WWE’s SmackDown announces its weekly lineup

The WWE has been going ahead in recent week’s despite the COVID-19 outbreak showing no signs of slowing down in the United States. The wrestling entertainment franchise is lining up several events to build up towards the Clash of Champions PPV, with the reigning Universal Champion Roman Reigns having an interview ahead of that event, along with other matches to set up major storylines and plots.

Roman Reigns is teaming up with his cousin Jey Uso in tag team matches, with a couple of wins against Sheamus and King Corbin, but will also be taking him on at the Clash of Champions with the Universal Champion belt on the line. Reigns won a Samoan Street Fight last week between the pair, and it seems as if the competitive spirit may finally be coming into this family relationship. Reigns is scheduled to have an interview about his relationship with Uso in the ring this week, and it will be fascinating to hear from the Universal Champion on how he plans to deal with fighting his cousin and the dynamics of that particular clash. The title holder is expected to keep hold of his belt at esportbetting.net and other betting houses, but be wary of an upset in this familial clash.

Another title tilt, this time of the Intercontinental Championship. Jeff Hardy, the holder of the belt, is going face-to-face with Sami Zayn in a non-title match this week, before the duo share the ring with AJ Styles at the Clash of Champions. There has been controversy around the pair, and indeed Styles, in the last few weeks, so it will be interesting to see how these two match up against each other, before the title bout at the Clash of Champions, which will be a Triple Threat Winner Takes All Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship.

The Clash of Champions is being held at the WWE ThunderDome, with virtual audiences. Capacity has already been reached, and it is expected to be a highly-watched event. At the same time, there has been a COVID outbreak in the WWE NXT, which has led to classes being cancelled at the WWE Performance Center, and it could also have an impact on the PPV scheduled for this weekend. There seems to have been an outbreak in the wrestling industry, and if so, WWE will need to be very careful with their testing and isolation protocols to ensure that an event like the Clash of Champions does not end up becoming a superspreader event.

If the event manages to go ahead as planned, expect to see lots of high-octane action. Jeff Hardy remains ready to jump off wherever he can, even after more than 20 years in the business, and so a Ladder Match is right up his street. At the same time, the smart money will be on at least one of the contenders to the various titles winning their respective matches, as historically, there has been at least one title change at every Clash event since its inception in 2016.