WWE SmackDown: WrestleMania match for Kofi Kingston
Wednesday 27 March 2019 07:33, UK
Kofi Kingston will have a WrestleMania title match against WWE champion Daniel Bryan thanks to his New Day team-mates.
Big E and Xavier Woods were give the challenge by WWE chairman Vince McMahon of making through a gauntlet match against five other teams to secure Kingston's spot on the biggest show of the year.
They made it through the first three obstacles, beating Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura and The Bar, although the last win came at some physical cost.
After taking the loss, Sheamus and Cesaro put a post-bell beatdown on the New Day, with Big E being put through a table by the heel duo.
With shattered plywood laying around him, the next team - The Usos - entered, but out of respect to Kingston opted to forfeit the match, to a huge ovation from the crowd.
WWE Late Night Smackdown
That left Bryan himself and Erick Rowan as the final team to beat, a feat New Day achieved when Big E trapped Rowan under a commentary desk to secure a count-out victory.
And so, as McMahon confirmed before he entered a waiting limousine at the end of the show: "Kofi Kingston is going to WrestleMania".
Angle-Styles ends in quick order
After a mutual show of respect between the two old adversaries, AJ Styles and Kurt Angle fought a match which was sadly all too brief.
Styles went for a Calf Crusher early, only for mat specialist Angle to transition it into an Ankle Lock - but then along came Randy Orton.
His RKO on Styles was enough to give him the win over Angle but the Olympic Hero had the final say, dropping Orton with an Angle Slam in his final in-ring moment on SmackDown.
The Miz seeks a WrestleMania stipulation
After his impassioned plea last week, The Miz was still seething over Shane McMahon putting his hands on his father, and requested a Falls Count Anywhere Match against his former 'co-bestie'.
Shane interrupted and, while flanked by several security guards, Shelton Benjamin, Primo Colon and all three members of Sanity, accepted the challenge.
He then continued his verbal assault, calling The Miz his father's greatest 'Miztake', words which were too much to bear for the A-lister, who beat a path through McMahon's bodyguards.
Shane, however, had already made a swift exit.
