Rhea Ripley added to SmackDown, matches set for Friday Night SmackDown

Photo Courtesy: WWE

WWE has announced multiple matches and segments for tonight’s post-WrestleMania edition of Friday Night SmackDown.

The fallout from WrestleMania continues with tonight’s episode from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.

On Thursday, it was revealed that Paul Levesque would appear on SmackDown to address the WWE audience without any additional specifics. Levesque opened Raw on Monday by thanking the WWE talents and staff along with the fanbase following WrestleMania. Levesque subtly acknowledged the merger with UFC stating nothing would be changing and the company isn’t going anywhere.

In an e-mail to employees earlier in the day, Vince McMahon stated that Levesque would remain in his role as chief content executive. McMahon told CNBC that he would have a role in the larger picture with creative but would not be getting “in the weeds”. However, multiple reports noted that McMahon had a large involvement in Raw with several changes made late in the day and McMahon being stationed in the gorilla position throughout the program. It remains to be seen if McMahon will be present at tonight’s show or have a larger input on the show remotely.

SmackDown will also see Rhea Ripley appear on the show for the first time since winning the SmackDown Women’s Championship from Charlotte Flair this past Saturday at WrestleMania 39. 

Below is the full list of announced matches and segments for SmackDown:
*Paul Levesque to address the audience
*Sami Zayn vs. Jey Uso
*Rey Mysterio & Santos Escobar vs. Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio
*Gunther, Giovanni Vinci & Ludwig Kaiser vs. Sheamus, Butch & Ridge Holland
*Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn return as tag champions
*Rhea Ripley to appear

Rewind-A-SmackDown will be live at 10 p.m. ET tonight as John Pollock & Wai Ting review the show and chat today’s top stories for members of the POST Wrestling Café

About John Pollock 5925 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.