WWE News: Two Matches Announced for Smackdown Featuring Elimination Chamber Participants
The big story on the WWE Smackdown brand heading towards Elimination Chamber on February 17 (just two weeks away) is that Daniel Bryan is defending his new WWE Title in six-man Elimination Chamber match against Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Mustafa Ali, Samoa Joe and AJ Styles.
Bryan introduced a new version of the WWE Title on this week’s Smackdown while also letting us know that his new buddy Rowan believes in preserving the Earth just like Bryan, so they have that in common. Bryan is doing a great job as the “Planet’s Champion” that is the focal point of the blue brand.
This week on Smackdown, Daniel Bryan will face one of the men in the Elimination Chamber match: Jeff Hardy. Bryan and Hardy have not wrestled eachother that much in their careers, so it’s a fresh matchup featuring two multi-time World Champions. Bryan’s WWE Title is not on the line.
My Prediction: It wouldn’t surprise me if Hardy won the match by disqualification with Rowan getting involved. It doesn’t make sense for either guy to get pinned unless it’s Bryan pinning Jeff after some help.
* The other match announced for Smackdown is Randy Orton facing Mustafa Ali, which I believe is a first time ever match. I’m sure Orton will enjoy taking on a new opponent while Ali will get to show what he can do in another big match as he continues to impress as a new face on the Smackdown brand.
My Prediction: I think Orton will do something cheap to get the win. Keep painting Ali as the underdog that has to keep proving himself.
The other two Elimination Chamber competitors are AJ Styles and Samoa Joe. There’s no word on if they will have a match on Smackdown too. They have wrestled eachother many times in the last few months, so WWE may not want to do it again or perhaps wait until next week.
* Another match advertised for Smackdown was set up last week. Rusev, who is back to being a heel, was in the locker room when Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows showed up to complain about Rusev working with Shinsuke Nakamura to beat up new US Champion R-Truth. Rusev didn’t show any remorse for what he did to R-Truth, so that set up the tag team match for this week with Anderson and Gallows sent to face off with Rusev and Nakamura.
I don’t really need Nakamura to beat this guys. But tune in to make sure I’m still the most handsome man out there https://t.co/mtdzyIKkdX
— Miro (@ToBeMiro) February 3, 2019
#GameTimehttps://t.co/85Ws7tB9Qf
— Karl Anderson (@MachineGunKA) February 3, 2019
There’s no word on what the women of Smackdown Live are doing yet, but here’s a reminder of that great punch by Becky Lynch to Charlotte Flair last week.
That’s all for now.