‘The Samoan sabbatical is over this Friday’

The news here (well, really just a confirmation, since WWE already tweeted this out during last Friday’s episode) is that Universal champion Roman Reigns will be on the Dec. 17 SmackDown. It’s noteworthy because he wasn’t on the Dec. 10 show, as he reportedly arranged for the night off in advance.

Perhaps it’s not even worthy of a post, but as you can tell by the headline, I just adore the opening line of WWE.com’s article on the subject — so you’re getting a post:

The Samoan sabbatical is over this Friday.

After taking a week away on a night that saw Brock Lesnar wreak more havoc on the blue brand by attacking Sami Zayn yet again and hunting down WWE Official Adam Pearce to tell him a rather threatening story, Universal Champion Roman Reigns is set to return to Friday Night SmackDown.

What will The Head of the Table have in store? How will he respond to The Beast’s latest actions on the road to their championship showdown at WWE Day 1?

Find out live on SmackDown this Friday at 8/7 C on FOX!

WWE Speak can be a lot at times, but sometimes it gives us things like “Samoan sabbatical”.

Jokes aside, while it’s early in the week and scripts are still being worked on and plans change and all that, it’s interesting that the above write-up doesn’t acknowledge (pun semi-intended) the big angle that’s covered by the video teaser for Friday’s show...

Will Reigns be responding to Lesnar? Or dealing with Paul Heyman? We’ll find out in a few days.

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for lunch. Or as I will now be referring to it, my Italian-American intermission.