SmackDown notes: Butch (Pete Dunne) debuts, Big E. injury, Ricochet vs. Zayn rematch

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Originally published at SmackDown notes: Butch (Pete Dunne) debuts, Big E. injury, Ricochet vs. Zayn

By: Dave LeClair

SmackDown aired live from the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama.

Match Results:

  • Sheamus and Ridge Holland (with Butch) defeated Kofi and Big E
  • Happy Corbin, Madcap Moss, and Jinder Mahal versus Drew Mcintyre and The Viking Raiders never happened
  • Sasha Banks and Naomi defeated Shayna Baszler and Naomi
  • Rick Boogs defeated Jay Uso to earn a tag team title shot at WrestleMania
  • Ricochet defeated Sami Zayn to retain the Intercontinental Championship

Brock Lesnar opened the show, and Paul Heyman eventually interrupted. It was an uneventful segment other than seeing Paul Heyman running for his life, which was entertaining.

The biggest news from the show was Sheamus and Ridge Holland introducing a new member of their squad named Butch, who most fans will recognize as Pete Dunne. This appears to be Dunneā€™s call-up to the main roster. I want to comment on his new name with a witty joke, but I think the name speaks for itself.

Ultimately, Sheamus and Holland won after Butch distracted Kingston. It looked like Butch cut his hair at first, but thankfully it was just tucked under his hat.

There was a scary moment where Big E. landed on his head after taking a belly-to-belly suplex on the floor from Holland. Off-camera, he was taken to the back on a stretcher and did give a ā€˜thumbs upā€™ to the audience as he was taken to the back.

WWE reiterated that Stone Cold Steve Austin would confront Kevin Owens on The KO show, so the company still isnā€™t promoting it as a match.

A match pitting The Viking Raiders and Drew Mcintyre against Corbinā€™s crew never happened, but a brawl between all parties broke out, with Mcintyre standing tall.

Sasha Banks and Naomi defeated Shayna Baszler and Naomi while Carmella and Queen Zelina watched at ringside.

Michael Cole promoted the WWEā€™s video of Roman Reigns at MSG, which the company called the most-watched WWE Instagram post of all time.

Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura interrupted a promo from the Usos, challenging them to a tag team title match at WrestleMania. The Usos accepted, as long as Boogs could beat Jay Uso in a singles match. He won, but Jimmy Uso attacked him with his guitar after the match.

Before Sami Zayn and Ricochet could get started, Austin Theory and Pat McAfee had a fun brawl to build hype for their WrestleMania match.

They eventually had a great match, and Ricochet won clean with the 630.

The cameras cut backstage after the main event where Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair were brawling. Flair got the better of Rousey in this brawl, choking her out on a car.

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Let it play outā€¦ Right?

I love that the idea of just naming him ā€œPeteā€ wasnā€™t an option.

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They already killed the UK indie scene, this is the nail in the coffin.

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Should come as a surprise to no one. Nothing he did in NXT mattered and obviously neither does anything on that show anymore

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First off, hope Big E is ok. All the crazy shit we see on AEW every week and itā€™s Big E getting his neck broken on a suplex. Just goes to show how little room for error there is on any of these maneuvors.

As for Butch, I can only assume he got his name because of its proximity to ā€œBitch.ā€ This allows the writing team to essentially play Mad Libs with the insert promos we are gonna see from Butchā€™s opponents over the coming weeks.

ā€œAnd as for Butch? Heh. Well, Iā€™m about to make Butchā€¦ my bitch!ā€
-Ricochet, probably

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Well there seems to be a connection to NXT and Raw between Bron Dolph Ciampa and Roode. If Dolph doesnā€™t have the NXT title on Mondayā€™s show, then Iā€™ll agree with you, but after hyping up the feud on Raw the past 3-4 weeks, canā€™t see them not mentioning the outcome.

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I donā€™t understand this issue with names in WWE, canā€™t they see they are ruining characters, and for what purpose. No one is going to like Walter more because hes called `gunter or whatever. I hate the name walter, but its his name.
Pete Dunne is boring but so is my name. to change him now to Butch is just so stupid, they need to change these names in NXT. if hed always been called Butch we wouldnt care less, weā€™d be use to it by now. WWE is just plain stupid

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Iā€™m glad theyā€™ve renamed Pete Dunne.

So that when heā€™s released sooner or later and Pete Dunne appears elsewhere Iā€™ll think fondly of his time in NXT and NXT UK and all the terrific matches heā€™s had.

The stench of the main roster run will just be by some guy named Butch I barely watched.

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You have to remember a lot of this stuff is to pop Vince.

Dunne is a shorter guy - Vince wonā€™t see him as a star because of this. He probably finds the name funny as a play off b*tch or since the others guys real name is Luke etc.

Either way it probably got a laugh out of Vince and thatā€™s really what matters

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Part of I always think is their attachment to an age where they werenā€™t televising their developmental. In those days if they had an idea they would just plug someone in to the character and no one would be the wiser. Now they televise the product and it is jarring when someone goes from being Dijak on NXT one week to being Tbar the next with no explanation.