Bengaluru, July 31: A fully loaded episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown awaits us tonight and is certainly expected to give tough competition to this past Monday's Raw.

WWE officials are working very hard to pull up the ratings and viewerships as much as possible as SummerSlam inches closer. So, a couple of championship matches and returns are slated to happen tonight forcing the fans to tune in to the show.

Announced for tonight, the Intercontinental Championship will be on the line for the second time in three weeks, while SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley will also defend her title in a rematch from Extreme Rules 2020.

Plus, a grudge match in the women’s division will also be in store along side the return of a couple, who will make their way back to WWE TV, when Smackdown airs from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Gran Metalik of the Lucha House Party pulled off a shocker last week by winning a Fatal-4-Way number-one contender's match for the Intercontinental Title. This is the first time the Mexican athlete will compete for the prestigious belt that was held by several WWE Hall of Famers.



While he has enough reasons to be pumped and give his best in the championship match, the unfortunate thing is that The Phenomenal One will be his opponent. With SummerSlam getting closer, there is no way that WWE will take away the mid-card title from AJ Styles. So, he's expected to have another dominant title defense to make a claim for a strong future opponent.



Nikki Cross won a number-one contender's match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship with victory over bestie Alexa Bliss last week. So she received yet another opportunity to snatch the title that belongs to Bayley tonight.

Lately, Cross has looked hell-bent on picking up her first singles title win but she is up against the Golden Role Models, Sasha Banks, and Bayley who have been unstoppable. They both have just become dual champions on Raw and their status is likely to stay that way until SummerSlam at least. So, that means no title change is imminent.



But a future strong contender for Bayley might just be gearing up quietly in the form of Naomi. For weeks now, a hashtag of #NaomiDeservesBetter has been trending on social media and WWE has acknowledged that.

Now they have put her in a match against Lacey Evans. So that she can pick up a big win and go one step further to the Women’s Title picture. Fans would be delighted if the high-flyer babyface gets a chance at the top heel Bayley's belt.



The passionate love saga between Mandy Rose and Otis was a storyline that went on in SmackDown for weeks after WrestleMania, but suddenly they went into a hiatus. Now the couple are expected to finally be back on the scene together to continue their story.

It seems WWE has strong creative plans for The Golden Goddess and Mr. Money In The Bank who is just one big move away from becoming the new Universal Champion. Could Otis' return bring any change in the main-event picture? We'll find out when Friday Night show airs on FOX.