In the absence of the undisputed champion Roman Reigns, WWE Smackdown will be relying on the mid-card title to stack up the upcoming episodes. Within two weeks’ time, there will be a Wrestlemania rematch where Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens will collide against The Usos for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships in the main event. But prior to that episode, two more titles will be on the line, next week.
Two championship defenses have been announced for the April 21 episode of WWE SmackDown. In the first one of which, the reigning Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER will defend his belt against the 2021 King of the Ring winner and The New Day member Xavier Woods.
The two wrestlers have been involved in a feud ever since Woods defeated LA Knight on a previous episode of WWE SmackDown. Then last night, Gunther was talking to Imperium members Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci, backstage, when Xavier Woods interrupted by playing the trombone before challenging him for the Intercontinental Championship and it was quickly accepted.
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Thus, Woods will get his first-time-ever singles title match over the Intercontinental Championship. The two men previously met in the ring in six-man tag matches on WWE SmackDown as part of The New Day’s rivalry with Imperium. Previously, Woods had answered one of John Cena’s US Championship open challenges back in 2015 which was his first mid-card title match in a one-on-one capacity.
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Women’s tag title match set for April 21 WWE Smackdown
Additionally, the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez will also defend their titles against the team of Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville on the April 21 episode of WWE Smackdown. These two teams were part of the women’s tag team showcase match at WrestleMania 39 and they both ended up losing to the team of Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler.
Morgan and Rodriguez became the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, in this past episode of Raw by defeating Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus. On Smackdown, a championship celebration was thrown by Liv and Raquel which was cut short by Deville and Green. The two teams eventually started brawling after which the title match was made official.
Apart from these two huge title matches, Braun Strowman and Ricochet will continue teaming up to take on The Viking Raiders (Erik and Ivar) in a tag team match set for next week’s WWE Smackdown. The Vikings attacked them backstage and the two have since been looking for revenge.
