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WWE News: ‘Thursday Night SmackDown’ Spoiler-Free Preview [Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, AJ Styles]

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 00:04 PST, Feb 4, 2016

Brock Lesnar was standing tall as WWE Raw went off the air on Monday, while his WWE Fastlane opponents, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, were both flat on the ground. While the Beast Incarnate isn’t scheduled to be at WWE SmackDown tonight, both of the former Shield members will be in attendance. Both Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose are looking to build momentum for the big showdown in Cleveland in less than three weeks. Whoever walks away victorious from the Triple Threat Match featuring Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns vs. Dean Ambrose will walk into WrestleMania 32 as the No. 1 contender to face Triple H for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

In the meantime, The Big Dog is still dealing with the remnants of his #AllVsOne campaign that he lead going into this year’s Royal Rumble, as League of Nations member Rusev is scheduled to face Reigns one-on-one. Additionally, WWE has advertised “The Phenomenal One” A.J. Styles in another match against The Miz after his segment on MizTV on Monday ended up with A.J. and Miz coming to blows.

On top of all of that, WWE taped at least four additional matches and several other segments while they were in Memphis, Tennessee, which included the likes of Dean Ambrose, The New Day, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch, Charlotte, The Wyatt Family, Alicia Fox, Alberto Del Rio, Kalisto, Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, the Social Outcasts, and Ryback. The following preview gives no spoilers for the episode of WWE Thursday Night SmackDown airing on the USA Network on February 4. These matches and segments have been confirmed by Wrestle Zone. Previews that include SmackDown spoilers are also available.

  • Roman Reigns vs. Rusev — Over the last few months, Roman Reigns has become the primary target of The Authority. In what started to look like Austin vs. McMahon 2, Vince and family continually stacked the odds against the Rock’s cousin, hoping to thwart his attempts to stay on top. The League of Nations has become an important tool of The Authority as they try to keep Reigns down with the “All Vs. One” theme. This is one of two matches officially confirmed at WWE.com’s SmackDown preview page.
  • A.J. Styles vs. The Miz — With major stars like John Cena, Seth Rollins, and Randy Orton sidelined with injuries, WWE has had to rely more on guys who have made a global name for themselves outside of the WWE machine. There is no better example of that currently on WWE programming than A.J. Styles. Unlike Samoa Joe and Austin Aries, Styles skipped NXT and debuted during one of the biggest matches of the year, the Royal Rumble Match. At the conclusion of this match, next Monday’s WWE Raw gets a match booked.
  • The New Day vs. The Social Outcasts — To a certain extent, WWE appears to be returning to the days of “Gang Rulz” from the Attitude Era that featured such factions as Degeneration-X, the Nation of Domination, the Disciples of Apocalypse and Los Boricuas. Just a few years later, the WWE was overrun by groups like The Radicalz, The Corporation, and the Undertaker’s Ministry of Darkness. While three different women’s factions just recently disbanded, today’s WWE still has The New Day, the League of Nations, The Wyatt Family, The Authority, and the Social Outcasts all vying for faction dominance.

  • Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch have a confrontation backstage while the WWE Universe waits to find out who will challenge for the WWE Divas Championship at Fastlane.
  • WWE Divas Champion Charlotte vs. Alicia Fox — Will Foxy find the same success against Ms. Flair as Brie Bella did on Raw in this non-title match-up?

  • WWE United States Champion Kalisto vs. Kevin Owens — With Dolph Ziggler on commentary, will the U.S. Champ be able to overcome the much larger Kevin Owens?
  • Erick Rowan vs. Ryback — The Big Guy has been just one of several targets that The Wyatt Family have victimized over the last several weeks. With Bray not present at the taping, will Ryback be able to overcome Wyatt’s minions?

  • Without divulging any spoilers, there is a main event match that is booked at the conclusion of another match earlier in the show.

WWE Thursday Night SmackDown airs weekly on the USA Network beginning at 8/7c. While replays of the show are not immediately available on the WWE Network, episodes of WWE SmackDown can be streamed on-demand the following day with a Hulu Plus subscription.

[Image via WWE]

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