With just five nights away from Fastlane, Smackdown is delivering the final TV episode for the pay-per-view event. No wonder the final hypes ups for this show will be the main focus for tonight’s edition. We may have some new and final matches on the match card to make it fully loaded. The WWE Championship picture will be a big concern to address after the sudden change of lineup from last week. Plus, there will be a championship match on the show.
Breaking: Smackdown champion dealing with an injury
The US Open Challenge was back on last week’s Smackdown which will continue as per the wish of the current title-holder. Also, a singles match will take place between The Miz and Jey Uso just prior to their tag team showdown at Fastlane. We expect there should be fallout from what happened on last night’s Raw following an announcement for Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch. All of these will be in-store when Smackdown airs live from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
The WWE Championship match for Fastlane got changed last week via a sudden announcement from Mr. McMahon. Kevin Owens has reserved the contender’s spot sidelining Kofi Kingston just because the Boss thinks so. This decision has suffered a certain backlash from the fans since Kofi was their favorite, all the way. Owens can’t earn enough support from the fans despite being a babyface.
Huge match confirmed for Fastlane
It will be tough for the WWE creative to garner the attention of the fans towards the title match following the unpopular decision. As for tonight, WWE.com confirmed that the challenger will look forward to picking more momentums on Smackdown,
“Mr. McMahon shocked the WWE Universe last Tuesday when he replaced Kofi Kingston in the WWE Championship Match at WWE Fastlane with the returning Kevin Owens. KO teamed up with Kingston later that night, pinning WWE Champion Daniel Bryan with a thunderous Stunner. With just five nights remaining before their title showdown, what else might KO do to get the upper hand on Bryan?”
A title match will take place on Smackdown via the comeback of US Open Challenge. Here’s the confirmation by WWE.com,
“Asking himself “What would John Cena do?,” R-Truth took on both Rey Mysterio and Andrade when they answered his United States Championship Open Challenge this past week. With the two rivals focused on each other, Truth was able to roll up Mysterio and retain his title. This Tuesday, Truth will issue another open challenge for his star-spangled title. Who will step up and answer the call? Find out this Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE at 8/7 C on USA!”
R-Truth was irrelevant for some weeks after winning the US title, a few weeks ago. But WWE creative came up with a solid idea for him by invoking the Us Open Challenge. If this continues for some weeks and truth can retain then it will portray him as a strong champion. Meanwhile, we expect someone from the mid-card talents to challenge him, tonight. Maybe, Andrade will be the one to get the title shot accepting the US Open Challenge.
The Miz and Shane McMahon will compete for the Smackdown tag team titles at Fastlane against The Usos. The champions are having all the momentums, right now which is why the contenders need an opportunity to create some of their own. This is why The Miz will compete in a singles contest against Jey Uso. It is almost certain that the A-lister will pick up the win prior to the title match.
Asuka will defend her Smackdown women’s title at Fastlane against Mandy Rose. Both these women were off from last week’s show which means a zero-buildup for this particular title match. We hope both these ladies will have one final confrontation on the show to create some tensions. Mandy will certainly try to bring her mean-streak to outsmart the Empress of Tomorrow.
Meanwhile, we do want to let you know that Asuka suffered an injury on last night’s live event hosted by Smackdown. She might have hurt her back portion in a bad way. We have not heard about the severity of the injury, till now. Hopefully, she is doing okay and will be able to compete at Fastlane. We expect to get positive updates on her once the show airs from Wilkes-Barre.