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WWE Friday Night Smackdown returns to your screens tonight with a new episode coming live from Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, NE.
With Wrestlemania 39 fading away in the rearview mirror, we’re quickly barreling towards Backlash from Puerto Rico in just over three weeks. The build towards that pay-per-view will continue on tonight’s episode of Smackdown and we’ll also see the return of a fan favorite.
How to watch Friday Night Smackdown
Date: Friday, April 14
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Location: Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, NE
Network: Fox
Live stream: Fox Live or Fox Now App
What to watch for on Friday Night Smackdown
The war against the Bloodline has continued in the aftermath of Wrestlemania and Matt Riddle has re-joined the fight in his return to television. Last Friday, he came out and saved Sami Zayn from a 2-on-1 beatdown from Solo Sikoa and Jey Uso. During Monday’s episode of Raw, Riddle and Zayn and arrived at the very end of the show to save Kevin Owens from a 3-on-1 Bloodline beatdown. With Cody Rhodes currently occupied with Brock Lesnar, Riddle has become the third wheel in the fight and we’ll see what he has in store for the group tonight.
Tonight, we’ll get the return of Shinsuke Nakamura to the blue brand. Nakamura hasn’t been seen on WWE television since November, where he lost a match to Santos Escobar. He appeared in a handful of dark/house show matches in the months afterwards, but most notably faced the Great Muta in Muta’s retirement match during Pro Wrestling Noah’s “Noah The New Year 2023” pay-per-view in January. We’ll see what is in store for Nakamura upon his return to WWE television.
Speaking of Escobar, he along with Rey Mysterio and the rest of Legado del Fantasma have reformed the LWO in recent weeks and provided opposition to the Judgement Day. However, Rey and and Escobar fell to Dominik and Damian Priest in tag team action last Monday and Rey would fall to Finn Balor in singles action this past Monday on Raw. This feud will surely continue into tonight’s show and we’ll see if any matches are made official for Backlash, particular Smackdown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley getting her first challenger in Zelina Vega.
Also on the show, we’ll see Xavier Woods go one-on-one with L.A. Knight. We’ll also most likely see brand new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez after defeating Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus for the belts on Raw this week.