Start Strong: WWE Championship Match Set For SmackDown Season Premiere, Stipulation Included

That’s a huge one. WWE has been going through a lot of changes in recent months, including changes to its television product. In the coming months, all three of the major television shows will see a new broadcast home, with the first coming next week. That show is going to need a major main event and that was officially this week, with a title not being enough.

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This week’s SmackDown opened with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes challenging Jacob Fatu to a title match next week on the season premiere of SmackDown. Solo Sikoa declined on Fatu’s behalf though and challenged Rhodes instead. General Manager Nick Aldis made the match and put it inside of a steel cage. This will be a rematch from Summerslam, where Rhodes defeated Sikoa to retain the title. The show will also mark SmackDown’s return to USA after five years on FOX.

This was big. Check out how the match was set up and how we got here:

Opinion: That would certainly qualify as a major main event and the kind of thing that you do not see on television very often. It would be just about a month and a half removed from these two headlining Summerslam in an NFL stadium and now they are going to do it again, with a stipulation, on free television. There is potential for something huge to happen here so the setup has gone well.