{"id":208260,"date":"2025-10-18T06:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208260\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T06:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T06:42:07","slug":"popular-star-wont-compete-on-wwe-smackdown-tonight-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/208260\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Star Won&#8217;t Compete On WWE SmackDown Tonight \u2014 Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WWE has reportedly made a major change to this week\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/tag\/wwe-smackdown\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmackDown<\/a> main event.<\/p>\n<p>Possible spoilers follow\u2026 <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"113\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wz_spoiler_alert.png\" alt=\"spoiler alert\" class=\"wp-image-1275261\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwinsider.com\/article\/201441\/exclusive-new-main-event-for-tonights-smackdown.html?p=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">PWInsider<\/a>, the company has scrapped the originally planned match between Drew McIntyre and Jacob Fatu. Instead, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes will face McIntyre in a rematch from WrestlePalooza.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJacob Fatu will no longer be competing on tonight\u2019s edition of Friday Night Smackdown, PWInsider.com can confirm. Fatu is at tonight\u2019s taping.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWWE will be going with WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre as the new main event of the broadcast, a WrestlePalooza rematch. The decision was made minutes ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rhodes was initially scheduled to open SmackDown in San Jose, while McIntyre vs. Fatu was set to close the show. Drew even <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1585377-drew-mcintyre-insists-wwe-smackdown-match-is-still-happening\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">insisted<\/a> in the lead-up to the show that the match would go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n<p>Bodyslam.net previously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1585277-jacob-fatu-could-miss-extended-time-due-to-injury-report\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">reported<\/a> that Fatu has been dealing with a non-wrestling-related injury that could sideline him for an extended period.<\/p>\n<p>It remains unconfirmed whether the Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre rematch will be for the Undisputed WWE Championship. WWE has not officially announced the updated lineup on social media at the time of this writing. If confirmed, the card will feature Rhodes vs. McIntyre and the WWE Women\u2019s Tag Team Championship match between ZARUCA and the team of Alexa Bliss &amp; Charlotte Flair.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the report that he will not compete, Fatu is still promoting the match with McIntyre. <\/p>\n<p>WrestleZone will have live coverage of WWE SmackDown later this evening.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlezone.com\/news\/1584642-shotzi-blackheart-pay-cut-indy-show\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shotzi Blackheart Had Her Pay Cut After Viral Incident At Indie Show<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WWE has reportedly made a major change to this week\u2019s SmackDown main event. Possible spoilers follow\u2026 According to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[24379,17131,96,59,89707,56,54,55,9482,24382],"class_list":{"0":"post-208260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-cody-rhodes","9":"tag-drew-mcintyre","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-jacob-fatu","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-wwe","17":"tag-wwe-smackdown"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}