Gauntlet Match to decide last entrant of Elimination Chamber Match
WWE has announced that Gauntlet Match featuring the WWE Championship contestants will take place tonight on Smackdown Live. The fight will be between WWE Champion "The New" Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Mustafa Ali, Jeff Hardy, Randy Orton and Samoa Joe. The winner of the match is expected to earn the right to enter the Elimination Chamber last.
With the superstars involved in the matchup, entering the chamber last will be huge. Who will gain the massive advantage, and momentum? Find out tonight on Smackdown.
McMiz TV to debut with challengers as guests
WWE has also announced Smackdown Tag Team Champions Shane McMahon & The Miz who have continued to lay claim to being The Best Tag Team in the World will be in attendance tonight. The pair will debut on McMizTV where they will come face to face with another duo who thinks that title applies to them: The Usos.
With just five days left for their title showdown, all hell could break lose tonight on Smackdown when all four men are in the ring at the same time. So, it will be interesting to see if we get a civil conversation between the two teams, or will tempers flare. In the end, one team will gain momentum heading into the PPV.
Andrade and Rey Mysterio – the Mexican feud
For weeks now, Rey Mysterio and Andrade have been locked in a feud with some matches as well as some promo segments. And is expected to continue at least until the next PPV as both of them are yet to be added to the weekend's PPV card.
Last week, Andrade & Zelina Vega boldly proclaimed that he will end the legend of Mysterio. How exactly the pair plan to go about that is yet to be seen. Whatever, the outcome, it will be known tonight.
Charlotte Flair takes Becky Lynch's spot
The WWE Universe were stunned during Monday Night Raw when Mr. McMahon removed Becky Lynch from the Raw Women's Championship Match against Ronda Rousey at Wrestlemania. Becky earned the right to challenge for the title by winning the Women's Royal Rumble Match. Mr. McMahon then suspended Lynch for 60 days, ensuring The Man would miss The Show of Shows.
Adding insult to injury, the WWE Chairman gave Lynch's spot at The Grandest Stage of Them All to her former best friend-turned-bitter rival, Charlotte Flair. So, with the only valid opponent to Smackdown women's champion Asuka now set to collide with the Raw champion, it will be interesting to see what happens in the Women's division of Team Blue.
Rusev-Nakamura friend or foe?
Two weeks ago, Rusev and Nakamura ganged on R-Truth after losing their US title opportunities in back-to-back matches. Before that the pair were locked in an intense feud for months on Smackdown. The bitterness between them also injured Rusev's wife Lana. But, after the attack on Truth, the duo seemed to have gotten on the same page.
Last week, they teamed up for the first time to take on the Club (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson). And after starting the contest like relative strangers, they synchronized and ended up winning the match.
As they are on the same page now, the expectation is for them to work as a team. But, it will be interesting to see how long it lasts especially with the unpredictable Nakamura, who can strike any time.
Women's tag team match build up
On Raw, we saw which team will enter the chamber first. So, there could be a similar kind of match featuring the tag team title match participants from Smackdown.
Last week, The Iiconics, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, and the team of Naomi and Carmella fought together to promote the Women's Elimination Chamber match. In the end, Mandy Rose got one over on her rival Naomi again to seal the victory. So, that storyline is expected to continue again tonight.
What next for Asuka?
Asuka has been kept away from appearing in Smackdown for the past two weeks. The only way she got airtime was throught a pre-recorded video package.
With her potential title challengers Lynch (suspended) and Charlotte (busy with Ronda) expected to be away from action on the Blue brand, a new challenger will surely emerge in the near future. It could be one of the new faces from NXT, you never know.
Rest of the roster
Apart from the aforementioned stars, the likes of Eric Rowan, R-Truth, the Club, the Bar, the New Day, Sin Cara, Shelton Benjamin and of course the McMahon family could all be involved in some capacity. There is also talk of Luke Harper making his return after injury lay-off.