Cody Rhodes will try to survive Three Stages of Hell next week to keep his Undisputed WWE Championship reign alive.
Rhodes will meet McIntyre in a best-of-three title match on the January 9 episode of Smackdown, which is set to take place at the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany.
McIntyre revealed on this week’s episode of Smackdown that the Three Stages of Hell match will start as a normal wrestling bout, then become a Falls Count Anywhere match. If the wrestlers are tied at one fall each, a steel cage bout will be its tiebreaker.
Rhodes has held WWE’s undisputed title since August, when he avenged a loss to John Cena at Summerslam. He has defended his championship twice against McIntyre in recent months and hopes to get past him one more time next week before moving on to other challengers.
Next week’s episode will also feature the Smackdown debut of former NXT Champion Trick Williams, going one-on-one with Rey Fenix.
The long-time NXT star showed up on this week’s Smackdown, confronting Sami Zayn in the ring. Just minutes later, Williams got into a heated chat backstage with Fenix. While it seems likely that Williams will eventually face Zayn, who said he would “humble” him, he’ll first have to get past Fenix.
Next week’s Smackdown will feature an eight-man tag match, with the MFTs taking on the Wyatt Sicks. Solo Sikoa said on Friday that he hopes to overcome the faction in the big tag match next week, then go after the group’s tag titles.
Next week’s episode of Smackdown will air on a tape delay on the USA Network at the usual start time of 8 p.m. ET. In markets where the show airs on Netflix, viewers will be able to watch live at 2 p.m. ET, hours before the event goes live in the U.S.
- Cody Rhodes vs. Drew McIntyre (Three Stages of Hell Match) (Undisputed WWE Championship)
- Rey Fenix vs. Trick Williams
- Wyatt Sicks vs. MFTs
