2019s the point?).<\/p>\n<p>As he started to play a song he wrote, Roman Reigns appeared and the announcers acknowledged his now being a member of Smackdown. He came out and Superman-punched Elias. He would then do the same to Mr. McMahon, who appeared to question his presence. Reigns then grabbed the mic and said \u201cI don\u2019t care what he says. Smackdown Live is my yard now!\u201d Here\u2019s Roman Reigns in a WWE.com exclusive talking about moving to Smackdown:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Roman Reigns on joining SmackDown LIVE: Exclusive, April 16, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9P4TBmzTgNw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>WWE.com questions whether or not he\u2019ll be fired for attacking Mr. McMahon. We\u2019ll find out tonight.<\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis: It\u2019s hilarious when they do stories like this because it\u2019s not believable as you know he\u2019s not getting fired. The only thing I can think of is if Vince wants to get sympathy on Reigns, an opportunity he flushed down the toilet by having him beat Drew McIntyre in nine minutes at WrestleMania, he could fire him in storyline in an attempt to get the fans angry and want to see Reigns reinstated because of how he was treated. Vince has certainly drawn a lot of heat for his treatment of Becky Lynch and Kofi Kingston in the run-up to WrestleMania. It\u2019s more likely Reigns is moved into a short-term feud with Elias.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other Items to Anticipate:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Paige announced Asuka and Kairi Sane as her tag team. In a convoluted segment, they teamed with Bayley and Ember Moon to defeat WWE Women\u2019s Tag Team Champions The Iiconics (Peyton Rose &amp; Billie Kay) and Fire &amp; Desire (Mandy Rose &amp; Sonya Deville). Bayley &amp; Ember Moon continued their working as a team in defeating Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan at the WWE Network special The Shield: The Final Chapter. Look for Asuka &amp; Sane to have a match on their own without teaming with anyone (maybe).<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 In his continued onslaught of attacking people, Lars Sullivan attacked R-Truth following Carmella\u2019s loss to Charlotte Flair. Look for Sullivan to lurk again if not have a match.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 IC champ Finn Balor defeated Ali in a non-title match. Perhaps it was me, but Ali had a few heel inflections throughout the match. I don\u2019t think a heel turn makes sense for him, but he has lost a series of matches that in the past had lead to a heel turn for others.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Buddy Murphy announced his coming to Smackdown before challenging Velveteen Dream for the NXT North American Championship. I could see a feud with Ali to start out, renewing their feud from 205Live.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Daniel Bryan was pulled from several live events this past weekend due to an \u201cundisclosed injury\u201d according to multiple reports. He is advertised as a wrestler appearing on tonight\u2019s show according to WWE.com. You hold your breath when you hear this considering he was forced into retirement for two years due to issues with his neck and concussions. Bryan recently dropped the WWE Championship to Kofi Kingston at WrestleMania, but hasn\u2019t been seen on TV since.<\/p>\n<p><strong>WWE.com Exclusives:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a few WWE.com exclusives from last week featuring Bayley, Ember Moon, and Finn Balor talking about coming over to Smackdown. In addition check out Paige talking about why she teamed Asuka &amp; Kairi Sane:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bayley is ready for change: SmackDown Exclusive, April 16, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XE4Lu4YObUg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paige explains why Asuka &amp; Kairi Sane joined forces: SmackDown Exclusive, April 16, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ezlukfeY0B8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Finn B\u00e1lor is excited to join Team Blue: SmackDown Exclusive, April 16, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wy4mgRWmmns?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Are big things in store for Ember Moon on SmackDown LIVE: SmackDown Exclusive, April 16, 2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m5l1-PM_r1s?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Start Time &amp; Matches Advertised on the Arena Website<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Pinnacle Bank Arena\u2019s website advertises a start time of 6:45 p.m. local time. They advertise\u2026get this\u2026for the \u201cfirst time ever,\u201d Roman Reigns vs. Randy Orton. Were they not paying attention to WWE programming in 2014? They also show Kofi Kingston vs. Daniel Bryan with Rowan which is doubtful is Bryan is still injured. Finally they have Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair in a match, which is somewhat possible as a dark match depending on what goes on in their in-ring segment.<\/p>\n<p>205 Live will follow the main show.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome. Thank you for reading!<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2404530463\"><div id=\"pwtor-2797872624\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER APRIL 23, 2019 LINCOLN, NE. AT THE PINNACLE BANK ARENA AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 P.M. EST BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR Announcers: Tom Phillips, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton Arena and <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2019\/04\/23\/wwe-smackdown-primer-4-23-big-bad-dog-kofi-vs-the-artist-the-man-and-the-queen-meet-again\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 4\/23: Big Bad Dog, Kofi vs. The Artist, The Man and The Queen meet again\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,52,4403,27,5893,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-opnionandanalysis","category-smackdown-primer","category-specialists","category-tvprimers","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2016\/12\/NakamuraShinsukeBeaven3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78572,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78565\/revisions\/78572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}