WWE Smackdown 3-29-13: The Road to WrestleMania Draws Nearer

The show began with WWE Champion Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson doing a second addition of Story Time With The Rock, but was eventually interrupted by John Laurinaitis. This is the first time that John Laurinaitis has appeared on WWE Television in nearly a year. He then offered to be in The Rock’s corner at WrestleMania for his championship match against John Cena. The Rock responded by giving Johnny a spinebuster followed by the People’s Elbow. During this week’s edition of Backstage Fallout from Smackdown on YouTube, John Laurinaitis made it clear that he’s not giving up yet; he is still gonna try to convince The Rock to let him be in his corner at WrestleMania. It’s pretty clear that Johnny is still not over the fact that John Cena played a very partial role in costing Johnny his position as General Manager of both Raw and Smackdown last year and he wants to use The Rock to get back at Cena. Also, WrestleMania 29 opponents Ryback and Mark Henry had a benchpress competition. Each man was to lift 225 pounds and do as many reps as they could. Mark Henry was first; he ended up doing 53 reps. Then, it was Rayback’s turn; he also ended up doing 53 reps, but only because Mark Henry pushed the weight bar down on Ryback’s windpipe. Bottom line, Ryback was going to surpass Mark Henry’s reps. Regardless, both men have shattered the NFL combine record of 51. In the main event, it was the team of Randy Orton, Sheamus, and Big Show taking on the team of United States Champion Antonio Cesaro and Team Rhodes Scholars. Many people have been wondering if Orton, Sheamus, and Big Show will be able to co-exist against The Shield at WrestleMania. Well, they not only worked as a well-oiled machine and defeated Cesaro and Team Rhodes Scholars, but after the match, instead of letting The Shield come to them from the crowd, they decided to come to them instead. In the end, the trio sent The Shield hightailing it out of the arena. The trio stood tall with the crowd to end the program.