Breaking News: WWE SmackDown Champ Bayley to defend title tonight

Due to the flight situation in Saudi Arabia, WWE have announced that SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley will defend her title tonight against Nikki Cross.

Well, this is a bit of a pickle, isn’t it? As our always faithful readers may have noticed, I offered a preview of tonight’s edition of WWE Friday Night SmackDown that was published earlier this morning, but now we can consider everything mentioned in the preview pretty much null and void due to some unfortunate circumstances involving the majority of the WWE roster.

Of course, last night was when WWE held its Crown Jewel PPV event in Saudi Arabia. In what is now an ongoing, developing situation, many of those who competed last night still have not made it back to America.

Per WWE’s own statement, over 175 members of the roster and production team boarded a 747 Charter flight last night, but “due to several aircraft problems including mechanical issues,” they waited six hours on a tarmac without any ever taking flight. The situation is being handled as we speak, but there is no way the cast and crew will be able to make it back in the US in time for tonight’s SmackDown event in Buffalo, New York.

As a result, WWE have promised a night of “surprises” (per their original statement) during SmackDown. The first of which being an impromptu title match.

As stated in my preview, WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley and number one contender Nikki Cross were set to compete in Six Woman Tag Team action, but as a result of the flight issues, they are set to go one on one and Cross will get the title match she earned some weeks back.

Tonight should produce a fun title match between two tremendous competitors, but above all else, myself and the rest of the DDT team just hope that the rest of the WWE crew in Riyadh right now can make it back to the States safely sooner rather than later.