{"id":113200,"date":"2022-04-29T16:08:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:08:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=113200"},"modified":"2022-04-29T16:08:30","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:08:30","slug":"wwe-smackdown-mcintyre-vs-zayn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/29\/wwe-smackdown-mcintyre-vs-zayn\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE SmackDown (4\/29\/22) &#8211; McIntyre vs Zayn, Steel Cage Match"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Due to their touring schedule, on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/22\/preview-wwe-smackdown-lumberjack-match\/\" target=\"_self\">last week&#8217;s edition<\/a> of <strong><em>Friday Night SmackDown<\/em><\/strong>, <strong>World Wrestling Entertainment<\/strong> held two shows from the same venue. Thus, this week&#8217;s edition will be a taped show. Nonetheless, this week&#8217;s <em>SmackDown<\/em> looks to be nothing short of promising, as <strong>Drew McIntyre<\/strong> faces <strong>Sami Zayn<\/strong> in a Steel Cage Match. This isn&#8217;t all, as viewers can expect to see <strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong> and <strong>Ronda Rousey<\/strong> take part in separate Beat the Clock matches, <strong>Ricochet<\/strong> defend the Intercontinental Championship, and much more. Here&#8217;s what to expect before the show airs live on FOX.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>WWE SmackDown (4\/29\/22) Announced Card<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>RK-Bro and The Usos Sign Contract for Title Unification Match at WrestleMania Backlash<\/li>\n<li>WWE Intercontinental Championship: Ricochet (c) vs. Shanky (w\/Jinder Mahal)<\/li>\n<li>Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey Take Part in Beat the Clock \u201cI Quit\u201d Challenge<\/li>\n<li>Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn (Steel Cage Match)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">THIS FRIDAY on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SmackDown<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCharlotteWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MsCharlotteWWE<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RondaRousey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RondaRousey<\/a> go the distance in their Beat the Clock Matches. PLUS: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DMcIntyreWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DMcIntyreWWE<\/a> gets <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SamiZayn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SamiZayn<\/a> in a Steel Cage Match!<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcfa 8\/7c FOX <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/END8uSyUFf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/END8uSyUFf<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE (@WWE) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWE\/status\/1518900737065029635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 26, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>RK-Bro Put Pen to Paper on SmackDown<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In a little over a week, at <strong><em>WrestleMania Backlash<\/em><\/strong>, Raw Tag Team Champions <strong>RK-Bro<\/strong> will face SmackDown Tag Team Champions <strong>The Usos<\/strong> in a title unification match. This match initially came about due to <strong>Roman Reigns<\/strong>, who expressed interest in his cousins unifying gold, not unlike what &#8220;The Tribal Chief&#8221; did following <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/03\/roman-reigns-unifies-wwe-universal-titles-wrestlemania\/\" target=\"_self\">his <strong><em>WrestleMania 38<\/em><\/strong> victory<\/a> over then-WWE Champion <strong>Brock Lesnar<\/strong>. <strong>Jimmy and Jey Uso<\/strong> took this to heart; thus, they took the fight directly to Raw&#8217;s tag team titleholders, <strong>Riddle<\/strong> and <strong>Randy Orton<\/strong>. On this week&#8217;s SmackDown, both teams make their <em>WrestleMania Backlash<\/em> match official. If contract signings over the year are any indication, however, expect to see the peace held for only so long.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Ricochet Defends the Gold<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>This week&#8217;s <em>SmackDown<\/em> will also see <strong>Shanky<\/strong> challenge for WWE gold for the first time, setting his sights on the Intercontinental Champion, Ricochet. Recently, the champion found himself in the sights of former WWE Champion <strong>Jinder Mahal<\/strong>, who Ricochet successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against. Mahal took umbrage with this loss, as one may imagine. Furthermore, &#8220;The Modern-Day Maharaja&#8221; claimed that if Ricochet believed himself to be a real champion, he would have no trouble defending his title again. Thus, the title match between champion Ricochet and challenger Shanky was made official. As the high-flying human highlight reel, Ricochet is no stranger to larger foes; can he overcome his latest mammoth of an obstacle on SmackDown as well?<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tonight, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MsCharlotteWWE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MsCharlotteWWE<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RondaRousey?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RondaRousey<\/a> are set to take part in a Beat the Clock \u201cI Quit\u201d Challenge on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/SmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#SmackDown<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2s1F83G7Cj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/2s1F83G7Cj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WWEonFOX\/status\/1520118847533051904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 29, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey Attempt to Beat the Clock<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Another match set for <em>WrestleMania Backlash<\/em> is Ronda Rousey challenging Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women&#8217;s Championship. Despite coming up short against &#8220;The Queen&#8221; at <em>WrestleMania 38<\/em>, the &#8220;Rowdy&#8221; former UFC star has not wavered in her pursuit for gold. Before they clash once more, Rousey and Flair will put their respective submission expertise to the test as they participate in the Beat the Clock &#8220;I Quit&#8221; challenge. Given the fact that both wrestlers tend to finish their matches with submission maneuvers, focusing on this area of their offense is a no-brainer. Who will both competitors face off against as <em>WrestleMania Backlash<\/em> fast approaches? Tune into this week&#8217;s edition of SmackDown to find out.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Drew McIntyre Faces Sami Zayn in a Steel Cage on SmackDown<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>On last week&#8217;s <em>SmackDown<\/em>, Drew McIntyre faced Sami Zayn in a Lumberjack Match. What should have been a match in which Zayn couldn&#8217;t easily escape saw him slip away during the chaos, making his way through the crowd. WWE Official <strong>Adam Pearce<\/strong> stepped forward, ensuring that a similar result would not come to fruition in the next encounter. Thus, on this week&#8217;s <em>SmackDown<\/em>, McIntyre and Zayn will take on each other once again, this time in the confines of a steel cage. This isn&#8217;t to say that an escape is impossible for Zayn, especially given how &#8220;The Master Strategist&#8221; prides himself on being one step ahead of everyone else from a mental standpoint. However, against a game competitor such as McIntyre &#8211; a former multi-time world champion at that &#8211; escape may be next to impossible.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Due to their touring schedule, on last week&#8217;s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, World Wrestling Entertainment held two shows from the same venue. Thus, this week&#8217;s edition will be a taped show. Nonetheless, this week&#8217;s SmackDown looks to be nothing short of promising, as Drew McIntyre faces Sami Zayn in a Steel Cage Match. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3354,"featured_media":113202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,26,3],"tags":[403,686,70,7976,1284,106,7696,153],"class_list":["post-113200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-charlotte-flair","tag-drew-mcintyre","tag-ricochet","tag-rkbro","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sami-zayn","tag-shanky","tag-the-usos"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}