Friday's episode of SmackDown would determine if the leader of The Yes! Movement was going to get a shot at the Universal Champion at WWE Fastlane or not. As such, a lot was riding on the Steel Cage Match between Daniel Bryan and Jey Uso.

Prior to that match, Apollo Crews gave fans a better look at where he's coming from with this new character shift, The Street Profits battled Sami Zayn and King Corbin in singles matches and Murphy tried to get back in the good graces of Seth Rollins. Bayley might have someone pranking her and Reginald can't catch a break.

Here are your winners and losers for SmackDown, March 5, 2021:

Winner/Loser: Daniel Bryan Opening Promo

Bryan spoke with Michael Cole about no longer taking a back seat despite being on the back-nine of his in-ring career. Lately, he's been putting others over and not caring about what Edge, Roman Reigns and WWE had set in motion for WrestleMania. No more. He was going to take what was his and do what he loves, which is wrestle with the championship on the line.

This was a good promo, but it was also a near carbon copy of the promo he delivered on Talking Smack this past weekend. If you don't watch that show, this would have been excellent. If you do, this was fairly unoriginal. The Reigns portion of the speech was unnecessary, since we've also seen it a number of times before.

Loser: Montez Ford vs. King Corbin and Angelo Dawkins vs. Sami Zayn

On a two-hour show, there's not a good reason to take what could have been a disjointed tag match between two heels who don't get along and make two consecutive singles matches out of it. That's what WWE tried to do when they split the Street Profits match with Corbin and Zayn into two halves.

The lack of communication between Corbin and Zayn makes sense, but having different outcomes with Ford losing while Dawkins wins kind of defeats the purpose and doesn't do much for either side of the equation.

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Winner: Dominik Defeats Chad Gable

This match was too short, but what we saw of it demonstrated that Chad Gable and Dominik have strong chemistry and that another, longer match between them could be a barn burner. Dominik gets the win here, giving the Mysterios back a victory after losing handily last week.

It's likely this feud is just getting started, so it's unclear as to who will wind up the overall victor when all of this is said and done.

Loser: Reginald

In what could have been a very good match between Shayna Baszler and Bianca Belair that really dug into the two different styles, Reginald's antics and all of the other commotion surrounding the ring took away from this bout. The shenanigans at ringside was distraction, even if it's positive that it looks like the sommelier is finally done with both Banks and Carmella.

Belair getting the win here is wise as she heads towards WrestleMania, but I'd have preferred a match dedicated just to these two women and WWE build up Belair the old fashioned way by having her beat a top-level threat.

Baszler's in-ring work was worth noting here as she is light years better than the goofy stuff she was doing on Raw this time last year.

Winner: Cesaro vs Murphy

Hopefully Murphy trying to get in the good graces of Seth Rollins again is leading to something. Best guess is that Wesley Blake will be involved when all is said and done. Either way, the match between Cesaro and Murphy that came about as a result was good.

These are two of WWE's best in-ring talents so putting them in a singles match virtually guarantees a strong performance. Some will argue the focus on Rollins during commentary took away from this match (there's some truth to that), but it's key to remember that this is all about the Rollins and Cesaro build. The Messiah needs to be visible.

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Winner: Apollo Crews

While I was excited to see Crews get a spotlight and a new character to try and work with, I said last week that WWE needed to tread carefully to ensure this push wasn't just about his culture being the reason he's a heel now. In other words, my hope was that if Crews was going to be a bad guy, it was because he was doing bad things. WWE took a smart step on Friday.

Crews embraced the positives of his Nigerian background, focusing on the fact that his people were warriors, that they couldn't be held down and that Big E made a mistake by trying to dismiss him. These are all things any proud man would take issue with. Crews embraced his heritage, its fighting spirit, history of dominance and warrior-like toughness.

That Crews was suggesting the old "American" accent that fans came to know him for was a fake was a nice touch. Suggesting this Nigerian accent is the true Crews is smart.

In one promo, WWE made sure this is now about Crews and what he personally feels. This was exactly the right way to go and he nailed the promo.

Winner: Ding, Dong, Hello

Whether a lack of time caused the change or WWE just felt the segment would play better from backstage, SmackDown offered a rushed version of Ding, Dong, Hello with Bayley. She went with a Sweet Tweets segment and the hint was that someone had sabotaged her notes but putting a nasty tweet in with all the glowing ones.

It's likely WWE will reveal someone is behind the prank but for this week, the stage was set for Bayley to have a new feud with someone. This is good. Bayley is far too talented to be left without a dance partner heading into the biggest pay-per-view of the year. Even if the origin story of this rivalry seems like it might be childish. It's wise to get Bayley moved in a new direction as she was really just a prop for other feuds that last few weeks.

Winner: Daniel Bryan vs. Jey Uso

There really wasn't much doubt that this match would be the highlight of the show and if allowed to do their thing, but Bryan and Uso would hit it out of the park. This bout was strong and it showcased both men.

Bryan picks up the win here which means he'll head to Fastlane to battle Reigns for the Universal Championship. It's unlikely Edge vs. Reigns will be changed, so fans should expect some sort of issue at the pay-per-view. The trick will be how creative books everything and if Bryan takes the clean pin or if Edge plays a role in the decision.

The finish was predictable, but that didn't make it bad. This match was still thoroughly entertaining.

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