Wednesday 6 March 2019 08:51, UK
R-Truth's open challenge for his United States title was a short-lived affair as Samoa Joe won a fatal four-way match to take the championship gold.
After the success of his previous open challenge, Truth decided that, despite being exhausted after retaining the championship last week, he would give it another whirl.
Despite an initial intervention by Lacey Evans, three men stepped up to accept the call - Samoa Joe, Rey Mysterio and Andrade.
In the height of the action which ensued, Mysterio was able to break up a Coquina Clutch that Joe had locked on Truth by connecting with a picture-perfect 619 on both superstars. This led to a melee that saw all four men land on the outside, with Andrade brutally powerbombing Mysterio onto the floor.
Then, behind the referee's back, Zelina Vega struck Truth with a hurricanrana from the apron, taking the champion out. Carmella would not stand for that, however, dropping Vega with a superkick immediately afterward.
With Vega down, it appeared Mysterio was going to be able to thrive through the chaos, seemingly having Andrade on the ropes, but Joe eliminated Rey from contention by sandwiching him onto Andrade, then sealed the deal by drilling Andrade with a ring-rattling uranage for the first main-roster championship victory of his WWE career.
Lynch restores pride at Flair's expense
After Ronda Rousey's vicious assault on Becky Lynch just 24 hours prior on Raw, Charlotte Flair personally invited Lynch to SmackDown - ahead of their high-stakes matchup at Fastlane - for what she claimed would be a "friendly discussion".
The Man insisted she is still in Flair's head, a claim that angered Charlotte enough to launch an attack which came unstuck when her persistent taunting allowed Becky to use her crutch as a weapon and slap on the Dis-Arm-Her.
Officials rushed to get between the pair but there will be no separating them this Sunday at Fastlane, when they meet with major WrestleMania implications on the line.
Ricochet & Black warm up for tag title shot
After it was announced earlier in the night they would compete in a triple threat match for the Raw tag team titles at Fastlane on Sunday night, Ricochet and Aleister Black aimed to head into that bout with some momentum as they took on The Bar on SmackDown.
Cesaro and Sheamus attempted to use their size and strength advantage to keep the dynamic pairing down, but the former NXT pair's versatile offensive attacks could not be kept in check for long, with Aleister delivering Black Mass to Cesaro then taking out Sheamus as well, followed by Ricochet finishing Cesaro off with the astonishing 630 Splash.
However, Black and Ricochet would have no time to celebrate, as they were instantly ambushed from behind by Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura. That blindside attack would be fleeting, though, as The Hardy Boyz hit the scene to even the odds, helping Black and Ricochet take all four of their foes down in incredible fashion, as matters only continued to intensify in the blue brand's tag team division.
