SmackDown airs tonight (Jan. 16) with a show (live on Netflix in certain international markets, taped version airing in its normal time slot in the USA) emanating from OVO Arena Wembley in London, England. This is the seventh episode of SmackDown during the nine week build to Royal Rumble, which takes place on January 31 in Saudi Arabia.
Everything is lining up for Sami Zayn to be the next WWE champion
GM Nick Aldis has announced a tournament to determine which wrestler will challenge WWE Champion Drew McIntyre at Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia. The four opening round
matches all take place tonight, with the winners advancing to a Fatal 4-Way match at Saturday Night’s Main Event on Jan. 24.
First up is Damian Priest vs. Solo Sikoa. Priest is coming off a feuding-ending win over Aleister Black in an Ambulance match, while Sikoa helped MFT defeat Wyatt Sicks last week by stealing the family lantern. Solo thinks he’s got the whole world in his hands, but it might be time for Uncle Howdy to get his revenge by costing him this match.
Next is Matt Cardona vs. Trick Williams. Cardona was not a world title contender in WWE under the name Zack Ryder, and I think it will also be an uphill battle for him to get there during his latest run with the promotion. His job here is probably to make Trick look like a million bucks and a star who can go all the way in WWE.
Randy Orton returns to in-ring competition for the first time since October when he takes on The Miz. This is almost like booking Randy against a jobber in the opening round, in terms of his overwhelmingly high probability to win. If SmackDown wasn’t three hours long, I’d expect a quick squash with an emphatic RKO, given Miz’s recent booking as a low card comedy guy with tiny balls.
Finally we have Sami Zayn vs. Ilja Dragunov. Did I mention that the Fatal 4-way match at Saturday Night’s Main Event takes place in Montreal? Sami Zayn is a wrestling god in Montreal, so he pretty much has to get there by winning this match. This would also be a way for him to get his win back on Dragunov after dropping the United States title to the Mad Dragon back in October.
Looking ahead, Zayn is also a beloved star in Saudi Arabia, which is the location of Royal Rumble. It looks to me like everything is lining up for Sami to win this tournament and challenge McIntyre for the gold in Saudi. Zayn even mentioned last week that he’s never beaten Drew before, and it would be the sweetest satisfaction to do it for the first time with the WWE championship on the line.
Add it all up and I know who I’m predicting will win this tournament and advance to the WWE title match at Royal Rumble. But you can let me know why I’m wrong about Sami Zayn in the comments below, Cagesiders.
The rest of the card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre is scheduled for an appearance tonight, one week after surprisingly winning the belt from Cody Rhodes. The live fans in London will heavily cheer on this heel as he verbally trashes Cody for being a dumb loser in last week’s Three Stages of Hell match. When Drew is done gloating and trolling, will Jacob Fatu show up and explain why he attacked McIntyre last week? Does Fatu know for sure that Drew is the mystery guy who injured him backstage in October, or is he just guessing? Will Rhodes make an appearance to attack Fatu after the Samoan Werewolf inadvertently screwed him out of the title like a giant dumbass last week?
Carmelo Hayes is defending the United States Championship in an open challenge tonight on SmackDown in London, and he wants a star from the UK to answer the call. The surprise star who shows up here has to be TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater, right?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Charlotte Flair was sick and missed last week’s show in Germany, leaving her tag team partner Alexa Bliss to be annihilated by Nia Jax and Lash Legend. Will The Queen return tonight in London to kick one or both of their asses?
– Jordynne Grace is officially on the SmackDown roster, and it looks like she’s heading straight into a program with WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill. They’ve exchanged some trash talk up to this point, but which wrestler will escalate the situation by throwing the first punch?
– Nathan Frazer never saw it coming when a man wearing Axiom’s mask attacked him backstage last week. That man quickly revealed himself to be Johnny Gargano, of course. Is this leading to a match between Frazer and Gargano tonight?
– How will Women’s United States Champion Giulia keep her momentum going after retaining the gold against Alexa Bliss last week?
– What will Chelsea Green be doing on SmackDown if she isn’t chasing Giulia’s belt? There are five men’s matches and zero women’s matches currently advertised for tonight, but perhaps Green will change that math after another backstage chat with GM Nick Aldis backfires on her.
– SmackDown is three hours long, which means there might be enough time for Rey Fenix to lose another match in WWE. Who will get to pin him tonight? Maybe Fenix should get ahead of this one by asking Aldis for a match against the one guy he can definitely beat, Kit Wilson.
– How long will Aleister Black (and Zelina) be gone from WWE after getting hauled away in an ambulance a couple weeks ago?
– Will R-Truth travel to the wrong city and miss SmackDown again this week?
– Did WWE forget that the Royal Rumble is two weeks away? Why has there been such little hype for the actual Rumble matches? Will any wrestlers bother to make their entry in the match official tonight, or can that wait another week?
– Where the f*** is Santos Escobar?
What will you be looking for on SmackDown?
