-Sheamus def. Titus O'Neil in a dark match before the WWE Main Event taping.

-Goldust, Cody Rhodes & Mark Henry def. 3MB in a dark match before the WWE Smackdown taping.

WWE SmackdownWWE Smackdown
April 11, 2014 – Lafayette, Louisiana

-John Cena kicked off Smackdown and announced that we are in a new era following WrestleMania XXX, and talked about Daniel Bryan, Cesaro and The Shield winning their matches. He calls himself the "measuring stick" and "standard bearer", and reiterates that anyone who wants to make a name for themselves in the WWE now has to go directly through him. The Wyatt Family cut a promo backstage, with Bray Wyatt saying that he'll have to go to "new extremes" to pull the monster out of John Cena. Not-so-subtle hint for next month's PPV.

(1) Cesaro def. Big Show via disqualification. Cesaro worked as a heel through the match, with Paul Heyman at ringside. Prior to the match, Heyman came out and talked up Cesaro and Brock Lesnar. The crowd was pretty split on how to handle Cesaro, as they should be. The match ended with Jack Swagger attacking Cesaro and putting him in the Patriot Lock. Cesaro still managed to hit Big Show with The Neutralizer.

(2) Ryback & Curtis Axel def. Los Matadores

(3) Rob Van Dam def. Damien Sandow in a rematch from this week's Raw.

-Hulk Hogan came down to a great reaction and talked about being the guest host of WrestleMania XXX. He calls out Daniel bryan, who comes down and talks about idolizing Hogan as a kid. Bryan demands Hogan's music be played, and the two start a massive "YES!" chant together.

(4) Bad News Barrett def. Kofi Kingston. Barrett got some love from the crowd, but not the reaction he got on Raw. Seems the UK fans have all gone home.

(5) Fandango (w/ Layla) def. Santino (w/ Emma). As we reported, Fandango ditched Summer Rae on Twitter this week to separate the Total Divas star.

(6) The Usos & Daniel Bryan vs. Kane, Batista & Randy Orton ended in a double count-out. One of the Usos played the whipping boy for most of the match, and it all ended with the babyfaces doing dives to the outside. Everyone got counted out.

-Orton and Batista beat down The Usos, and Kane was setting up to attack Daniel Bryan, but The Shield came down and made the save. Bryan leveled Kane with a running knee strike, and all the babyfaces celebrated to end the Smackdown taping.

Killam: Just a quick note, the midcard feud between Swagger and Cesaro should pick up a lot of steam in the coming weeks, and I think fans will have a lot invested in the outcome of that match, likely at Extreme Rules. Cena and Wyatt had a great match at WrestleMania, so a rematch with extreme gimmicks is welcome. Very intrigued with where they go regarding The Shield, The Authority, and how Bryan/Triple H fits into the whole thing. Extreme Rules should be a pretty exciting PPV at this rate.

Extreme Rules is shaping up nicely.