SmackDown airs tonight (Nov. 28) with a taped show (spoilers here) emanating from Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado. This is the final episode of SmackDown during the seven week build to Survivor Series, which takes place on Saturday (Nov. 29).
WWE is jumping the gun on Survivor Series
WWE likes to keep its PLE cards short and concise under Triple H’s creative leadership, and that means there isn’t time at Survivor Series for two different War Games matches and a traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 elimination tag team match. As a result, we’re getting the traditional Survivor Series elimination match on tonight’s SmackDown. It’s also a good way to kill a lot of time at a double taping with one very long match, so perhaps that’s just as big of a reason for why this match was booked on SmackDown instead of Survivor Series.
Sami Zayn leads the way on the babyface side, which also includes Motor City Machine Guns, Rey Fenix, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Their opponents are Solo Sikoa and his MFTs (Talla Tonga, JC Mateo, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa). The MFTs were using most of these babyfaces as a punching bag prior to Zayn’s involvement, so I’d say the heels are the favorite to win on paper.
One factor that could quickly change the math here is potential interference from the Wyatt Sicks. They have kept an eye on the MFTs from a distance after a couple of non-violent confrontations in the ring. Is it finally time for Uncle Howdy and his misfits to strike?
Tune in to SmackDown tonight to get your early dose of Survivor Series and see up to nine different stars eliminated in one long match.
John Cena’s “The Last Time Is Now” tournament continues tonight with LA Knight once again taking on a mystery star. This was supposed to be Sheamus’ spot, but he was removed from the tournament due to injury. Will GM Nick Aldis reveal Sheamus’ replacement early in the show to give the megastar some kind of notice, or will Knight be walking to the ring completely blind again? Will the mystery man be someone intriguing from Cena’s past, or just a big disappointment?
The other tournament match on the schedule tonight is Jey Uso vs. Rusev. Uso is the clear favorite in a fair fight. However, after Jey’s War Games teams played a role in eliminating Bronson Reed from the tournament last week, perhaps Bronson’s War Games team will try to return the favor here.
Speaking of War Games, WWE still needs to determine which women’s team will have the official advantage going into the massive cage at Survivor Series. That will be sorted out tonight on SmackDown, though I don’t believe that WWE has announced yet which women from each squad will fight over it.
United States Champion Chelsea Green had a bad feeling about things last week and decided to push her championship celebration back to tonight. Does former champion Giulia plan to crash the party and challenge Green to a rematch? And what’s the deal with WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill? She seems to have some kind of problem with Green.
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– United States Champion Ilja Dragunov may finally take a breather from his weekly open challenges, due to the nature of this SmackDown episode being taped last week, where he already fought on the live broadcast. Does this give Tommaso Ciampa some time to regroup and come up with a better strategy for securing the title match he so desperately wants? Has he considered pretending to be Axiom by wearing his mask?
– Are Damian Priest and Aleister Black ever going to fight each other again, or do they prefer to just cut threatening promos on each other?
– Has Nick Aldis forgotten that a mystery person or persons took out Jacob Fatu a while ago and still needs to be caught?
– Is R-Truth still trying to enter The Last Time Is Now tournament even though all the spots are filled and his balls weren’t chosen?
– Can Nia Jax and Becky Lynch really co-exist on the same War Games team?
– Which WWE star(s) will remind us of all the Black Friday deals available on WWE Shop?
– Where the f*** is Randy Orton?
What will you be looking for on SmackDown?
