Everything Booked for Tonight’s SmackDown

Raw defied all expectations by being not terrible last night, but now it’s time for the new A-show to bring things into the New Year. Most of tonight’s show is already booked, and there’s some fun stuff on deck.

The biggest is the Intercontinental Championship match between the Miz and Dean Ambrose. (I almost typed Dolph Ziggler there because I’m that used to it.)

This feud kicked off when Miz called out Renee Young’s offscreen relationship with Ambrose, leading to a kayfabe-stretching slap to the face and a new title battle.

This fight determines not only the Intercontinental Champion, but also which WWE superstar loves their lady more. (The answer, of course, is Rusev.)

Another one-on-one match goes down between Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler, and it seems WWE was counting on us forgetting about their weirdly long 2016 feud. In fairness, I mostly had until some commenters not-so-kindly reminded me. Will the pre-show stoppers have some heat in their renewed rivalry? They’re already off to a better start than they were last year.

Finally, AJ Styles and John Cena sign the contract for their Royal Rumble match over the WWE Championship. We all know how contract signings go in WWE, and one of my favorite things about the last year of wrestling is the wild increase in contrivances to keep these segments fresh. Bold prediction for 2017: this year will finally see a signing go smoothly, without incident, ending with a handshake.

Outside of announced segments, there are still two dangling plot threads that WWE.com claims we’ll see picked up tonight. First, the new Tag Team Championship reign of my boys, American Alpha. The Wyatts will certainly want revenge, but the age old wrestling question remains–can they put aside their differences to reclaim the titles?

Then there’s the identity of La Luchadora, who cost Becky Lynch her title rematch last week. I’ve seen reports and speculation that say it was Deonna Purazzo under the mask, but it wouldn’t be the first time a masked wrestler’s identity kept changing before the reveal–especially with Mickie James set to return any day now.

SmackDown broadcasts from the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Florida, live as always on the USA Network at 8PM Eastern/7PM Central. Stick with us for live coverage here, on Twitter, and on Facebook!