SmackDown airs tonight (Apr. 3) with a live show emanating from Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. This is the fifth episode of SmackDown during the seven week build to WrestleMania 42, which takes place on the weekend of April 18 and 19.
WWE somehow forgot to book any matches on 3 hour SmackDown
It’s WrestleMania season, which normally means Raw and SmackDown will reduce some of its match time in favor of promos and angles that build towards WWE’s most important show of the year. However, WWE is taking that concept to the extreme tonight considering that zero matches are booked for 3 hour SmackDown as of this writing. And it’s not like Roman Reigns and CM Punk are on the blue brand to kill one of those hours with entrances that seemingly never end.
This was a more common occurrence when I wrote WWE previews here during Vince McMahon’s time in charge. It stands out more when it happens now since it’s a rarer thing under Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s creative leadership. Nonetheless, WWE will have to announce matches at some point today, and hopefully it won’t just be obvious filler like a 45 minute gauntlet match with a bunch of tag teams that are going nowhere.
WWE says ass-kicker Cody Rhodes will “surely be on the warpath” tonight to try spoiling Randy Orton’s homecoming on the road to WrestleMania. It might not be so hard for Randy to avoid the WWE champion’s wrath if Cody doesn’t show up to work again until 5 or 10 minutes before SmackDown goes off the air, like last week. The big hook here is Randy saying he will meet his mystery caller tonight. Will we get to see the meet-up for a big reveal, or will it take place behind closed doors? If the reveal happens and it’s someone underwhelming like Cowboy Bob Orton, does that mean there are actually two callers, and the more interesting one will be revealed at WrestleMania?
Rhea Ripley will respond tonight after she was laid out two weeks in a row by WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab. Will it happen for a third time if Ripley has nobody else by her side to help fight off Jade’s low carder numbers game?
WWE is warning that you should “brace yourself for the fallout” of GM Nick Aldis announcing an Unsanctioned match between Jacob Fatu and Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 42. Aren’t Drew and Jacob the ones who need to brace themselves for big falls in WWE these days? What kind of structure will they try to murder each other on tonight?
Finally, Trick Williams has invited Lil Yachty to SmackDown. Will the angle that’s planned for Lil tonight end up with Yachty being part of Trick’s match against United States Champion Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 42? Is there any chance for Carmelo Hayes to join their match after Trick accidentally (?) cost him the title last week?
Other stuff to keep an eye on
– Is Tiffany Stratton going to miss the cut for WrestleMania after losing against Women’s United States Champion Giulia last week? Will Giulia miss the cut due to holding the least important belt in WWE? Can injured Chelsea Green work her magic and find a way to get all three women on the card in Las Vegas?
– Solo Sikoa apologized to his MFTs last week for being so hard on them after they recently lost the WWE tag team championship. However, Solo still hasn’t given the Wyatt lantern back yet, as Tama Tonga requested, so the potential for trouble here remains. Will Shinsuke Nakamura catch a beating by Talla Tonga if he’s seen mingling with Tama tonight?
– Speaking of the WWE tag team championship, when will Damian Priest and R-Truth aka Bald Ron Cena defend those belts for the first time? Could it be on a three hour episode of SmackDown that currently has zero matches announced?
– Sami Zayn is the guy who brought back the weekly open challenge for the US title when he won the belt last summer. Now that he has the belt back and it’s the sole reason why he’s on WrestleMania, I strongly suspect that babyface Sami will make Carmelo Hayes and others earn their future title shots. Will we find out for sure tonight if Hayes or Ilja Dragunov approach him about it?
– Now that the WWE women’s tag team championship 4-way match at WrestleMania 42 is official between the Irresistible Forces, Bella Twins, Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, and Bayley & Lyra Valkyria, can WWE finally find something more interesting for these teams to do other than interfere in each other’s matches and cause shitty disqualifications each week?
– Does WWE have an update on Jelly Roll’s condition after he was RKO’d last week? What excuse will Kit Wilson come up with after being outwrestled by Roll and losing their match? Will he correctly blame it on Danhausen’s curse? Is The Miz’s chance of making the WrestleMania card gone now that it looks like Jelly isn’t wrestling on the show?
– Aleister Black and Zelina seem to think they can convince that jabroni Matt Cardona to turn heel. They must be studying old tapes of Karrion Kross and Scarlett, huh?
– Where the f*** are the Street Profits?
What will you be looking for on SmackDown?
