WWE SmackDown returns to the SyFy channel this coming Friday night (March 15, 2013) from Fort Wayne, Indiana, but the show was taped, as usual, on Tuesday night. That means full spoilers are readily available, if you're the impatient type who doesn't want to wait a couple days for the payoff.
Unwrap that present early (via details from PWTorch.com):
- The show sends the WWE Universe mixed signals on the build to WrestleMania 29, which will air April 7, which is less than two dozen days after this episode of SmackDown. For some time now, it has been eluded to via recent storylines, that there will be a Six-Man Tag Match at 'Mania. It will involve The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns) of course and they will be facing Sheamus, Randy Orton and presumably the Big Show.
As of right now, we are pretty sure of that outcome. Or are we?
- WWE's SmackDown, as of the date of this post (Mar. 13), has not officially announced an undercard tag match for 'Mania between Team Hell No (Kane & Daniel Bryan) and Dolph Ziggler with his enforcer Big E Langston. But, the build continues on strongly enough to make it highly likely at this point. So be prepared to see more on this in the next couple of weeks.
(1) Sierra. Hotel. India. Echo. Lima. Delta. The Shield make an appearance early on SmackDown in order to issue a challenge to The Apex Predator and the The Great White Sheamus. The two are to hurry up and find themselves a partner for a six-man tag match at 'Mania. Okay, so that match is definitely happening now. But, the question still remained, who would their sixth man be?
(2) Big Show made it clear he wanted to be the sixth man on the team, just so he could beat them down. However, in a turn of events, Orton and Sheamus advised Show they had already selected their sixth man, and it wasn't him. Instead, it was none other than, The Ryback. (Wuh?)
(3) The SmackDown GM, Booker T made an appearance officially declaring Ryback as the sixth member of the tag match at WrestleMania XXIX. So Ryback is now legitimately slotted to take on The Shield with Orton and Sheamus, leaving Big Show seemingly out of the big show.
(4) The SmackDown Main Event of the night was all set. We were prepared to witness Mark Henry vs... yes, Ryback. So of course, this did not actually occur. Because, you guessed it, The Shield, continued their streak of smackdowns when they descended on the ring and brutally attacked The Ryback. Once they took him out, it left Henry wide open to force-feed more than a few World's Strongest Slams to the hungry giant before welcoming him to dinner at the Hall of Pain.
- To summarize for the class, Cagesiders: At WrestleMania we will either have another three-peat, trifecta, hat-trick of a match; involving a familiar spectacle in Orton, Sheamus, Ryback (Sh-Ort-Back? -- I am taking credit for that right now, fyi) vs. The Shield.
If (and when) this occurs, this will again leave Mark Henry as the cheese that stands alone in this game. Or perhaps, during the next fortnight we will likely see Ryback somehow ejected from the Shortback Trio, left to finish off Henry mano-a-mano in a re-match, so the Show can likely take his cue to enter stage left. Or will we?
That's it for SmackDown, Cagesiders. How does it sound to you?