Tuesday night’s edition of WWE SmackDown Live felt exactly like a show treading water with three weeks to go until WrestleMania 33. That is to say it did a decent job setting up matches for the show but accomplished little else.

The standout moment of the night, of course, was an infuriated AJ Styles delivering a brutal beating to SmackDown commissioner Shane McMahon in the garage portion of the backstage area. Styles, angered over being screwed out of multiple deserved WWE title matches, took it out on McMahon by throwing him head-first through a car window.

It didn’t take long for McMahon to recover and set an anticipated match with Styles for the “Showcase of the Immortals,” though we will have to wait a week to see where WWE goes with the new booking.

Let’s take a look at what went down Tuesday night on SmackDown. 

WWE SmackDown results and review

In the ring -- AJ Styles: Interrupting general manager Daniel Bryan, Styles demanded to see commissioner Shane McMahon -- who was not at the arena yet -- and headed towards the ring. Styles expressed how SmackDown has screwed him over four or five times recently between never getting a one-on-one rematch with John Cena and then losing his earned WWE title shot at WrestleMania 33. He was later shown hanging out in the garage backstage waiting for McMahon to arrive.

Strong promo by Styles. This combined with his antics in the gorilla position following last week’s SmackDown are providing a nice platform for a WrestleMania match with McMahon. I’m interested to see if it’s going to resolve itself this week or play out through next week.

Becky Lynch def. Natalya via submission: Lynch took the advantage late and locked in Dis-Arm-Her for the victory. After the match, Carmella jumped in the ring and kicked both Lynch and Natalya in the jaw. 

I find it strange that the ring announcer has to specifically announce when there’s a “women’s division” match. They do it for the cruiserweight division, too, but it’s clear WWE is trying to single that out by weight class. They don’t announce “men’s division” or “tag team division” or anything of the sort. Anyway, I digress. Get used to these meaningless one-on-one matches over the next few weeks.

Miz TV with The Miz, Maryse, John Cena and Nikki Bella: The couple recounted everything that happened last week and continued ranting against Cena and Bella being a fake couple. Maryse also flashed her engagement ring and said Bella was jealous of that because she would never get one, going so far as to call her a “lying, backstabbing bitch.” With that, Cena and Bella hit the ring as Miz and Maryse cowered away. Bella hit back calling Maryse a “brainless, spineless blow-up doll” who was worthless and only held Miz’s arm every night before challenging her to a match. When Miz declined on her behalf, Bryan came out and made the mixed tag team match we’ve all expected at WrestleMania. 

Wait ... is Cena going to propose in the ring at WrestleMania after they win? Line of the night was delivered by Bryan while making this match (see superlatives). The mic work from Miz and Maryse was repetitive and got old quick.

Mickie James def. Alexa Bliss via pinfall: This was a non-title match, of course. It appeared as if Bliss had knocked James out late in the match, but James was just playing possum and hit the Mick Kick out of nowhere for the win.

Backstage -- Styles attacks McMahon: Styles was still waiting in the garage backstage at the midway point of the show when McMahon arrived. He hid behind a car and then blindsided McMahon, throwing him into a garage door. Styles then ran McMahon into a car door and rammed him head-first into a driver’s side backseat window. McMahon refused to be taken to the emergency room but allowed security to assist him back to the trainer’s room. As Styles tried to leave the arena, Bryan stopped him, called him a coward and said he lost all respect for him. Styles dared Bryan to fire him, so that’s exactly what Bryan did while security escorted Styles out of the building.

Guess that answers my question. No wait for escalation. It’s on. Interesting how WWE had a camera randomly set in the rear window of the vehicle to capture it perfectly.

Mojo Rawley def. Dolph Ziggler via countout: Ziggler got fed up with Rawley while outside the ring and decided to walk to the back rather than continue.

Remember when Ziggler was in the WWE title picture and it looked like he might get a push?

Confrontation -- Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt: Orton explained his methodology in befriending and then turning on Wyatt, the WWE champion. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em ... and when the timing’s right, screw ‘em,” he said before swearing to God that he would take the title at WrestleMania. Wyatt responded via satellite saying Sister Abagail lives through him now as he rubbed her damp ashes and those of the burned-down house to baptize himself and become born again.

Backstage -- Baron Corbin: Standing in front of a forklift similar to the one he used last week, Corbin said he puts people down, including those like Dean Ambrose who supposedly get up from anything. Corbin then officially challenged Ambrose for his intercontinental title at WrestleMania and promised to put him down for good.

The Orton-Wyatt segment did not accomplish much in furthering the build-up for their WrestleMania match, but I’m also not sure what could’ve done so at this point.  Ideally the Ambrose-Corbin showdown will be a falls count anywhere match. I was always a fan of the “Macho Man” Randy Savage vs. Crush match at WrestleMania X.

The Usos def. American Alpha via pinfall: The relatively short match was disregarded twice by the broadcast team as McMahon was shown in the backstage area walking to the ring. The Usos picked up the clean win by first knocking Chad Gable off the top rope before superkicking Jason Jordan and scoring a roll-up 1-2-3.

That will set up the obvious WrestleMania match for the SmackDown tag team titles, but boy was it lackluster and forgettable. Seems like a kickoff show match to me, which is a shame because it could’ve been booked better and was completely forgotten about last week.

On stage -- Shane McMahon: McMahon was short, simple and to the point: “AJ Styles says he doesn’t have an opponent at WrestleMania? He does now.” There were no details provided on a stipulation for the match, though that could certainly come in the next week or two.

WWE SmackDown superlatives

Line of the night: “The fact that you promised me something special [on Miz TV] and didn’t deliver, it makes me want to punch you in the face. And then you showed that clip of Talking Smack and that reminds me of every time you cut me off and rub it in my face that I can’t wrestle anyore -- and that makes me really want to punch you in the face. And that reminds me of every time you go in the ring and you immitate my moves and you do it very poorly -- and that really, really makes me want to punch you in the face. And the fact that I can’t punch you in the face -- and you know it, and you take advantage of that -- makes me want to punch you in the face even more.” -- Daniel Bryan to The Miz

MVP -- AJ Styles: I almost went with Bryan here because he was so involved in the show and proved to consistently effective when he was on screen, but the only real takeaway from SmackDown was the show’s No. 2 WrestleMania match in Styles vs. McMahon. To that end, Styles did a solid job in recounting all the ways in which he got jobbed in order to justify his anger at McMahon. He also gets extra credit for his off-the-air segment last week on Talking Smack.

Overall: Nothing much to write home about here. After weeks of clearly being better than Raw, SmackDown took a step back with relatively meaningless matches and slow pacing. The saving graces were the quick Styles-McMahon build and Bryan’s performance on the evening. Grade: C