WWE likes to keep its PLE cards short and concise under Triple H’s creative leadership, and that means there isn’t time at Survivor Series for two different War Games matches and a traditional Survivor Series 5-on-5 elimination tag team match. As a result, we’re getting the traditional Survivor Series elimination match on tonight’s SmackDown. It’s also a good way to kill a lot of time at a double taping with one very long match, so perhaps that’s just as big of a reason for why this match was booked on SmackDown instead of Survivor Series.

Sami Zayn leads the way on the babyface side, which also includes Motor City Machine Guns, Rey Fenix, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Their opponents are Solo Sikoa and his MFTs (Talla Tonga, JC Mateo, Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa). The MFTs were using most of these babyfaces as a punching bag prior to Zayn’s involvement, so I’d say the heels are the favorite to win on paper. One factor that could quickly change the math here is potential interference from the Wyatt Sicks. They have kept an eye on the MFTs from a distance after a couple of non-violent confrontations in the ring. John Cena’s “The Last Time Is Now” tournament continues tonight with LA Knight once again taking on a mystery star. This was supposed to be Sheamus’ spot, but he was removed from the tournament due to injury.

The other tournament match on the schedule tonight is Jey Uso vs. Rusev. Uso is the clear favorite in a fair fight. However, after Jey’s War Games teams played a role in eliminating Bronson Reed from the tournament last week, perhaps Bronson’s War Games team will try to return the favor . United States Champion Chelsea Green had a bad feeling about things last week and decided to push her championship celebration back to tonight. United States Champion Ilja Dragunov may finally take a breather from his weekly open challenges, due to the nature of this SmackDown episode being taped last week, where he already fought on the live broadcast.