{"id":118977,"date":"2023-04-27T12:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=118977"},"modified":"2023-04-28T05:39:11","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T09:39:11","slug":"preview-wwe-smackdown-friday-night-smackdown-card-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2023\/04\/27\/preview-wwe-smackdown-friday-night-smackdown-card-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE SmackDown Tonight (4\/28\/23) \u2013 Friday Night SmackDown Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The working week is rapidly approaching its natural conclusion &#8211; meaning <strong>Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong> is almost upon us once again. The weeks have flown by since <em><strong>WrestleMania<\/strong> <\/em>earlier in the month and it feels as though every day brings about new drama in the <strong>WWE<\/strong>; with the company (and parent company <strong>Endeavor<\/strong>) now the subject of a number of rather serious lawsuits. Regardless, the on-screen product has been suffering somewhat since <em>WrestleMania<\/em> and maybe, just maybe, WWE SmackDown tonight can rebuild some of the pre-<em>WrestleMania<\/em> momentum. Without further ado, let&#8217;s take a look at this week&#8217;s WWE SmackDown draft-themed card.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The WWE Draft returns!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HSkYN88I-8Y?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>Zelina Vega Vs. Sonya Deville<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-118978\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/04\/Zelina-Vega-vs-Sonya-Deville.jpg\" alt=\"Zelina Vega &quot;gears up&quot; for Rhea Ripley by facing former WWE executive, Sonya Deville.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/04\/Zelina-Vega-vs-Sonya-Deville.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/04\/Zelina-Vega-vs-Sonya-Deville-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Zelina Vega<\/strong> is enjoying something resembling a push at the moment &#8211; and it is well-deserved for the years of being underutilized and robbed of feel-good moments (if you know, you know). Vega is now the number one contender for <strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong>&#8216;s SmackDown Women&#8217;s Championship at <em><strong>Backlash<\/strong> <\/em>&#8211; set to be held in Puerto Rico, an ancestral and family home of Vega &#8211; and is riding a wave of momentum. Her opponent for this week&#8217;s SmackDown is none another than one of the other long-time underutilized talents within the WWE, <strong>Sonya Deville<\/strong>, who will be looking to derail Zelina&#8217;s momentum and remind fans (and the locker room) just who she is.<\/p>\n<h3>WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship: The Usos Vs. Kevin Owens &amp; Sami Zayn (C)<\/h3>\n<figure style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.imgur.com\/6W6xymq.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are set to defend their WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship against The Usos on the April 28 edition of Friday Night SmackDown.\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Time&#8217;s are getting tough for <strong>The Usos<\/strong> (<strong>Jimmy<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Jey Uso<\/strong>), aren&#8217;t they? The reunified team of <strong>Kevin Owens<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Sami Zayn<\/strong> have already beaten the <strong>Bloodline<\/strong> deputies at every turn &#8211; taking their WWE Undisputed Tag Team Championship in the process &#8211; and they now look set to potentially cause a great schism within The Bloodline, as <strong>Paul Heyman<\/strong> has informed The Usos that Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns, is losing his patience with the duo. Uh oh. If they lose on SmackDown this week, might we expect to see some fireworks? Be sure to tune in and find out.<\/p>\n<h3>Night One of the WWE Draft<\/h3>\n<p>A few short weeks ago, <strong>Triple H<\/strong> delivered an address to the WWE Universe announcing that the WWE draft would return on the April 28th edition of SmackDown. This has been necessary for a while now, with the brand split having become an afterthought a <em>long<\/em> time ago. We all have our thoughts on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2023\/04\/26\/wwe-draft-2023\/\" target=\"_self\">which superstars could benefit from the draft<\/a>, and with the added revelation of a new World Heavyweight Championship being set to be the top prize on whichever brand <strong>Roman Reigns<\/strong> doesn&#8217;t end up on (hilarious, really), there is the potential to create new stars. With WWE SmackDown tonight set to be night one of the draft, we may get some indication towards who is going to benefit.<\/p>\n<h3>More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/h3>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Photo Credits: WWE. 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The working week is rapidly approaching its natural conclusion &#8211; meaning Friday Night SmackDown is almost upon us once again. The weeks have flown by since WrestleMania earlier in the month and it feels as though every day brings about new drama in the WWE; with the company (and parent company Endeavor) now the subject [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2482,"featured_media":101608,"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":[26,3],"tags":[73,256,3041,77,106,739,153,1747],"class_list":["post-118977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-kevin-owens","tag-paul-heyman","tag-rhea-ripley","tag-roman-reigns","tag-sami-zayn","tag-sonya-deville","tag-the-usos","tag-zelina-vega"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118977","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=118977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}