Pinoy wrestling fans and foreigners from all walks of life trooped to the Araneta Coliseum despite incessant rains last September 20 to witness the comeback of their WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) Smackdown favorites and idols. 
No typhoons will ever dampen the spirits of WWE Smackdown superstars Kevin Owens, Chad Gable, EC 3, Andrade, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bayley, Daniel Brown, Kofi Kingston, Ali, Mandy Rose, New Day and Roman Reigns and her majesty Charlotte Flair just to name some of which were here in Manila back in September 2016 for the touring Smackdown greats!
Good thing the weather cooperated towards the evening. A lot of WWE wrestling fans have waited for the comebacks of New Day, ever Barbie beautiful Charlotte Flair and Aquaman Jason Mamoa look-alike in feisty Roman Reigns.
Starting at 8PM sharp, Kevin Owens opened up the show fighting against “El Idolo” Andrade whom he easily defeated with a Stunner.
King of the Ring’s Chad Gable made opponent EC3 tap out. And for the women’s match, Carmella scored a pinfall win after going up against Mandy Rose who appeared with partner of the night Sonya DeVille.
Reigning Intercontinental Champion and crowd favorite Shinsuke Nakamura delivered an impressive Kinshasa to finish off masked guy high flyer Ali retaining his title. 
Nakamura’s “spokeperson” Sami Zayn who initially stated he does not like Filipino fans got booed by the crowd challenged whoever fighter in the locker room for an open fight. And as perhaps expected, out came with a roaring entrance cheer was Roman Reigns who for me is a cool Aquaman aka Jason Momoa almost-look-alike guy!
Roman finished off Sami’s arrogance with a Spear and gave away his punch gears to lucky fans and exited with high fives, posed for quick selfies and signed autographs to eager ringside fans.
The much-awaited brawl between street smart Bayley and The Queen, Charlotte Flair for the Street Fight of the Smackdown Live Women’s Championship title drew louder cheers from all over The Big Dome. Charlotte was almost flawless on her majestic blue gown while Bayley’s cute entrance giant animated balloons warmed up the match. Bayley slides out off the ring and went to the crowd for Charlotte to follow her while throwing punches once she caught her and carries her off back inside the ring and then the episodes with those chairs being hit on champ Bayley’s back weren’t enough and so was the stick. The crowd chanted for “table” and out it came out as Charlotte set it up and performed a frogsplash and a powerbomb which just caused a dent but not totally breaking off the table. Bayley walked away undefeated and retaining her belt.
SmackDown Tag Team Championship match up of The Revival’s Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder retained over The New Day was super fun to watch as Big E and Xavier Woods entertained via his trombone antics from all over the ring.
Then the main event of the evening and the win still belonged to champion Kofi Kingston as former champ Daniel Bryan tried to grab the title back to no avail (for now). Better luck next time Daniel!
It was pure entertainment wrestling fun like no other everytime WWE Smackdown returns to Manila! Boys and girls as low as six or seven years young come to see the show with their parents and relatives. I am pretty amazed they are satisfied with what they have seen and watched while wrestlers are being pinned, thrown, punched and smacked with props to the crowd’s crazy delight!
Congratulations to Wilbros Live and its partners for producing and promoting this sports spectacle and kudos many thanks to Danise and Nikeia of Centaur Marketing for facilitating all press releases and having us during the media round table (with Kevin Owens and Ali) most especially the fight night at The Big Dome. Until the next!
Photo Credits: Smart Araneta Coliseum, Sports 5, Aaron Alvarez, Cie Cisneros and other online sources. Super Thank You for awesome visuals!
