Friday Night Smackdown preview: Three questions heading into June 10 episode

WWE Friday Night Smackdown comes live from the Raising Cane’s River Center in Baton Rouge, LA, tonight and the company is beginning the march towards Money in the Bank next month.

Whether it’s an extremely important episode or a completely throwaway show that will be forgotten about in two weeks, there’s always questions that surround each edition of Friday Night Smackdown. I’ll ask a few pertaining to tonight’s episode.

Will the Intercontinental Championship change hands tonight?

The marquee match for the show will feature Ricochet putting the Intercontinental Championship on the line when facing Gunther. The two have crossed paths over the past two weeks and the match was made official during last week’s show?

So will the belt change hands?

Spoiler - yes. Well, it seems like the writing is on the wall for Rick O’Shea. The high flyer has had the belt for a little over three months and has had a handful of nice title defenses in the process. But c’mon, you know what time it is. Gunther has been presented as an intimidating presence since debuting on Smackdown a few months ago and him chopping down Ricochet for the belt has seemed like an inevitability. And considering that Roman Reigns is taking time off, he’d currently be the top heel champion on the show.

When are we going to see Roman Reigns next?

Speaking of Reigns, he’s been M.I.A. from television as of late. He was completely absence from Hell in a Cell and the new rumor this week is that he won’t be scheduled to wrestle at Money in the Bank either.

So when are we next going to see the “Tribal Chief”?

Reigns has yet to defend his undisputed championship since defeating Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 38 and has effectively taken a backseat to the story of the Usos unifying the tag belts. We did get Riddle directly challenging Reigns during this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw but if the champ is not appearing at the next ppv, what’s the plan for when he’ll return?

Who will represent Smackdown in the Money in the Bank ladder matches?

This is something to think about as the ppv in Las Vegas quickly approaches. There’s plenty of options on the men’s side with the likes of Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Ricochet, Xavier Woods, Butch, and Madcap Moss all serving as potential candidates. Meanwhile on the women’s side, it’s slim pickings compared to their Raw counterparts. The depth is thin with Shotzi, Aliyah, and Shayna Baszler the only undercard performers consistently appearing on the show. We’ll see what they have in mind over the next few weeks.