5 surprises for SmackDown: Unexpected star to align with Roman Reigns to take out Brock Lesnar, Huge betrayal to take place with 4-time world champion and new superstar?
This week's SmackDown is going to be a big one. It's the first episode of December, and WWE will look towards achieving two things - potentially building up to the Day 1 pay-per-view on January 1st, 2022, as well as ending 2021 with a bang.
There's no better way to start the month than by having the return of Brock Lesnar. Apart from that, there is a big feud for the women's title, a power struggle with a certain authority figure, the underutilization of a top champion, and an interesting non-title feud.
Here are the biggest surprises that could happen on the blue brand this week:
#5. Brock Lesnar's return to SmackDown may not have a happy ending
Only one more sleep until @BrockLesnar returns to #SmackDown! https://t.co/yZNeAbTQsi
This week's episode of SmackDown will be centered around the return of Brock Lesnar. Although the next week's episode of the Friday night show at Staples Center was advertised as Lesnar buying a front-row ticket, WWE decided to end his suspension early.
It came at the expense of Sami Zayn, who toppled off Jeff Hardy in the Black Friday Battle Royal to become the No.1 contender to the Universal Championship. Zayn just can't catch a break. Last week on RAW, he handed Austin Theory over to Vince McMahon and revealed that the 24-year-old was the culprit for stealing the $100 million egg.
Instead of getting a WWE title shot as promised, Theory was handed the opportunity instead, and Sami Zayn was screamed at, with McMahon saying that "nobody likes a snitch".
Zayn went on to win an opportunity at the Universal title last Friday, but the thunder was stolen from him when Kayla Braxton got word that The Beast Incarnate's suspension was up, much to the dismay of Adam Pearce.
Even when I overcome every obstacle imaginable, @WWE does everything possible to minimize me. In this case, it was announcing Brock Lesnar’s return SECONDS after I outlasted 20 guys to become #1 contender for the Universal Championship.
It doesn’t matter now.
I’m next in line. https://t.co/66c2JhaDOi
The fallout of this will be interesting. It's expected to begin the build-up to the WrestleMania 38 main event, rumored to be a clash between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.
But there might be one more superstar who has a big beef with Lesnar - Sami Zayn. A big surprise would be if he aligned with The Tribal Chief for one night only to take out Brock Lesnar on SmackDown, making his return a rotten one.
This would get a lot of heat on both men, and it would also clear the way for their Universal title clash, presumably at Day 1 or even on SmackDown later in December. Sami Zayn has a reason to have beef with Brock Lesnar, and getting The Beast Incarnate out of the way would likely serve beneficial to him as well as Roman Reigns.