Friday Night Smackdown preview: Three questions heading into November 18 episode

WWE Friday Night Smackdown comes live from the XL Center in Hartford, CT, tonight as the company sits just eight days away from Survivor Series WarGames.

Whether it’s an extremely important episode or a completely throwaway show that will be forgotten about in two weeks, there are always questions that surround each edition of Friday Night Smackdown. I’ll ask a few pertaining to tonight’s episode.

Will the men’s WarGames match be announced tonight?

Last week’s show was an eventful one for the Bloodline as the Usos successfully defended their undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against the New Day. With that victory, the duo have now officially surpassed the New Day as the longest reigning tag champs in company history. In the main event, undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns held a celebration ceremony for the Usos before being interrupted by the Brawling Brutes and Drew McIntyre.

The night ended with these teams fighting each other in the ring and we can assume that tonight, it will be made official that these two groups will battle each other in WarGames. We’ll see who officially lay down the challenge and who will join the Brutes/McIntyre as the fifth member if the match is made.

Who will advance in the Smackdown World Cup tonight?

Last week, the Smackdown World Cup tournament began where the winner will receive a future title match against Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship. Santos Escobar and Braun Strowman won their respective first-round matchups last week and tonight, we’ll see Ricochet take on Mustafa Ali and Sami Zayn go one-on-one with Butch. We’ll which two out of these four men will take a step closer to an IC title shot.

Can Shotzi defeat Shayna Baszler?

Shotzi officially became the No. 1 contender for the Smackdown Women’s Championship last Friday, winning a six-pack challenge to earn a shot at Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series. Backstage after the match, Rousey and Baszler attacked Shotzi to send a message to the new challenger. Tonight, Shotzi and Baszler will go one-on-one and it begs the question of if the No. 1 contender can get one over on the submission specialist. The odds have been stacked against her and it will be an uphill battle.