{"id":86614,"date":"2021-03-12T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=86614"},"modified":"2021-03-12T10:21:46","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T15:21:46","slug":"wwe-smackdown-card-3-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/03\/12\/wwe-smackdown-card-3-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: WWE \u2013 Friday Night SmackDown (03\/12\/2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WWE SmackDown<\/strong> is back once again! The road to <em><strong>WrestleMania<\/strong><\/em> is well and truly underway now.\u00a0 However, there is still that roadblock known as <em><strong>WWE Fastlane<\/strong><\/em> to get past first.\u00a0<strong> Roman Reigns<\/strong> versus <strong>Daniel Bryan<\/strong> is the big match set to take place at the pay-per-view and is, in many ways, something of a throwback to their<em> great<\/em> match at <em>Fastlane<\/em> way back in 2015.\u00a0 Tonight&#8217;s<strong> SmackDown<\/strong> already has three segments announced, so let&#8217;s dive in and take a look at the WWE SmackDown card.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SmackDown\u2019s Road to WrestleMania heats up this Friday\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hlpvguwXWw8?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<h2><strong>Big E Returns to Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86617 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Big-E-Returns.jpg\" alt=\"Big E Returns to SmackDown\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Big-E-Returns.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Big-E-Returns-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Since splitting from <strong>The New Day<\/strong> last year, the reigning WWE Intercontinental Champion, <strong>Big E<\/strong>, has been on a role.\u00a0 For years now, the man has looked more and more primed for a solo run as he literally has it all.\u00a0 As his name suggests, he is a big guy; he has unmatched charisma and also just happens to be a solid worker in the ring too.\u00a0 It is no surprise that he has become one of the highlights of SmackDown over the past six or so months.\u00a0 Tonight, he returns to SmackDown, following his injury at the hands of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2020\/05\/26\/before-they-were-famous-apollo-crews\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Apollo Crews<\/strong><\/a> &#8211; who, himself, is becoming something of a highlight.\u00a0 Yes, his new Nigerian Prince gimmick is&#8230; interesting, to say the least.\u00a0 But he is a good enough worker (and one of the most talented men on the roster) to do something with it.\u00a0 It is the most he has been showcased since his arrival to the WWE and as the antagonist to Big E, he might just make it work.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair Come to the Kevin Owens Show<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86618 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Kevin-Owens-Show-Featuring-Sasha-Banks-and-Bianca-Belair.jpg\" alt=\"The KO Show With Guests Bianca Belair &amp; Sasha Banks\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Kevin-Owens-Show-Featuring-Sasha-Banks-and-Bianca-Belair.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Kevin-Owens-Show-Featuring-Sasha-Banks-and-Bianca-Belair-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;EST&#8221; of the WWE, <strong>Bianca Belair<\/strong>, notched up one of the biggest wins of her career last week.\u00a0 For a long time, <strong>Shayna Baszler<\/strong> was unbeatable to Bianca &#8211; especially in <strong>NXT<\/strong>, where Shayna would constantly get the better of her.\u00a0 That is in the past now, as Bianca continued her hot run by defeating her former NXT tormentor last Friday.\u00a0 At <em>WrestleMania<\/em> next month, Bianca must overcome The Boss, <strong>Sasha Banks<\/strong>, who is enjoying her best title reign since her own NXT days more than half a decade ago.\u00a0 Though they will be teaming up at <em>Fastlane<\/em> to take on Shayna and <strong>Nia Jax<\/strong>, at<em> WrestleMania<\/em>, they will be on opposite sides and have the potential to have a show-stealing performance.\u00a0 Tonight, they appear on the<strong> Kevin Owens<\/strong> Show, where no doubt their ability to work as a team will be questioned and their feud will turn slightly more fiery.\u00a0 Owens, sadly, does not have too much to do now that his feud with Roman Reigns is over, so maybe some insight into what the future has in store for him will be teased, also.\u00a0 Either way, this segment should certainly focus more on Banks and Belair&#8217;s ability to work as a team.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Contract Signing Between Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan Ahead of WWE Fastlane Match<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-86616 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Roman-Reigns-and-Daniel-Bryan-Contract-Signing.jpg\" alt=\"WWE SmackDown Card: Roman Reigns &amp; Daniel Bryan Contract Signing\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Roman-Reigns-and-Daniel-Bryan-Contract-Signing.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/03\/Roman-Reigns-and-Daniel-Bryan-Contract-Signing-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The presumed main event of tonight&#8217;s SmackDown will see the contract signing between Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan, with <strong>Paul Heyman<\/strong> lurking behind the Tribal Chief.\u00a0 Last week, Bryan overcame <strong>Jey Uso<\/strong> in a cage match to earn his right to a rematch against Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship at<em> Fastlane<\/em>.\u00a0 Roman was, of course, furious with the outcome of the match.\u00a0 He understands Bryan is a worthy, hearty challenger and more than capable of beating him on Bryan&#8217;s best day, so he is wary of his opponent.\u00a0 In what has become typical Roman Reigns fashion since becoming the Tribal Chief last year, there is a possibility that Roman &#8211; with help from Jey and Heyman, to an extent &#8211; will try to inflict as much damage as he can onto Bryan here, to ensure that he is weakened nine days before their match.\u00a0 Bryan will have to be on his A-game and hope that he makes it through tonight unscathed.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Not Announced But Expected For Tonight&#8217;s SmackDown Card<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Sami Zayn<\/strong> helped <strong>Baron Corbin<\/strong> to a win over <strong>Montez Ford<\/strong> last week but Corbin did not return the favor in Zayn&#8217;s match against <strong>Angelo Dawkins<\/strong>.\u00a0 Zayn will continue courting the King in what looks like the makings of a new tag team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Dominik Mysterio<\/strong> pinned <strong>Chad Gable<\/strong> last week.\u00a0 The <strong>Mysterios<\/strong> will continue their feud with <strong>Otis<\/strong> and Gable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong>Seth Rollins<\/strong> and <strong>Cesaro<\/strong> are clearly heading to a match at<em> Fastlane<\/em> and maybe<em> WrestleMania<\/em>.\u00a0 That will be teased further tonight.<\/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.\u00a0WWE fan? 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>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? Head on over to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/boards\/index.php\" target=\"_self\">LWOS Boards<\/a>\u00a0to engage in conversation with fellow fans!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE SmackDown is back once again! The road to WrestleMania is well and truly underway now.\u00a0 However, there is still that roadblock known as WWE Fastlane to get past first.\u00a0 Roman Reigns versus Daniel Bryan is the big match set to take place at the pay-per-view and is, in many ways, something of a throwback [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2482,"featured_media":86616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[2,26,3],"tags":[1445,552,56,73,256,77,159,52,47],"class_list":["post-86614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-smackdown","category-wwe-universe","tag-bianca-belair","tag-big-e","tag-daniel-bryan","tag-kevin-owens","tag-paul-heyman","tag-roman-reigns","tag-sasha-banks","tag-smackdown","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86614","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=86614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}