Friday Night Smackdown preview: Three questions heading into September 16 episode

WWE Friday Night Smackdown comes live from the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, tonight as the company begins the march towards Extreme Rules in October.

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.

How will Drew McIntyre respond to Karrion Kross?

The matchup Drew McIntyre and new Bloodline member Solo Sikoa in the main event of last week’s show ended in a no contest when Karrion Kross came out and attacked McIntyre. Since returning to the company several weeks ago, Kross has had McIntyre in his crosshairs and showed his presence once again to close out last week’s episode in Seattle.

It appears that these two are on a collision course for Extreme Rules and that match may very well be made official tonight. But how will McIntyre lay down the gauntlet? Between Clash at the Castle and last week’s Smackdown, McIntyre needs to get his heat back and look strong. We’ll see what he does tonight.

Who will become the No. 1 contenders for the undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship?

A Fatal Four-Way match to determine new No. 1 contender’s for the Usos’ undisputed tag team titles will be held tonight. The participants of the match will feature the New Day, the Street Profits, Alpha Academy, and Los Letharios. So who will walk out as the victors?

The New Day has faced the Usos approximately 7 million times and it would be a stretch to have the teams face each other again. The same goes for the Street Profits, who just lost two ppv matches against the champs. Alpha Academy or Los Letharios would be an interesting choice, although it’s highly unlikely that they’d actually capture the tag belts. It’s curious that the Viking Raiders aren’t in the match, especially after squashing the New Day several times over the past few months. We’ll see.

Will Sami Zayn get kicked out of the Bloodline tonight?

Speaking of Sikoa, he returned to NXT this past Tuesday and took down Carmelo Hayes to capture the North American Championship. This adds another belt to the Bloodline’s growing list of accomplishments as every member is a current champion. Notably, “honorary” Uce Sami Zayn still doesn’t have any gold despite the insistence by Jey Uso that he step up. So could this be the week where the Bloodline turns on Zayn?

It’s been obvious that the group has been manipulating Zayn to do their bidding and that at some point, they’re going to turn on this oblivious idiot. With Sikoa’s inclusion, he becomes more expendable and brings us closer to the inevitable turn. Keep your eyes peeled on that happening tonight.