Following an extremely memorable edition of RAW, will WWE be able to successfully follow that up just 24 hours later on SmackDown Live?
If you missed RAW, you missed a very different show. Heavy on wrestling (aka the Seth Rollins showcase), RAW opened with the men’s gauntlet match that went almost two hours. It’s been years since we have seen so much wrestling versus talking on a WWE show; it was a welcome change by a company that often gets accused of settling into a booking pattern. That makes looking forward to tonight’s SmackDown exciting.
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So far for tonight’s SmackDown, we have two matches confirmed. The biggest bout as of now will see Shelton Benjamin and Chad Gable take on The New Day for an opportunity to face tag team champions The Usos at WWE Fastlane.
Benjamin and Gable unceremoniously lost in two straight falls to the Usos at the Royal Rumble, a two out of three falls match that was highly anticipated but didn’t really have a chance to deliver. With the company having spent several months building up Gable and Benjamin as legit contenders, it was a bit surprising to see them defeated so easily at one of the biggest PPV shows of the year. Tonight is a chance to set them back on the right path with a big win over former long-time WWE tag team champions, the New Day.
Also announced for tonight’s show is Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Naomi taking on all three members of the Riott Squad in a six woman tag team match. Charlotte defeated Sarah Logan last week on SmackDown and has previously defeated Liv Morgan, so watch for them to continue to build toward the eventuall Charlotte vs. Ruby Riott match.
Outside of the two matches already announced, we’re sure to get more in the way of the growing discontent between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Last week, Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler each punched their way into what will now be a fatal-five way match for the WWE championship at Fastlane. How does AJ Styles feel about having to defend his belt against four individuals instead of two? WWE has announced the champ will make his thoughts known tonight.
While Benjamin and Gable and the New Day face-off for the number one contendership, the Bludgeon Brothers continue to lurk as eventual contenders down the line. They have it out for the Usos, as we have seen now for the previous two weeks (a stare down on the ramp two weeks ago, destroying a monitor showing an Usos promo last week). Is this a match that will be held off all the way until WrestleMania, or are they building to a television match long before? We’ll get more hints this week.
Lastly, U.S. champion Bobby Roode started up the open challenge on last week’s broadcast. Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton asserted themselves as potential challengers, so the odds that the open challenge leads to a big surprise seem minimal.
SmackDown comes to us live tonight on the USA Network at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
