The 2^nd March 2012 episode of Friday Night SmackDown! starts with a video hyping Randy Orton’s return to SmackDown! and the match to take place against Daniel Bryan, followed by Royal Rumble 2012 winner Sheamus making his way to the ring.

Sheamus talks about how he is going to be in the main event of WrestleMania and how he cannot wait to step in the ring with the World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan. He talks about how Bryan has changed since becoming champion, and how he will do what was done to him to remind him of where he came from, which is “knock his block off”, which he says luckily for Bryan will happen at WrestleMania XXVIII (28).

Vickie and Dolph Ziggler interrupt and tell Sheamus that what the people deserve is to see Ziggler in the Main Event at WrestleMania not Sheamus, and makes the joke that Sheamus’ hair is on fire. Sheamus says that the joke is almost as old as Ziggler’s grandmother Vickie there.

Vickie for her part denies being old, calling herself “experienced” instead. Addressing the rumours that John Laurinaitis and Teddy Long won’t be the General Managers of their respective shows next week, she says that she and Ziggler prefer Laurinaitis, and says that reminds Sheamus that she is the only other person without the last name of “McMahon” who has been a General Manager of Raw and SmackDown!.

Teddy Long makes his way out onto the stage and tells Vickie that the only thing that she will be running, is Ziggler’s career into the ground, and he then makes the match of Sheamus to take on Dolph Ziggler, with it to take place right now.

The match sees Sheamus get the victory, when he hits Ziggler with the Celtic Cross (which Michael Cole states is called “White Noise” by Sheamus) for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the match between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan last week, and their rematch with its following events on Monday Night Raw (click here for our Raw report), an interaction backstage involving Teddy Long, John Laurinaitis, and David Otunga sees the “rumours” confirmed as next week will see Teddy Long running Monday Night Raw, with one of the matches being David Otunga against The Great Khali, and will also see John Laurinaitis running Friday Night SmackDown!.

After a video recapping the events of last week between Santino Marella and Heath Slater, Heath Slater is pitted against Santino Marella in a match which sees Marella get the victory, when he hits Slater with The Cobra for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the match between The Undertaker and Triple H at least year’s WrestleMania (click here for our WrestleMania XXVII report) and hyping the Hell In A Cell match between them set to take place at WrestleMania XXVIII (28), an interaction backstage between Natalya and Eve Torres sees Natalya break wind and comment that it stinks in response to Eve’s comment that Zack Ryder stinks.

Back in the arena, Natalya goes against Eve Torres in a match which sees Eve get the victory, when she counters Natalya’s pin attempt into one of her own for the 3-count.

After a video recapping the battle royal to determine CM Punk’s WrestleMania opponent on last week’s Monday Night Raw (click here for our 20^th February 2012 Raw report), Cody Rhodes makes his way to the ring and tells The Big Show that he hopes that his “you-know-what list” is a “thank you list”, as he saved him from being embarrassed again on the grandest stage of them all.

The Big Show’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring, but Rhodes exits the ring and then leaves through the crowd while Show asks where he is going. Show says that he wanted to watch Rhodes’ next video segment as he can laugh at himself.

Teddy Long makes his way to the ring and tells The Big Show that what they have talked about is a “done deal”, which Show seems happy about. He elaborates by telling Cody Rhodes that he will be facing The Big Show at WrestleMania for the Intercontinental Championship.

Now however, Cody Rhodes joins commentary as The Big Show takes on Mark Henry in a match which sees Show get the victory, when he hits Henry with the Weapon Of Mass Destruction for the 3-count.

After an interaction backstage between Teddy Long and Drew McIntyre which sees Long give the ultimatum that if McIntyre loses his upcoming match then he will be fired, and a video recapping the events on Raw last month where Daniel Bryan interrupted The Big Show’s match with Randy Orton and hit both men with the World Heavyweight Championship, Matt Striker interviews Randy Orton.

Orton talks about how he is ready to enact his revenge on Daniel Bryan not letting him walk into WrestleMania as the World Heavyweight Champion, saying that Bryan has a steep price to pay and that in the upcoming match between them, Orton will collect.

Back in the arena, Drew McIntyre is pitted against Justin Gabriel in a match which sees Gabriel get the victory, when he hits McIntyre with the 450-Splash for the 3-count. Afterwards, Long follows up on his earlier promise, and appears on the titantron to inform McIntyre that he has to let him go.

After a video recapping the events involving The Rock and John Cena on Monday Night Raw and hyping the match to take place at WrestleMania between the two men, Matt Striker interviews Daniel Bryan (with AJ) about his upcoming match against Randy Orton.

Bryan talks about how Sheamus is wrong and that he is the same person that he has always been, how he is still the one who will beat Orton in their upcoming match, and how he will go to WrestleMania and walk out as still the World Heavyweight Champion.

Next, Randy Orton goes against Daniel Bryan (accompanied by AJ) in a match which sees Bryan get the victory as a result of a count-out, when he takes advantage of the distraction provided by Kane making his way to the ring, and rolls back in to beat the count while Orton doesn’t.

Afterwards, Kane and Randy Orton fight in and around the outside of the ring, but Orton falls victim to a chokeslam in the middle of the ring from Kane, and Kane then asks for a microphone and says “welcome back” to the downed Orton.

Backstage, John Laurinaitis and David Otunga are shown watching the action on a monitor, commenting that Kane is destructive, with Laurinaitis suggesting that next week he may make a match between Kane and Aksana.

Otunga drinks his coffee while both of them continue to watch the monitor, as SmackDown! goes off the air.