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WWE Friday Night Smackdown comes live from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY, tonight as the show dives into fallout from Survivor Series WarGames last Saturday.
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.
Has Sami Zayn earned an official spot in the Bloodline?
The main event of Survivor Series saw the Bloodline topple the team of Drew McIntrye, Kevin Owens, and the Brawling Brutes in a WarGames brawl. The notable moment from the match came at the very end when Sami Zayn solidified his commitment to the Bloodline by beating down his former best friend Owens, setting up for Jey Uso to get the pinfall. Jey finally embraced Sami after the match and that carried over into Raw this past Monday night.
Now that he’s proved himself on the big stage, will we see the “Honorary Uce” label be taken off of him now. KO had ominous words for Zayn this past Monday, pointing out that he’ll never be a full-blooded member of the group. We’ll see what happens tonight.
Who will win the Smackdown World Cup and earn an IC title shot?
The Smackdown World Cup will come to an end tonight as Ricochet will go one-on-one with Santos Escobar. Last week, Ricochet was able to pick up a semifinal victory over Braun Strowman, albeit by way of a distraction from Imperium. The winner will receive an Intercontinental Championship match against Gunther in the near future and there’s a question as to who that man will be.
Gunther defeated Ricochet for the title several months back in the summer and they could run their feud back. However, Escobar is one of the newer, rising stars on Smackdown and this would be a good showcase spot for him. It remains to be seen who comes out on top between these two high flyers.
Who will next challenge Ronda Rousey?
Smackdown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey prevailed against Shotzi in her title defense this past Saturday, taking a ton of offense from the challenger before making her tap out to an armbar. As is the case every month, we now ask who will step up to the champ next?
During last week’s show, Rousey and Shayna Baszler took out Raquel Rodriguez backstage and it would make sense for Rodriguez to be next in line for a shot. With nearly two months to build towards the Royal Rumble, they could decide to slow play this feud. We’ll see.