{"id":114908,"date":"2022-07-29T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T16:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=114908"},"modified":"2022-07-29T09:57:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-29T13:57:56","slug":"preview-wwe-smackdown-sheamus-drew-mcintyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/07\/29\/preview-wwe-smackdown-sheamus-drew-mcintyre\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE SmackDown (7\/29\/22) \u2013 Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is Friday! That means the <strong>WWE<\/strong>&#8216;s blue-branded sports entertainment (are we still sports entertainment in the post-<strong>Vince McMahon<\/strong> era?) extravaganza, <strong>Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong>, has arrived once more. Additionally, tonight&#8217;s episode of SmackDown is the go-home edition ahead of tomorrow night&#8217;s WWE <strong><em>SummerSlam 2022<\/em><\/strong> event. Hasn&#8217;t that come around fast? Without further ado, let&#8217;s jump into the first SmackDown Preview of the<strong> Triple H<\/strong> era of SmackDown &#8211; one which will be headlined by <strong>Sheamus<\/strong> and<strong> Drew McIntyre<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h3>Lacey Evans vs. Aliyah<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_112702\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-112702\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-112702 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/04\/lacey-evans-returns-smackdown.jpg\" alt=\"Lacey Evans Returns to SmackDown\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/04\/lacey-evans-returns-smackdown.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/04\/lacey-evans-returns-smackdown-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-112702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Lacey Evans vs Aliyah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Lacey Evans<\/strong>. For months, she was being rehabilitated as a triumphant, ex-military babyface with the potential to be the face of the SmackDown women&#8217;s division. Then she was randomly moved from SmackDown to <strong>Raw<\/strong>; then she was a heel, and then she wasn&#8217;t; then she was moved <em>back<\/em> to SmackDown and now she is most definitely a heel after having tormented poor <strong>Aliyah<\/strong> in recent weeks. Here&#8217;s hoping the Triple H era of creative brings about a solid direction for Evans. Anyway, tonight, Lacey Evans and Aliyah are set to clash.<\/p>\n<h3>The New Day (Kofi Kingston &amp; Xavier Woods) vs. The Viking Raiders<\/h3>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/Kavpfxu.jpg\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>Tonight&#8217;s SmackDown will also bear witness to the<strong> New Day<\/strong> (<strong>Kofi Kingston<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Xavier Woods<\/strong>) taking on the newly vicious<strong> Viking Raiders<\/strong>. It is now little over a month since the Viking Raiders adopted meaner personas; turning heel and immediately entering into a feud with the multi-time tag team champions of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods. Tonight, these two teams will collide once more and the New Day are going to need a little bit more than the &#8220;power of positivity&#8221; to overcome this pillaging.<\/p>\n<h3>Donnybrook Match: Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre<\/h3>\n<figure id=\"attachment_114909\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-114909\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-114909 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/07\/Donnybrook-Match.jpg\" alt=\"SmackDown Sheamus Drew McIntyre\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/07\/Donnybrook-Match.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2022\/07\/Donnybrook-Match-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-114909\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Tonight&#8217;s episode of SmackDown sees the first ever &#8220;Donnybrook&#8221; match between Sheamus and Drew McIntyre. For those unaware, Donnybrook is a district of Dublin &#8211; the capital city of the Republic of Ireland which is, of course, the home-country of Sheamus. What do the rules of the match entail, one might ask. All that we know is that it&#8217;s a no-disqualification match that will likely feature the use of &#8220;Irish weapons&#8221;, such as a Shillelagh. So all weapons are probably permitted. If you wanted to see Sheamus get chopped down by McIntyre&#8217;s ancestral sword, Angela, though, you&#8217;ll perhaps be disappointed to learn that the sword is prohibited and banned from the match. Should the match go ahead, you can at least be sure that these two will be able to put on a very entertaining brawl of a match, given their chemistry in the ring.<\/p>\n<h3>Not Announced But Expected for SmackDown<\/h3>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Brock Lesnar<\/strong> and <strong>Roman Reigns<\/strong> are set to main event <em>SummerSlam<\/em> tomorrow night. Expect one final confrontation between the two behemoths ahead of their bout.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Maximum Male Models<\/strong> is now ran by <strong>Max Dupri<\/strong>&#8216;s sister, <strong>Maxxine Dupri<\/strong> (the former <strong>Sofia Cromwell<\/strong> of <strong>NXT<\/strong> fame). Apparently, some beachwear is getting debuted tonight, so that could be cool. It is worth noting that Max Dupri (the former <strong>LA Knight<\/strong>) was written out of the group last Friday, when Vince McMahon was still head of creative. Might we see him rejoin the group tonight? Tune in to find out.<\/p>\n<h3>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h3>\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>It is Friday! That means the WWE&#8216;s blue-branded sports entertainment (are we still sports entertainment in the post-Vince McMahon era?) extravaganza, Friday Night SmackDown, has arrived once more. Additionally, tonight&#8217;s episode of SmackDown is the go-home edition ahead of tomorrow night&#8217;s WWE SummerSlam 2022 event. Hasn&#8217;t that come around fast? Without further ado, let&#8217;s jump [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2482,"featured_media":0,"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":[26,4,3],"tags":[515,57,686,553,740,8394,8419,77,399,6381,551],"class_list":["post-114908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-aliyah","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-drew-mcintyre","tag-kofi-kingston","tag-lacey-evans","tag-max-dupri","tag-maxxine-dupri","tag-roman-reigns","tag-sheamus","tag-viking-raiders","tag-xavier-woods"],"modified_by":"Niklas George","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114908","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\/2482"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}