WWE SmackDown Spoilers: Complete Results and Analysis for March 17

Tuesday night, WWE rolled into Cincinnati for this week's SmackDown tapings, and understandably so, hometown boy Dean Ambrose was greeted with a hero's welcome. Thanks to our friends over at WrestlingInc.com, we know everything that went down. 

The Lunatic Fringe was all over the broadcast, with various segments and vignettes taking place throughout before a vicious and intense beatdown of The Social Outcasts capped off the night in grand fashion for the former No. 1 contender.

Ambrose's contributions to the show may have been fun, but it was the least consequential to the overall broadcast and the continuous build to WrestleMania.

In a match announced earlier in the day, AJ Styles battled Intercontinental champion Kevin Owens in non-title action. With Chris Jericho in the house, the odds his feud with The Phenomenal One would intensify were high.

Charlotte came face-to-face with her WrestleMania opponents Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, and invoked memories of their time in NXT while putting over their upcoming bout.

The New Day and League of Nations were once again on opposite sides of the ring as Kofi Kingston battled King Barrett. Dolph Ziggler was in action just one night after a crushing defeat at the hands of Triple H, and The Dudley Boyz and The Usos were under the same roof for the first time since their WrestleMania match was made official.

Oh, and Roman Regins kicked off the show with a promo.

What all went down as the Superstars and Divas of WWE presented this week's SmackDown in the battleground state of Ohio?

Credit: WWE.com

Result

• Roman Reigns made his way to the ring, greeted by a chorus of boos. He cut a promo about Triple H and their WrestleMania 32 match.
• Dolph Ziggler pinned The Miz.
• The first of several Dean Ambrose vignettes aired, with The Lunatic Fringe out and about in his hometown.
• Bubba Ray Dudley defeated Goldust. D-Von beat down Goldust after the match, only for R-Truth to make the save. The Usos follow, clearing the ring of Dudleys.
• Earlier in the day, Michael Cole interviewed Kalisto, who accepted Ryback's challenge for a match at WrestleMania.
• The face-to-face (to face?) between Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks broke down after some insults from the Divas champion. Lynch and Banks tried to take Charlotte out, but she escaped.
• The New Day cut a promo accepting The League of Nations' promo for a match at WrestleMania.
• Kofi Kingston pinned King Barrett after a brawl at ringside provided a distraction.
• The Social Outcasts were in the ring, holding the show up, when Ambrose unloaded on them with a kendo stick. He vowed to see Brock Lesnar next week in Boston.
• Intercontinental champion Kevin Owens defeated AJ Styles in a non-title match after Chris Jericho interfered.

Credit: WWE.com

Analysis

It is so typical for WWE to do something like waste the first AJ Styles-Kevin Owens televised match on an episode of SmackDown no one will remember two minutes after it wraps up. The bout is a big-money match, one that could mean a great deal to the hardcore audience if built properly. Throwing it on a show for the sake of filling out a card is hardly the way to go about maximizing its effect.

That it ends with the predictable interference is no real surprise given how often WWE Creative leans on that booking crutch.

The rest of the show is fairly lackluster, too—the perfect follow-up to an episode of Raw that was incredibly lethargic.

The introduction of Goldust and R-Truth to the Dudley Boyz-Usos mix has this writer thinking there may be a multiteam bout in the making. After all, why would WWE Creative waste so much television time on the Goldust-Truth pairing, on the Road to WrestleMania, if there was no plan to utilize them on the show?

The Divas face-to-face should be fun television. Charlotte has been a revelation as a heel, while Lynch is one of the purest babyfaces on the entire roster. The wild card is Banks, who has not had the opportunity to talk as much as she did in NXT.

SmackDown is typically a fun sprint of a show, and that should not change this week. With the spotlight shining on the undercard matches from the WrestleMania card, it will be refreshing, if nothing else. But WWE must drum up excitement and anticipation for its biggest event because, as it stands, apathy is running wild.

Brother!