WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX, from the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, PA.
Piper and Chelsea Green were destroyed by Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill on this week’s show. The bigger news here is that there was another screen glitch with a message.
As the short match progressed, the screen glitched and the message “You forgot about us” appeared. A similar screen glitch took place on Monday’s episode of WWE RAW with the message reading “Hello.” This appears to be something related to Bray Wyatt – likely his brother Bo Dallas with the Uncle Howdy persona. There are also some rumors that Alexa Bliss and at least one other name will be involved in this.
Source: eWn
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.
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
WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FOX from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA.
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown live on FOX from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FOX from Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
It’s tough being an on-screen authority figure in WWE. A roster full of stars constantly getting into brawls in between segments, demanding things on the day of the show, and just being hard to deal with can be a real task. However, one figure in particular has been dealing with a very real problem.
PWInsider is reporting that “WWE Smackdown” General Manager Nick Aldis has been dealing with an injury as of late, with multiple WWE sources believing that he has a torn bicep that requires surgery. Another report was published later the same day by PWI confirming that Aldis not only had a torn bicep, but that he had undergone surgery for it, and everything went smoothly to the point that WWE doesn’t think Aldis will miss any upcoming appearances for the company.
Aldis later confirmed and commented on the injury via a post on X (formerly known as Twitter).
“Yes, I just got out of surgery for a ruptured bicep tendon, and yes, the sheets had it within minutes. God bless ’em. Must be a slow news day,” Aldis wrote. “Anyway it was a freak accident, I’m on the mend, and I will continue to fulfill my obligations.”
Before his time as “Smackdown” General Manager, Aldis was best known for his work as Magnus in TNA Wrestling, where he would not only win two TNA Tag Team Championship, but the TNA World Championship as well. With TNA having working relationships overseas during his time there, Aldis would win tag gold in both New Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH before leaving the company in 2015. He would enjoy a lot of singles success in his post-TNA career, winning the Global Force Wrestling World Championship in 2015, before going on to hold the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship for over 1300 days between 2017 and 2021. Aldis would make a brief pitstop back in TNA (then known as Impact Wrestling) before joining WWE as a backstage producer in August 2023 and being revealed as the Smackdown General Manager a few weeks later.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
It hasn’t always been the smoothest road to WrestleMania 40, with plans involving The Rock, Cody Rhodes, and Roman Reigns changing a few times, while an injury to CM Punk also led to an audible regarding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match. Now, another injury has emerged to potentially throw a monkey wrench into WWE’s plans for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
PWInsider reports that Asuka, one-half of the Women’s Tag Champions with Kairi Sane, suffered an injury to her knee on “SmackDown” this past Friday night. The news will not come as a huge shock to viewers, as Asuka could be seen limping during the closing angle of “SmackDown,” where she, Kairi, Dakota Kai, and WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY attacked Bayley following the latter’s match against Kai.
Asuka was subsequently pulled off the road this weekend, as a precaution, and is expected to undergo medical tests to determine the severity of the injury. At this time, it remains to be seen whether Asuka will be able to wrestle through the injury, or if she will be forced to take significant time off. It would be Asuka’s second notable injury in three years, after she was forced to miss 9 months of action from July 2021 to April 2022 due to an arm injury.
While no match had been announced for Asuka and Kairi at WrestleMania, it was expected that the duo would put their titles on the line on either Night One or Night Two of the event. Should Asuka be forced to miss significant time, she would become the second WWE women’s star forced off of Mania this year due to injury, joining Charlotte Flair, who suffered an injury wrestling Asuka back in December and is expected to be out till later this year.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown, which airs live on FOX from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, TN.
Jerry The King” Lawler is expected to be at SmackDown tonight in Memphis, but it has not been confirmed if he will appear on TV.
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