WWE SmackDown Live Preview: January 16, 2018
To say that this week's WWE Raw was a good show would be an understatement. Raw wasn't even Raw this wee; it was the Braun Strowman show.
The Monster Among Men was on a one-man mission to ensure an unhealthy disbalance in WWE's account books as he went about wrecking havoc wherever the opportunity arose. In hindsight, it made an otherwise lacklustre show an entertaining watch.
Follow Sportskeeda's coverage of the January 16, 2018, episode of SmackDown Live right here.
SmackDown doesn't have a Strowman-like behemoth in their ranks but they do have a Phenomenal Champion who is embroiled in a very complex feud at the moment. That's not all, the on-going US title tournament has shaped up to be quite an erratic competition as the participants of the final round will be decided today.
SmackDown has all the tools in their arsenal to upstage the men in red this week but it all depends on how WWE tackle these five major talking points heading into tonight's show.
#1 US Championship tournament semi-finals
Xavier Woods is right up there with the underrated lot in the WWE and he imposed that very fact in remarkable fashion when he beat Aiden English last week. The level of competition increases manifold this time around as the UpUpDownDown host goes up against Jinder Mahal in one of the two semifinal bouts.
The Modern Day Maharaja is slowly getting used to life without the WWE Championship around his waist but he just can't seem to get over being without a title he held for a whopping 170 days. His attention is now on the Championship that has long been the go-to championship for foreign anti-USA heels.
Woods or Mahal would battle it out for the chance to go up against either Bobby Roode or Mojo Rawley, who would also work their semifinals match tonight. If current odds, rumours, and the predicted booking patterns are taken into account then Mahal and Roode should be the ones advancing to the finals, which has now been removed from the Royal Rumble due to an unspecified reason.
While Woods and Rawley have impressed in their respective roles, the heel-face dynamic that Roode vs Mahal brings to the table has been Vince McMahon's bread and butter for as long as we can remember. For all the haters of the Modern Day Maharaja, the Glorious One is expected to win his first main roster title at the end of the tourney.
But we all know WWE and how adept they are at throwing a curveball at the fans. Thus, expect a twist or two en route in determining the new holder of the star-spangled championship.