Cody Rhodes finally gets to put his hands on The Rock

SmackDown airs tonight (Mar. 8) with a live show emanating from American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. This is the second episode of SmackDown during the six week build towards WrestleMania 40, which takes place on the weekend of Apr. 6 and Apr. 7 in Philadelphia.

Cody Rhodes finally gets to put his hands on The Rock

Last week, The Rock and Roman Reigns issued a challenge for Cody and Seth Rollins to fight them in a tag team match on night one of WrestleMania 40. If Cody and Seth win, the rest of The Bloodline will be banned from the building on night two when Cody challenges Roman for the WWE Universal Championship. But if The Rock and Roman win, then it will be Bloodline Rules on night two, where the group can interfere with the main event match however they see fit.

Cody and Seth will appear on SmackDown tonight to confront The Rock and Roman and formally answer their challenge for WrestleMania. The drama here isn’t about their answer; Cody already said the answer is obvious, so we know the babyfaces will accept. The real question is, what happens after they say yes?

It’s been over one month since The Rock slapped the taste out of Cody’s mouth in Las Vegas. The American Nightmare has yet to get his hands on The Rock since that happened, but he should be physically close enough in the ring with The Rock tonight to take a shot. Will he do it?

Even with Seth by his side, the babyfaces are outnumbered tonight when you consider that Solo Sikoa, Jim Uso, and Paul Heyman will be lurking on the periphery. If Cody decides to take a swing at The Rock and all hell breaks loose, will Jey Uso show up to take out his brother and have Cody’s back?

The most pressing question of all might actually center around Rollins. How badly will The Rock eviscerate this guy on the mic after Seth coined the super lame and cringeworthy “Diarrhea Dwayne” moniker? Is The Rock such a charismatic and overwhelming presence on the mic that he makes Cody and Seth both look like total geeks if they can’t keep up at his level?

The rest of the card

United States Champion Logan Paul returns to TV tonight. Randy Orton desperately wants to hit this douchebag with an RKO due to the brass knuckles incident at Elimination Chamber. Kevin Owens also wants to kick this guy’s ass, which means the two babyfaces might actually get in each other’s way. Is this leading to a three-way match at WrestleMania, or will KO graciously step aside so that Randy can have Logan all to himself?

Bobby Lashley goes one-on-one with Karrion Kross tonight. There’s almost guaranteed to be involvement from some combination of AOP, Street Profits, Scarlett, B-Fab, and Paul Ellering, so the winner might come down to whose allies are better at interfering behind the referee’s back. And if the whole thing breaks down to an obvious disqualification, maybe these guys will have to take their group warfare onto the WrestleMania stage in a gimmick match.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

– Bianca Belair might be the biggest star in WWE who doesn’t have an obvious direction for a match at WrestleMania. Will we find out more information tonight on who she might fight on the grand stage, or will The Rock’s segment go another 40 minutes and cut into her time?

– LA Knight was looking to beat the shit out of AJ Styles last week, but that coward was nowhere to be seen. I wonder if Styles decided to stick around in Australia for a while and enjoy the scenery after flying all the way there just to screw Knight over at Elimination Chamber. At any rate, violence will erupt when these two guys are in the same building again, so hopefully that will happen tonight.

– Rey Mysterio returned to SmackDown last week and helped Carlito defeat Santos Escobar in a Street Fight. Will Santos and Legado del Fantasma respond to this setback by issuing a WrestleMania challenge to Rey and the LWO?

– Will Bayley have to take down every member of Damage CTRL all by herself after Dakota Kai betrayed her last week?

– Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate asked SmakDown GM Nick Aldis for a tag team title shot at WrestleMania. When will Aldis and Raw GM Adam Pearce reveal their joint plan for those belts in Philadelphia?

– Which jabroni is getting squashed by Bron Breakker tonight?

– What’s taking Jade Cargill so long to sign with either Raw or SmackDown? Is she actually willing to miss WrestleMania because she’s too hesitant to make a decision?

– Austin Theory and Grayson Waller are really good at taking babyface finishing moves. Which babyfaces will join the party tonight?

– What’s next for Naomi after she lost against Tiffany Stratton last week?

– Where the f*** is Omos?

What will you be looking for on SmackDown?