Talking Smack is ready to burn rubber!

If Fastlane is the last stop on the Road to WrestleMania, then consider today’s Talking Smack one last tune-up! Who’s here with some final words before Sunday?

Kayla Braxton welcomes us back to the show!

Kayla assures us she’s excited because we’re three weeks away from WrestleMania but just a day away from Fastlane! Ten YEARS and Edge returned to the ring as a competitor on SmackDown and won against Jey Uso! Edge will be special guest enforcer for the WWE Universal Championship match of Roman Reigns VS Daniel Bryan! And then Apollo Crews and Big E had it out with words and fists, and Apollo will be a guest tonight to comment on that. The same goes for Sasha Banks as she retained her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Nia Jax and is rolling into her WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship challenge at Fastlane!

So much from SmackDown, and with just weeks left until WrestleMania, get your tickets now! Yes, you can get tickets! Stop being cooped inside, enjoy WrestleMania in person! After the quick commercial, Kayla welcomes the Legit Boss!

Sasha Banks joins Talking Smack!

Sasha laughs victoriously and asks if they saw how she retained. She is the leader, the standard, the blueprint! Heyman saw and loved every moment. Kayla says it was a close one, with a lot at stake for SmackDown and at Fastlane. Sasha is walking in SmackDown Women’s Champion, but wants to walk out with the Women’s Tag Team Championships. Sasha says she is going to be the first-ever THREE-TIME Women’s Tag Team Champion! And she’ll be #TwoBeltsBanks again! “You’re welcome~!” Kayla admits she was nervous for Sasha but Sasha she doesn’t have to be! Sasha wasn’t nervous! Was Heyman nervous? He wasn’t. Sasha wasn’t nervous, either.

Kayla was nervous but she wasn’t in the match. Heyman says he wouldn’t say he was nervous. It is fight week, it is fight week, he knows Sasha is a fighter and he knows how dangerous fighters get. Sasha says she isn’t just a fighter, she’s the SmackDown Women’s Champion! Kayla points out the WrestleMania sign, we’re all excited, and Sasha has a huge defense against her tag partner, Bianca Belair. Kayla says it doesn’t seem like they’re on the same page. How so? Sasha went out to the ring but then saw Bianca could handle it so she went to grab water. Sasha won her match, which is why she’s champion, and why Bianca chose Sasha for Mania.

Kayla says this has been interesting to watch. Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax have never been cohesive, but seeing Bianca and Sasha, she wonders which team is worse off. Sasha says that she respects Bianca and Bianca respects her. That’s why Bianca chose Sasha, because Sasha is the best! Sasha and Bianca don’t have heat. They’re going to make history at Fastlane and then at WrestleMania. But again, Sasha will stay SmackDown Women’s Champion through it all. Heyman asks Kayla if she’s still nervous. Kayla says she wasn’t nervous for herself, but nervous for them. Nervous for what? Sasha beat Nia Jax for SmackDown, but Kayla is saying a tag team match takes two. If they two don’t gel, it won’t go as planned.

Sasha says it will go as SHE plans. Just watch. Sasha laughs again and takes her leave, but leaves the mic. Heyman gets it for her since she’s The Boss. Heyman asks why a champion needs to be on the same page with her challenger, but Kayla is busy letting us know that after another commercial break, we’ll be talking with the challenger to the Intercontinental Championship!

Apollo Crews joins Talking Smack!

Apollo tells Kayla to give him a proper introduction, as he is deserving. He is the next Intercontinental Champion. She says “the potentially next” but he doesn’t like that. He wants it to be “THE next,” but she says that she can’t say that as a reporter. She puts “hopefully” on it but Heyman says WWE got rid of the wrong female journalist. Heyman as Special Counsel will welcome to the show, the man that will leave Fastlane the NEW Intercontinental Champion, “The Slayer of Big E, heading into WrestleMania as YOUR Intercontinental Champion, Kayla’s favorite SmackDown performer, Apollo Crews.” Now Apollo likes that. He tells Kayla to take notes. That is how you do an introduction!

Heyman says he is honored to have Apollo here and Apollo is honored to be here. Apollo asks Kayla if she’s honored to be in his presence. She is always honored to be in his presence and is thankful that he’s here before Fastlane. But she wants to talk about “the new Apollo” that the fans hadn’t seen before. Kayla asks at what point did Apollo “discover” this new version of himself, and decided it was time for the world to know about it. Kayla wonders if Apollo made this decision after Big E beat him. What is she talking about? This has always been who Apollo is, and it wasn’t because Big E beat him. That is everyone’s problem. They say he was defeated, he sees it as learning a lesson.

Apollo says he is the winner. Looking at him now, who is truly the winner? Apollo will be the winner tomorrow. Kayla says Apollo and Big E used to be really good friends, so she’ll speak for fans in saying that it’s disheartening that they’ve ended up like this. So wondering as a fan of them, Kayla asks if Apollo was harboring jealousy. Apollo says, “Dear Lord, help me.” Who came up with these questions? Did Kayla come up with this herself? Kayla is just asking as someone who has been a supporter. Apollo says there is no jealousy. They’re competitors, Apollo wants gold. It could’ve been anyone else in Big E’s place and Apollo would do the same thing. That is all that matters.

Friendship doesn’t matter, there’s no jealousy. This is who he has always been. The world will finally learn how great he is, but for Apollo, this is about the Intercontinental Championship. When he goes into Fastlane, he will not make it personal. His vision and mind are clear, it’s about the title. There is no envy or jealousy. Kayla says it’s been great, and Apollo agrees. This confidence that Apollo exudes is great. But tomorrow- Heyman stops Kayla already for upsetting Apollo and Heyman himself. Apollo has Kayla sit this one out while Heyman talks. Heyman shoots from the hip when he reminds Apollo that the last time they talked, Heyman told Apollo he’d leave a challenger, but come back a champion.

Apollo failed then, but what makes him him, a main event star in 2021 and someone that Heyman says will make 2021 his year, is that Apollo doesn’t see it as a loss or a failure. Apollo sees it as a lesson learned. But there will be no excuses tomorrow night. Apollo needs to walk into Mania as champion, and the only way he does that is leaving Fastlane with champion. Leave a challenger, return a champion by leaving Big E on his back and becoming the NEW Intercontinental Champion. Apollo can come back next week and show the world how right Heyman was about him. Apollo says that is respect. Respect goes back the same way. Apollo has one more thing to say before he leaves.

“Big E. You want to hurt me? You tried to hurt me. Listen to me, listen very carefully. If you thought what I did before was bad, if you thought that was bad, you wait ’til tomorrow. Tonight, you sleep and hold that Intercontinental Championship dear and close to your heart. Because tomorrow, I will leave Fastlane, and I will walk into WrestleMania the NEW Intercontinental Champion. And you? You will once again leave on a stretcher.” Apollo takes his leave, and Heyman tells Kayla he was right about her upsetting Apollo. Kayla keeps it professional and just plugs the rest of Fastlane while Heyman goes on and on.

The third guest is… Paul Heyman?

Heyman is a guest on his own show, technically. He’s promised spoilers for Fastlane, if you will. But Kayla wants to start off with Hall of Fame news! Heyman’s “good pal” Eric Bischoff is going in! Congratulations to him, but Heyman takes a moment to think. “Eric Bischoff in the WWE Hall of Fame. I presume this will surprise a lot of people. I don’t think the WWE Hall of Fame is complete without Eric Bischoff. This is an honor that is long overdue, and it’s well-earned. It’s most deserved. The criteria to be in the WWE Hall of Fame is impact upon the industry, and it would be very hard for anyone to argue that Eric Bischoff did not make as significant an impact upon this industry as almost anybody else in its history.”

Heyman respects the WWE for having the intelligence, and for understanding just how much Eric Bischoff belongs in the Hall of Fame. And Heyman “profoundly congratulates” his rival for his induction to the Hall of Fame in the class of 2021. Heyman will add that if you look back in history, which Heyman doesn’t often do, that the 1990’s were ruled by Bischoff, Heyman and Vincent Kennedy McMahon. But only one of them is relevant enough to be on television each and every week, on top, in the main event of WrestleMania with the biggest star in the industry, Roman Reigns. Next?

Kayla moves things to “spoilers” for Fastlane and WrestleMania. Of course, the biggest is Roman Reigns VS Daniel Bryan for the Universal Championship, Edge as the special guest enforcer. So if Bryan wins, it changes from Roman VS Edge to Edge VS Bryan! Any “spoilers” from Heyman? Yes, of course. The “spiel” in marketing for tomorrow’s show is that the main event of WrestleMania could change. The hope, the prayer, is that Bryan taps out Roman and we get Bryan VS Edge in the main event of Mania, removing a four-time could be five-time main eventer in Roman from the equation. But that’s not how things change. The spoiler is that the main event changes in a way no one has envisioned. Bryan is a hope, a dream, a prayer. And Roman is “where prayers go to die.”

What you’ll see tomorrow is that Bryan’s prayer of reigning one more time at the expense of Roman is a prayer God won’t listen to. Even GOD knows Bryan isn’t man enough to tap out Roman. Roman doesn’t think that Bryan is a real man, either. A real man knows he can’t beat Roman. A real man would’ve married BOTH Bella Twins! A real man would know his limitations and the fact that there’s no way he can take the title from Roman Reigns. BUT, all Bryan will catch tomorrow night is an ass whipping so severe that the special enforcer at ringside, Edge, is gonna crap his pants and won’t even want to step into the ring with Roman!

Edge will go, “Oh my God, what have I gotten myself into? I can’t step into the ring with that! That man’s too aggressive, that mans’ too vicious, that man’s too unbridled, that man is too violent for me to step into the ring with!” And then who will step up to be Roman’s challenge at WrestleMania, after having turned away two challengers with one beating? It’ll be Roman VS Blank at WrestleMania as the main event. Mania is built upon Roman the same was as Roman is the sun the WWE Universe orbits. Fastlane will be special because Roman will do something that very few men on the face of the planet can accomplish, and Bryan will be Roman’s victim.

Heyman says Mania this year will be headlined by and feature the Tribal Chief, the end all be all, the Head of the Table, the best of the very best, El Jefe de Tribalisto, the reigning, defending, undisputed, uncontroverted, untouchable, unbeatable, unpinnable, untappable, Universal Heavyweight Champion and THE Main Event no matter who he’s against… Roman… Reigns! That’s all from Talking Smack, onward to Fastlane!

My Thoughts:

Another very good episode for Talking Smack. A rather different format, too, using commercials to cover up people making entrances. Technically, that trims down the episode to about 20 minutes when it was only 24 or so. Anyway, Sasha Banks had a good segment, she is definitely turning back towards Heel Boss like when she was with Bayley as the Golden Role Models. She’s definitely going Heel after Fastlane, where I’m sure she and Bianca lose. Apollo had a great segment, mostly with Heyman having another great promo for him, but Apollo’s final message to Big E was great. If only that match was No Disqualification.

Heyman getting to talk at the end as opposed to the beginning to get his comments on things was a good switch. I like that Heyman praised Bischoff, only to use it to segue to his self-praising and praising Roman. Heyman framing it as Roman clearing out Mania completely because he’ll scare Edge was a great bit. Also, Heyman suggesting Bryan should’ve been able to pull off a polygamous relationship with the Bellas? WOW. But this just makes it seem like we might go from 1v1 to a Triple Threat because karma will come back on him and Roman for acting like Bryan and Edge are both beneath Roman. At least, that’s my hope.