{"id":93952,"date":"2020-02-28T13:39:26","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T19:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=93952"},"modified":"2020-02-28T13:39:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T19:39:26","slug":"wwe-smackdown-primer-2-28-john-cena-and-goldberg-you-can-see-him-yowie-wowie-goldberg-is-champ-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/02\/28\/wwe-smackdown-primer-2-28-john-cena-and-goldberg-you-can-see-him-yowie-wowie-goldberg-is-champ-again\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 2\/28: John Cena and Goldberg &#8211; You Can See Him, Yowie Wowie Goldberg is Champ Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-566809224\" 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><strong>WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>FEBRUARY 28, 2020<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>BOSTON, MASS. AT THE TD GARDEN<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong>BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><em>Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Arena and Items Advertised by WWE<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>WWE Smackdown returns to quite a familiar site in the TD Garden in Boston, MA.\u00a0 (What\u2019s the over\/under on how many times they\u2019ll say, \u201chey folks we\u2019re in Boston, Massachusetts tonight!\u201d?) The building opened in 1995 following the closure of the famous Boston Garden which had a rich history of WWE events.\u00a0 If you were a viewer of Prime Time Wrestling in the late\u00a0 1980s-90s, you got to see matches from house shows in that arena on a regular basis.\u00a0 With that said, the TD Garden, like the Boston Garden before it, is home to the NBA\u2019s Boston Celtics and the NHL\u2019s Boston Bruins.\u00a0 Numerous WWE PPVs and television events have emanated from here as well as WCW\u2019s Nitro in the 90s and some of their PPV events.\u00a0 Smackdown\u2019s last appearance was in April of 2017.\u00a0 Raw has appeared four times since the calendar turned 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Super Showdown is (thankfully) behind us and we turn our attention towards Elimination Chamber, which comes to us in less than two weeks on March 8, so we have a quick turnaround.\u00a0 Only one match has been announced thus far and that\u2019s on the Raw side as they will determine Becky Lynch\u2019s challenger at WrestleMania for the Raw Women\u2019s Championship.\u00a0 We can expect a match on the Smackdown side to determine the challenger for Universal Championship.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what\u2019s advertised for tonight\u2019s show thus far:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>John Cena to return to Smackdown<\/li>\n<li>Who\u2019s next for Goldberg<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Top 10 Moments from Last Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Top 10 Friday Night SmackDown moments: WWE Top 10, Feb. 21, 2020\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ds6Rjw0Ee1w?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>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Super Showdown Results Pertinent to Smackdown<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Miz and John Morrison defeated New Day (Big E &amp; Kofi Kingston) to win the Smackdown Tag Team Championship.<\/li>\n<li>Mansoor defeated Dolph Ziggler.<\/li>\n<li>Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a steel cage<\/li>\n<li>Bayley defeated Naomi to retain the Smackdown Women\u2019s Championship<\/li>\n<li>Goldberg defeated \u201cThe Fiend\u201d Bray Wyatt to win the Universal Championship.\u00a0 Goldberg begins his second reign.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I don\u2019t know if WWE is flying the crew from Riyadh to Boston.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the case, it may be a skeleton crew on Smackdown tonight because the only flights I could find on <a href=\"http:\/\/flightaware.com\/\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/flightaware.com&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1583002034290000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFa-1Sd2IoeQMY-4aVeOLiQHYqsuQ\">flightaware.com<\/a> are coming in tomorrow.\u00a0 There\u2019s are a bunch of flights heading to JFK today including Saudi Airways themselves, after which they can connect to Boston, but that seems a bit cumbersome.\u00a0 If WWE chartered a plane, it may not show up as historically some customers request their flights be incognito on flight tracking websites.\u00a0 When I worked for a charter company years ago, we had some customers that requested as such.\u00a0 With that said, things are likely in flux for the show tonight.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Boston Welcomes the Champ Home<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>He first slapped the face of future WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle and told him he had ruthless aggression, a trait WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon was looking for in someone back in 2002.\u00a0 He then entertained us with raps both as a heel and an eventual babyface as the Doctor of Thuganomics.\u00a0 He then went on to hold a WWE World Championship on 16 different occasions, like HOFer Ric Flair before him, starting with his defeat of JBL at WrestleMania in 2005 for the WWE Championship.\u00a0 During that time, which lasted from 2005-2017, he became the most \u201cpolarizing champion\u201d in WWE history as he would regularly get mixed reactions despite being positioned as a heroic babyface.\u00a0 You could say he was the predecessor to Roman Reigns.\u00a0 Basically, the grown men booed him, and the women &amp; children cheered him while wearing his t-shirts.<\/p>\n<p>In his hometown of Boston, he\u2019s had numerous moments in the TD Garden including winning the World Heavyweight Championship from Chris Jericho at Survivor Series in 2008 and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank in 2014.\u00a0 Since last winning the WWE Championship from A.J. Styles in 2017, he\u2019s transitioned to a part time role and hasn\u2019t appeared on WWE programming since the Raw Reunion in July of last year.\u00a0 He proposed to Nikki Bella at WrestleMania in 2017, but they never ended up getting married.\u00a0 He lost to the Undertaker in just one of the weirdest situations at the following \u2018Mania.\u00a0 He brought back his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick at last year\u2019s \u2018Mania and trash-rapped Elias much to the delight of the N.Y. crowd (the Yankees jersey was ridongculous though especially with him being a Red Sox fan).<\/p>\n<p>While Raw is where he had the bulk of his success, Smackdown is where he first made his name.\u00a0 He last appeared on the New Year\u2019s Day episode last year where he teamed with Becky Lynch to beat Andrade and Zelina Vega.\u00a0 Tonight, he returns in his hometown and of course I\u2019m talking about none other than John Cena.\u00a0 He is here primarily to hype his new movie, Invisible Man.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-458158572\" 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<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/johncena\/status\/1231281651579281408?s=21<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnCena\/status\/1227569624868425729?s=20<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Checklist for tomorrow night:<br \/>Cap\u2705 <br \/>Wristbands \u2705 <br \/>Jorts \u2705 <br \/>Time-bending shirt \u2705 <br \/>Heart-pumping adrenaline \u2705 <br \/>BOSTON! You CAN C Me! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Smackdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Smackdown<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WWE<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWEonFOX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@WWEonFOX<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yuKDHN1dHq\">pic.twitter.com\/yuKDHN1dHq<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; John Cena (@JohnCena) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JohnCena\/status\/1233037576015093760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 27, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis:\u00a0 Given that \u201cThe Fiend\u201d Bray Wyatt dropped the Universal Championship to Goldberg, there\u2019s a lot of speculation out there that Cena could be earmarked to face Wyatt at WrestleMania.\u00a0 There is a history as they competed against each other at \u2018Mania in 2014 and had a feud that went beyond that event.\u00a0 They\u2019ve made an obvious big deal about Cena coming back.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Who\u2019s Next for Universal Champion Goldberg<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yesterday at Super Showdown, Goldberg captured his second Universal Championship and third \u201cworld\u201d championship overall in WWE as he defeated \u201cThe Fiend\u201d Bray Wyatt in under five minutes.\u00a0 He hit four spears and a real weak jackhammer to score the pin.\u00a0 Wyatt did no-sell one or two of those spears.\u00a0 Here\u2019s Goldberg in a WWE.com exclusive.\u00a0 Also, although I usually don\u2019t include what we already saw in these reports, I give you a recap of the match:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Goldberg details his game plan for defeating \u201cThe Fiend\u201d Bray Wyatt: WWE Exclusive, Feb. 27, 2020\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cpP5kcQ1ORw?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=\"Goldberg Spears Wyatt 4 times: WWE Super ShowDown 2020 (WWE Network Exclusive)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LKNdWhBsdUc?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>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tonight, we\u2019ll find out what\u2019s next for Goldberg as we head towards Elimination Chamber.<\/p>\n<p><em>Frank\u2019s Analysis:\u00a0 I could say a lot about this.\u00a0 I can\u2019t lie, it was the right call to put the title on Goldberg.\u00a0 It\u2019s the fact that it was the right call that\u2019s the problem.\u00a0 Brock Lesnar and Goldberg are your company champions.\u00a0 I have to credit PWTorch columnist Sean Radican for pointing out the fact that these are the same guys that got booed out of the building (and the state of New York for that matter) at WrestleMania 20, which took place in 2004.\u00a0 It\u2019s 2020 now.\u00a0 This is epidemic of years and years of not building stars, making people look like a joke, poorly scripted promos, cooling off wrestlers that get over organically with the crowd, and pushing people like Roman Reigns who get rejected.\u00a0 Now, I expect that Roman is going to face Goldberg for the title at \u2018Mania and that\u2019s a better call than him facing Wyatt.\u00a0 If you have to worry so much about the reaction, maybe Roman isn\u2019t your guy?\u00a0 I know a guy on Smackdown that people want to be behind, but WWE won\u2019t get behind him and that\u2019s Daniel Bryan.\u00a0 I could go into what they could do, but why bother.<\/em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Other Match Results and News Items from Last Week<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The Usos and New Day defeated Robert Roode &amp; Dolph Ziggler and Miz &amp; John Morrison ahead of Miz &amp; Morrison capturing the titles as they did yesterday.<\/li>\n<li>Apparently, Mandy Rose texted Otis that she was running late for their date the previous week.\u00a0 Later on, Dolph Ziggler gave Mandy a ride from the arena which upset Otis who was conveniently hiding behind boxes or crates or equipment or who cares.<\/li>\n<li>Lacey Evans claimed that seeing Bayley and Sahsa Banks act as bullies, especially towards her daughter, made her look at herself and change her ways.<\/li>\n<li>Intercontinental Champion Braun Strowman &amp; Elias defeated Shinsuke Nakamura &amp; Cesaro in a Symphony of Destruction match.<\/li>\n<li>On A Moment of Bliss, Nikki &amp; Brie Bella were announced as the next entrants to the WWE Hall of Fame.\u00a0 They mentioned the Bella Army multiple times.<\/li>\n<li>Daniel Bryan defeated Health Slater.\u00a0 Remember when they were part of Nexus 10 years ago?<\/li>\n<li>Sheamus said that Shorty G and Apollo Crews were rats and he exterminated them.\u00a0 He\u2019s entering Elimination Chamber.<\/li>\n<li>Naomi defeated Carmella to earn the championship match against Bayley yesterday at Super Showdown.<\/li>\n<li>Goldberg speared Bray Wyatt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>You know, I watched AEW Dynamite the other night and had such a smile on my face at the end.\u00a0 I enjoyed the stories, how characters were framed, and I was thinking about the future.\u00a0 That\u2019s how I want to feel about wrestling.\u00a0 Are they perfect?\u00a0 Not at all, but I don\u2019t mind discussing their issues as I\u2019ve said before.\u00a0 I feel the same way about NXT, of which Vince for the most part has stayed away.\u00a0 When Friday rolls around I get this pit in my stomach thinking about dog food or God knows what crap we\u2019re going to get.\u00a0 We\u2019ll see how things go now that we\u2019re past Super Showdown and start to head towards Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania.\u00a0 We should get a clearer picture of Elimination Chamber tonight as they have a quick turn towards that event which comes to us on March 8.<del><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><\/del><\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani.\u00a0 Questions and discussion are welcome.\u00a0 Thank you for reading! <\/em><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2915084495\" 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<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1378503530\"><div id=\"pwtor-4211932833\"><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 FEBRUARY 28, 2020 BOSTON, MASS. AT THE TD GARDEN AIRS ON FOX NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH SPECIALIST \u00a0Announcers: Michael Cole and Corey Graves Arena and Items Advertised <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2020\/02\/28\/wwe-smackdown-primer-2-28-john-cena-and-goldberg-you-can-see-him-yowie-wowie-goldberg-is-champ-again\/\" title=\"WWE SMACKDOWN PRIMER 2\/28: John Cena and Goldberg &#8211; You Can See Him, Yowie Wowie Goldberg is Champ Again\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93959,"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-93952","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\/2020\/02\/CenaJohn_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93952","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=93952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93960,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93952\/revisions\/93960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}