{"id":118329,"date":"2023-03-16T17:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T21:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=118329"},"modified":"2023-03-16T12:08:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T16:08:53","slug":"preview-wwe-smackdown-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2023\/03\/16\/preview-wwe-smackdown-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE SmackDown Tonight (3\/17\/23) \u2013 Friday Night SmackDown Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The week is coming to an end, which can only mean <em>one<\/em> thing (well, technically <em>many<\/em> things): <strong>WWE Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong> has arrived again (and, therefore, so has our weekly preview)! That&#8217;s right, it is once more time for the blue-branded grappling extraodinaire to come to your homes live via FOX. This week&#8217;s episode is being built around a big number one contenders match between two friends (who have also formerly been enemies&#8230; as well as former friends, these Europeans can&#8217;t make their minds up) competing one vs one to earn the right to challenge for one of the company&#8217;s most coveted prizes. Let&#8217;s dive right in and preview this week&#8217;s episode of Friday Night SmackDown!<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Drew McIntyre and Sheamus both win the Fatal 5-Way?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uqed_kV7xVE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Intercontinental Championship Number One Contenders Match: Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-118330 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/Sheamus-vs-Drew-McIntyre-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/Sheamus-vs-Drew-McIntyre-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/Sheamus-vs-Drew-McIntyre-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/Sheamus-vs-Drew-McIntyre-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/Sheamus-vs-Drew-McIntyre.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hear that sound? That loud, meaty, crushing sound? Well, that was likely the sound of these two Celtic behemoths chopping each other. It is a force which can be heard (and felt) halfway across the globe and, no doubt, will be felt strongly by these two tonight. <strong>Sheamus<\/strong> and <strong>Drew McIntyre<\/strong> have a storied, complicated history &#8211; their careers have entwined together throughout the years, dating even back before their respective, highly successful WWE careers. Currently, their relationship is on very warm terms &#8211; meaning this bout to determine the number one contender for Gunther&#8217;s Intercontinental Championship is going to be something of a friendly contest&#8230; or is it? Sheamus <em>needs<\/em> to win this match; having fallen to <strong>Gunther<\/strong> on numerous occasions previously (including at their Match of the Year Contender bout at <strong><em>Clash at the Castle<\/em><\/strong> last year), the Irishman will feel he has something to prove against an adversary who has so far bested him at every turn. In the case of McIntyre, he wants to win the Intercontinental Championship against a man who he believes he can beat, and his friend cannot. Tonight, these two clash and, no doubt, it&#8217;s going to be a hard-hitting clinic between two of the WWE&#8217;s best. Gunther, watch on nervously.<\/p>\n<h4>Not Announced But Expected for SmackDown<\/h4>\n<p>&#8211; The continuation of the <strong>Bloodline<\/strong> story. Will <strong>Sami Zayn<\/strong> fight back? Will <strong>Kevin Owens<\/strong> join him in this war they are both <em>very<\/em> much a part of? Where does <strong>Cody Rhodes<\/strong> go after his collision with the Bloodline on Monday? How will <strong>Roman Reigns<\/strong> react? All will be revealed tonight!<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Charlotte Flair<\/strong> and <strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong> continue to attempt to one up each other ahead of their SmackDown Women&#8217;s Championship contest at <strong><em>WrestleMania<\/em><\/strong>. Who will get the advantage tonight?<\/p>\n<h3>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h3>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\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<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">WWE Network<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><\/em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Peacock<\/span><\/em><\/a><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Photo Credits: WWE<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The week is coming to an end, which can only mean one thing (well, technically many things): WWE Friday Night SmackDown has arrived again (and, therefore, so has our weekly preview)! That&#8217;s right, it is once more time for the blue-branded grappling extraodinaire to come to your homes live via FOX. This week&#8217;s episode is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2482,"featured_media":118330,"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":[403,98,686,73,3041,77,106,399,7994,153],"class_list":["post-118329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-charlotte-flair","tag-cody-rhodes","tag-drew-mcintyre","tag-kevin-owens","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-roman-reigns","tag-sami-zayn","tag-sheamus","tag-the-bloodline","tag-the-usos"],"modified_by":"Niklas George","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118329","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=118329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}