Happy Corbin had eluded Drew McIntyre for the last few weeks, but the former WWE champion finally inflicted a touch of damage to him.
Follow Us
Drew McIntyre caused some serious damage on WWE SmackDown. The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal kicked off Friday’s show and that was probably a good thing because there wasn’t much left of the ring when McIntyre was finished with it. Happy Corbin had eluded McIntyre for the last few weeks, but the former WWE champion finally inflicted a touch of damage to his WrestleMania 38 opponent, hurling a steel chair at him. Any doubts about the authenticity of McIntyre’s claymore sword was put to rest as McIntyre stabbed and chopped his way through SmackDown.
The WrestleMania go-home edition of SmackDown featured the return of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, a triple threat match for the Intercontinental championship and the continuation of storylines featuring McIntyre, Corbin, Austin Theory, Pat McAfee and Vince McMahon.
Read more: Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar and other rivalries in WWE
Madcap Moss won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal after eliminating U.S. champion Finn Balor. The U.S. champion eliminated Priest late into the match as he started to take over the field. Madcap nearly eliminated his final four competitors — Balor, Robbert Roode and Dolph Ziggler — in one fell swoop. Balor held on and appeared to be en route to winning before Madcap reversed an Irish whip and tossed him out clean. Earlier in the match, Corbin came out to coach Madcap but nearly cost him the battle royal on multiple occasions. Corbin shunned Moss before walking backstage, further teasing the friction of their friendship.
The main event segment for the WrestleMania go-home show featured Corbin hosting his “Happy Talk” segment with a special guest, McIntyre’s stolen claymore named Angela. Corbin opened the segment by dismissing Madcap’s accomplishments as the winner of the 2022 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He subsequently made a lame joke about McIntyre’s deceased mother, spurring McIntyre out from the back.
McIntyre laid out Madcap with a single forearm on the ramp before grabbing a steel chair. McIntyre chucked the steel chair at Corbin who subsequently fled from his WrestleMania opponent. McIntyre found an outlet for his anger in the talk show set. “The Scottish Psychopath” chopped a table in half with his sword and hurled furniture over the top rope. McIntyre closed out SmackDown by stabbing his sword into the center of the ring, setting off pyro and fireworks.
Intercontinental championship match: Ricochet (c) defeated Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza via pinfall after pinning Carrillo. Los Lotharios teamed up on Ricochet for the majority of the match, but Ricochet took advantage of communication breaking down between the tag team. He landed a 630 splash on Garza into a Recoil on Carrillo in the finishing sequence.
Austin Theory attacked Pat McAfee, tripping the SmackDown commentator while he stood on the announcers’ table, playing an air guitar riff during Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance. McAfee chased Theory to Mr. McMahon’s office and kicked down the door. McMahon confronted McAfee, threatening to fire him if he didn’t get back to the desk. Theory later returned and threw a cup of ice at McAfee. Theory got a taste of karma walking to the back as he was blinded by Finn Balor. The U.S. champion attacked him and tossed him into the ring.
