Tonight, on the WWE Smackdown Live open discussion thread:
The United States Championship picture will become a little clearer this Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE when Team Blue plays host to two thrilling semifinal matchups in the tournament to crown a new titleholder. Xavier Woods will face Jinder Mahal, and Bobby Roode will square off against Mojo Rawley for the right to advance to the tournament finals next Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE. Who will move one step closer to the star-spangled title? Find out on SmackDown LIVE, this Tuesday at 8/7 C on USA Network! (via WWE.com)
Our five-point preview:
1. If you hadn’t heard, the finals of the United States Championship tournament will no longer happen at the Royal Rumble, and will instead happen on next week’s Smackdown Live. To that end, Tuesday night’s episode will have both semifinal matchups. In the first semifinal, Xavier Woods will go up against Jinder Mahal, so despite all the great work Woods has been doing on social media in campaigning to be U.S. Champ will likely fall by the wayside after tonight.
2. In the other semifinal, Mojo Rawley will take on Bobby Roode. The finals for the United States Championship should 100 percent, no arguments be Rawly vs. Woods, so make sure to tune in next week, when Jinder Mahal hits Khallas on Bobby Roode after a distraction from the Singh Brothers to capture his first U.S. title.
3. The Riott Squad will be in action! There will be a six-woman tag team match between the Riottss and Charlotte Flair, Naomi, and Becky Lynch. This should be a good one, and another opportunity to have the Riott Squad get more comfortable and show the WWE Universe what the NXT Universe already knows: these ladies are rad!
4. There was a lot of meddling in last week’s main event. How will Shane McMahon react to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens’ meddling? How will Zayn and Owens react to McMahon’s counter-meddling? And how will Daniel Bryan deal with all of this in his role as intermediary meddler? TUNE IN AND FEEL THE EXCITEMENT.
5. Also, AJ Styles is still the WWE Champion. Seems like they could be doing something with that.
As always, we’re including 10 of the best comments from tonight’s open discussion thread in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Smackdown Live report. Reply to your favorites with a +1 to nominate them for consideration, and share the open thread around so we can get some fresh voices and jokes in here. Enjoy the show!
