WWE SmackDown Preview 5/24/2024

WWE SmackDown will air tonight on FOX from the Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the first time.

Tonight’s SmackDown is the go-home show for Saturday’s King and Queen of the Ring premium live event.

  • King of the Ring Semifinal Match: Tama Tonga vs. Randy Orton
  • Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match: Bianca Belair vs. Nia Jax
  • The Street Profits vs. Tonga Loa and Solo Sikoa
  • WWE Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Chelsea Green (Non-Title Match)
  • AJ Styles will confront SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis

Triple H announced that the winners of the King and Queen of the Ring series will also receive world title matches at the August 2024 SummerSlam event, which emanates from Cleveland, Ohio.

Another Wyatt-Themed QR Code Flashes On WWE SmackDown, Commentary Addresses Storyline

The trail of clues and mystique via QR codes on WWE programming forged forward on “WWE SmackDown,” with simpler content behind it than “Raw’s” 20 pictures to sift through and a far shorter duration than Thursday’s 55-minute takeover of WWE’s Twitch stream.

On July 16, 2020, the WWE On FOX YouTube channel released a video of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt attending a therapy session with a psychiatrist named Rachel Bonnetta, who attempted to provoke Wyatt into speaking. Unfortunately for Bonnetta, her efforts were interrupted by a brief electricity blackout that resulted in Wyatt taking her place in the nearby chair, while Bonnetta mysteriously disappeared. Four years later, Bonnetta has now been found (albeit under a different name) alongside a cinematic recap of the Wyatt-related clues recently supplied by WWE.

Thursday afternoon, a new 55-minute WWE Twitch video opened with snippets from the July 8, 2013 episode of “WWE Raw,” which notably served as the main roster debut of The Wyatt Family. About two minutes in, however, the stream began to dramatically glitch before revealing an empty chair. This seat was later occupied by the aforementioned psychiatrist, Rachel Bonnetta, who appeared under the name of Wendy Lucho — a “missing” woman — in a series of images linked to a QR code seen on this week’s episode of “WWE Raw.”

Throughout the Twitch video, Bonnetta can be seen conferring with an unidentified client that later indicates that they’ve finally found their true purpose and family. As the conversation between client and psychiatrist progresses, flashes of QR codes emerge, routing back to several previous clues and messages reportedly connected to a new Bray Wyatt-themed stable.

But Friday’s reveal may have contained the spookiest breadcrumbs dropped yet.

This time it was more straight to the point, at least in the propped up landing page content itself. There was no optical illusion to solve to get there; no step-by-step, one-little-clue-at-a-time journey upon which to embark. Instead, the QR code that flashed during the tag team match between DIY and Legado del Fantasma led straight to a video wrought with the glitches with which we’ve become so familiar, flickering on and off through an image of a picture of a child in a Halloween-style costume getup, laid upon several drawings of the glyph of Pluto we’ve seen time and again. The audio in the clip says first, in a robotic voice, “He is nobody. He is all of us,” over and over again as it zooms in on the picture until it gets so close it goes out of focus. At that point, with the screen black, the voice asks, “Do you want to meet him?” before the video cuts to a black-and-white, grainy image of a hooded and/or masked figure staring back us.

But in digging past just the video itself, as has become customary in this saga, there was more to decipher.

The slug in the landing page is 22423, which refers to February 24, 2023 — the date of Bray Wyatt’s last appearance on WWE television, in a Firefly Fun House episode that also featured Uncle Howdy as the weatherman in a broadcast of “Fun House News.” When Wyatt and Ramblin’ Rabbit cut to Howdy, all he says is, “I am all of us.” The segment then ends with Wyatt promoting a game show called, “Can You Keep a Secret?” before it cuts to Wyatt in a black mask, asking, “If I told you a story, could you keep a secret?”

Meanwhile, images that flickered ever-so-briefly during the glitches in Friday’s video itself included a wooded area, an old promo from Waylon Mercy (a character portrayed in WWE by Dan Spivey in 1995 from whom Windham Rotunda drew inspiration for his Wyatt character, and whose name Joe Gacy, another name rumored to be a part of this eventual faction reveal, has invoked in the past as well), a woman looking terrified and/or tortured, what fans have suggested was a figure that looked like Uncle Howdy in the crowd at Monday’s “Raw” during a commercial break, and what looked to be the door from which Wyatt emerged at his 2022 Extreme Rules return, slightly opened, with light shining through.

Once again, as was the case on Monday, the announce team acknowledged the interruption, with Corey Graves and Wade Barrett remarking on the recurrence of these instances, seemingly indicating that the ultimate reveal could very well be imminent.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE SmackDown Preview 5/17/2024

WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FOX from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

  • King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Randy Orton vs. Carmelo Hayes
  • King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Tama Tonga vs. LA Knight
  • Queen of the Ring Quarterfinals Match: Nia Jax vs. Jade Cargill
  • Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Bianca Belair vs. Tiffany Stratton
  • Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul contract signing for their champion vs. champion match at King and Queen of the Ring on May 25

Another QR Code Airs On SmackDown

Another QR code aired on this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown.

During Naomi’s match with Nia Jax, a QR code flashed on the screen that led you to a video that states the following,

“They put us in the cave. Told us behold the glory. We watched in awe. Consumed their lies. We were never the chosen ones. Left in a cave to rot. To be forgotten. But he set us free. Now we understand. We follow the prophecy. The words of the red. Soon you will understand. The tears we shed watered our antipathy and blossomed a garden of revulsion. There is no safe space. Only my family.”

Source: eWn

WWE SmackDown Preview 5/10/2024

Tonight’s WWE Smackdown live on FOX from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

WWE SmackDown Preview 5/3/2024

WWE SmackDown will air tonight on FOX from the LDLC Arena in Lyon-Decines, France.

  • Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles to go face-to-face before their Undisputed WWE Championship Match at WWE Backlash
  • WWE Tag Team Championship: A-Town Down Under (c) vs. The Street Profits
  • New Catch Republic vs. Authors of Pain
  • The First-Ever Edition of The “RKO Show” with hosts Randy Orton and Kevin Owens

WWE SmackDown – WWE Draft Preview 4/26/2024

WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX from the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.

  • 2024 WWE Draft begins.
  • Contract signing between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles contract signing for their Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match at Backlash on May 4.

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/19/2024

WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX, from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.

  • Undisputed WWE Universal Championship number one contender’s match: LA Knight vs. AJ Styles
  • WWE Women’s Championship: Bayley (c) vs. Naomi
  • SmackDown Tag Team title number one contender’s match: The Street Profits vs. Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate vs. Angel & Humberto vs. The Authors of Pain

Tama Tonga Joins The Bloodline, Helps Destroy Jimmy Uso In WWE SmackDown Debut

Post-WrestleMania, the winds of change tend to blow in WWE. Last night on “WWE SmackDown,” Solo Sikoa took charge and seemingly ushered in a new era, booting Jimmy Uso from The Bloodline with the help of a debuting Tama Tonga, all to “The Wiseman” Paul Heyman’s apparent surprise.

Heyman, Sikoa, and Uso took the ring with newly-crowned WWE-Hall-of-Famer stating that they were there on the orders of “The Tribal Chief” Roman Reigns, who ordered that they give no excuses for coming up short against the new Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. After giving Rhodes his due and singling out his focus, Heyman was interrupted by Sikoa, who asked if winning and losing matters, if there are consequences to losing, and if consequences mean change. Answering in the affirmative to all, Heyman looked beyond concerned as Sikoa pushed him aside, hugged his brother Jimmy, telling him he loved him, all just to set him up for an attack from behind by an invading hooded figure, soon revealed to be Tonga. After Sikoa hit a series of Samoan Spikes, Tonga held up “the one,” and was joined by Sikoa first, and then a hesitant Heyman, who then told his iPhone to “call Roman Reigns.” Sikoa then ripped the phone away and smashed it before finishing Jimmy with a Hip Attack while Uso had a chair draped around his head.

Tonga, technically, is not family to The Samoan Dynasty but it has long been recognized that the Anoa’i-Maivia-Fatu bloodline considers him as much, as they do his father Haku and brothers Hikuleo and Tanga Loa of New Japan Pro-Wrestling Fame. With Loa, Tonga is a seven-time IWGP Tag Team Champion and a Ring of Honor Tag Team Champion, a four-time NEVER Openweight Champion, and a four-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion with Loa and various other partners.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

According to a report from Fightful Select, WWE has been interested in Tonga for a long time now. This dates all the way back to 2016 when they first signed AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and Shinsuke Nakamura. While WWE was interested, Tonga chose to stay in NJPW at the time in order to work with his brothers, Hikuleo and Tonga Loa.

WWE had interest in Hikuleo and Tama last year as well, but a hiring freeze occurred when Vince McMahon worked his way back into the company and prevented any new signings from taking place. As of this writing, there isn’t any word on whether Tonga had any talks with AEW. Additionally, it was added that it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that he was WWE-bound due to the positive relationship the two sides have.

It remains to be seen whether WWE is still interested in bringing in Hikuleo or Tonga Loa. Jacob Fatu has signed with WWE and was backstage at WrestleMania 40, so he’ll likely be added to the mix in the near future. One idea was discussed regarding Fatu and Tonga teaming up much like their fathers Tonga Kid and Haku did, but there’s no word on if that’s still the working plan.

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/12/2024

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will air live on FOX from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

New Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Cody Rhodes to appear.

New WWE Women’s Champion Bayley to appear