Cain A. Knight is a hardcore number-cruncher who has analyzed and covered pro wrestling for Cageside Seats since 2014, and followed the sport as a fan going back to the 1980's.
SmackDown airs tonight (Mar. 21) with a taped show emanating from Unipol Arena in Bologna, Italy. This is the third episode of SmackDown during the seven week build towards WrestleMania 41, which takes place on the weekend of April 19 and 20.
Roman Reigns returns to SmackDown tonight after crashing the end of CM Punk and Seth Rollins' steel cage match on the March 10 episode of Raw and destroying both men. Paul Heyman invited anyone who has a problem with Roman to come say it to his face tonight, and Punk and Rollins quickly accepted the invite. The ingredients are all there for an explosive confrontation if all three of these stars share the ring at the same time.
Given Roman's part-time status and all three rivals being on tonight's show, it makes sense for a WrestleMania triple threat match to be officially announced during tonight's segment. Reigns has main evented more WrestleMania cards than anybody in history, so this is CM's best chance left to secure the spot he's been chasing his entire WWE career.
One of the more interesting things to keep an eye on here is how Paul Heyman interacts with Reigns and Punk. Heyman showed concern for Punk before Roman speared him in half on Raw, so it's not absolutely clear where his loyalty lies. Who knows, perhaps the Wise Man will try to be the puppet master and align both Punk and Roman against Seth tonight.
There's also the loose end where Heyman owes Punk a favor. Will that favor come into play when Punk and Rollins confront the Tribal Chief?
Tune into SmackDown to see how many times Roman, CM, and Seth can punch each other in the face during a three hour broadcast.
Jade Cargill returns to the ring tonight for a match against Liv Morgan. This is Jade's first match since Naomi injured her backstage in November. Is Morgan being fed to the wolf here, or will Naomi be lurking in the shadows and ready to ruin the finish?
Braun Strowman vs. Jacob Fatu is also booked on SmackDown. Fatu's tension with Solo Sikoa has essentially been redirected at Braun in recent weeks, and The Monster can't figure out how to keep Fatu down. Will Braun channel his 2017 feats of destruction to put Jacob in his place, or will Fatu use Strowman as a launching pad up the card towards singles gold?
Zelina Vega wants a shot against Women's United States Champion Chelsea Green. Before that can happen, she first has to deal with Piper Niven tonight in a singles match. Will Alba Fyre and Green make sure the numbers game overwhelms Vega and ends her title chase right here?
- Drew McIntyre and Damian Priest will seemingly try to kill each other any time they cross paths between now and WrestleMania 41. If Damian is recovered from last week's brutal attack then I'm sure he will try to return the favor tonight. Does GM Nick Aldis have extra skid mark security on hand to keep these guys under control for a few more seconds before all hell breaks loose?
- WWE Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton responded to Charlotte Flair calling her soft by inciting a wild brawl last week and nailing a Swanton Bomb onto a large pile of bodies. Is The Queen still taking Tiffy Time lightly as her WrestleMania opponent, or has Charlotte changed her tune?
- Randy Orton showed that Elden Ring is better than Fortnite when he defeated Carmelo Hayes in a singles match last week. The voices in Randy's head told him to punt Carmelo's skull afterwards, but that dastardly Kevin Owens was there to save Hayes and ram Orton into the ringpost. Will Orton find a poor sap to punt in the head before WrestleMania to show Kevin exactly what kind of danger he is in?
- Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins are the new WWE tag team champions after beating DIY last week. Pretty Deadly is first in line as the number one contenders. Will Nick Aldis announce a date for this upcoming championship match?
- A big part of DIY's loss is related to Johnny Gargano's errant superkick that accidentally blasted Tommaso Ciampa late in the bout. Are the cracks beginning to form in DIY for an inevitable breakup?
- United States Champion LA Knight already has plenty of folks like Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa's Bloodline coming after his belt. Shinsuke Nakamura is hanging around hoping for a rematch too. Will one challenger emerge from the pack for a title match at WrestleMania, or is some kind of group match being planned?
- Can Andrade convince Humberto Carrillo to walk away from Legado del Fantasma if Santos Escobar keeps talking down to him like he's a disappointment?
- The events page on WWE's web site lists Cody Rhodes and Bianca Belair as stars who are in the building tonight, for whatever that's worth.
- Are we getting another teaser video that makes it more obvious Rey Fenix is on his way to WWE? And am I wrong in assuming the other teaser video from last week was about Aleister Black?
- Will the WWE fans in Italy be able to outshine the live audiences in other stops on the current European tour such as Brussels or Barcelona?
- Where the f*** is Alexa Bliss? She was pulled from an appearance at WWE World during WrestleMania week, putting her status for the biggest pro wrestling event of the year into question.