WWE SmackDown preview (Sept. 2, 2022): It’s time to celebrate the end of Roman’s reign as champion

SmackDown airs tonight (Sept. 2) with a taped show (spoilers available here) from Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. This is the final SmackDown episode during the five week build towards Clash at the Castle, which takes place tomorrow (Sept. 3) at 1 pm ET.

It’s time to celebrate the end of Roman’s reign as champion

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has been at the head of the table for over 720 days and will mark two years on top with a big celebration in the ring tonight. What Roman doesn’t realize is that this might actually be a celebration of the end of his dominant run.

That’s because Roman is defending the gold tomorrow against Drew McIntyre at Clash at the Castle in Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. WWE is describing this event as “its first major stadium event in 30 years” in the United Kingdom. Drew happens to be from the United Kingdom. Can he really main event a show like this as the UK hero and not walk out as champion? Booking McIntyre to lose in the UK would be pure madness, no?

The “30 years” part of WWE’s description refers to SummerSlam 1992, which took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England. The main event of that card was the British Bulldog vs. Bret Hart, and of course Bulldog won the gold in his home country. McIntyre isn’t from Wales, but Scotland is pretty darn close. He’s basically in Bulldog’s position from 30 years ago as an underdog home country challenger against the incredible champion with a long history of success.

Drew really needs to make Roman suffer after last week’s incident where the Bloodline annihilated him and shredded Drew’s back to pieces. Will McIntyre get his revenge tonight by ruining Roman’s two year celebration, or will he wait to hit Roman where it hurts the most by getting his ultimate revenge with a championship win at Clash at the Castle?

The rest of the title scene

Weak and vulnerable SmackDown Women’s Champion Liv Morgan will defend the gold against Shayna Baszler at Clash at the Castle. These two wrestlers weren’t on the show last week. Considering that tonight’s episode was taped later that night, does this mean they also won’t be around on tonight’s episode?

Intercontinental Champion Gunther is set to defend his belt against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle. Their respective lackeys Ludwig Kaiser and Butch will have a singles match tonight, so there’s a chance Sheamus and Gunther will cross paths during or after that fight.

The Usos are the WWE tag team champs but don’t have any competition right now. They’ll likely be busy tonight joining Sami Zayn in celebrating Roman’s two years as champion. But will Sami face any repercussions after his role in Jey’s loss to Kevin Owens on Raw?

Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah are the new Women’s tag team champions. We’ll hopefully hear a word or two from the new champs tonight. Are Sasha Banks and Naomi ready yet to return to WWE and reclaim the gold that they never lost?

Other stuff to keep an eye on

- Ronda Rousey faces a “final judgment” tonight, which presumably means WWE will decide a new course of action regarding her indefinite suspension. Rousey doesn’t care about playing by the rules, so it might not even matter what Adam Pearce has to say to her about it.

- The issues between the new vicious Viking Raiders and the New Day have persisted for quite a while, but it will be settled with a match tonight rather than at Clash at the Castle. The gimmick is that it’s a Viking Rules match, which according to WWE means that “nothing is off the table in terms of the punishment that each team will inflict on the other.”

- After weeks of harassing Drew McIntyre and saying “tick tock” a lot, Karrion Kross will finally make his SmackDown in-ring debut tonight. As long as he’s not facing Jeff Hardy, Kross is a good bet to win against whichever jabroni stands across the ring from him. WWE’s web site says “the blue brand will never be the same” after Karrion’s debut match, so maybe he’ll be in there with a relatively important jabroni.

- Happy Corbin is on a losing streak. Which babyface will do the honors of kicking his ass tonight?

- Maximum Male Models have their first official match on SmackDown tonight. They’ll try their best to keep your guilty pleasures titillated when they take on Hit Row.

What will you be looking for on SmackDown?