Cody made a huge mistake bringing Mama Rhodes to Scotland

SmackDown airs tonight (June 14) with a taped show emanating from OVO Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland. This is the final episode of SmackDown during the three week build towards Clash at the Castle, which takes place tomorrow (June 15) in the same venue.

Cody made a huge mistake bringing Mama Rhodes to Scotland

Cody Rhodes is scheduled to defend the Undisputed WWE Championship against AJ Styles in an “I Quit” match tomorrow at Clash at the Castle in Glasgow.

Yesterday, Cody posted on social media about Mama Rhodes joining him on this trip to Scotland.

A normal person might look at that picture and think it’s sweet and adorable, but as Scott Steiner famously once said, I’m not normal. As a long-time grizzled wrestling fan who has seen babyfaces walk into the same traps over and over again for years, my immediate reaction was, “What the hell are you doing??!”

You see, top babyface stars have such a resilient fighting spirit that they pretty never willingly say “I Quit” in an I Quit match. The heel is forced to resort to the most reprehensible measures to get them to utter those words, and that often means threatening physical harm on innocent family members. Now that Cody brought a family member to Scotland (and one who was part of WWE kayfabe just a couple months ago at WrestleMania 40), there is suddenly an obvious way for Styles to force Rhodes to surrender at Clash at the Castle.

Before we get to the big championship fight tomorrow, Cody and AJ are both scheduled to appear on tonight’s episode of SmackDown in Scotland. If Cody has smartened up over the last 24 hours, he’ll make sure that Mama Rhodes stays far away from the arena and WWE cameras this weekend.

Will AJ be bold enough to confront Cody tonight and admit that hurting Mama Rhodes is one possible strategy he has in mind to force Rhodes to say I Quit? You’ll have to tune into SmackDown tonight to find out what happens between Rhodes and Styles on the Clash at the Castle go home show.

The rest of tonight’s card

Kevin Owens goes one-on-one with Solo Sikoa tonight. Solo is the new head of the table while Roman Reigns is away, so he can’t really afford to lose this match. That being said, it doesn’t seem like there’s much risk in Solo losing this match given the numbers advantage he has with “The Right Hand Man” Tama Tonga and “The Infamous” Tonga Loa by his side. Will Randy Orton fly to Scotland to return to SmackDown and have KO’s back, or is it more likely that Talla Tonga debuts and joins The Bloodline?

Michin tries her luck in a singles match against Queen Nia Jax. The new queen of WWE is expected to annihilate her as she prepares for her championship match at SummerSlam.

The super obnoxious Chelsea Green pissed off Naomi last week, so now they’ll fight about it in a one-on-one match tonight. Given that Green is aligned with Piper Niven and Naomi is aligned with Bayley, and Niven is challenging Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship at Clash at the Castle, I expect Naomi to be the sacrificial lamb here in an effort to give the heels more momentum heading into the title fight.

Finally, The Grayson Waller Effect returns tonight with special guests Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. DIY wants a title match with WWE Tag Team Champions Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, so perhaps they’ll talk their way into one during this segment. It seems like they should be able to manipulate the egos of Austin Theory and Grayson Waller against each other with relative ease.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

– LA Knight beat Carmelo Hayes last week and now has a clear path towards a match with United States Champion Logan Paul. The only problem is that Paul is a part-time wrestler and full-time YouTube douchebag who doesn’t show his face all that often on WWE TV. A frustrated Knight has promised to bring SmackDown to Logan Paul, so it should be fun to see when and where he decides to ambush the champ.

– There isn’t much of a reason to think Alba Fyre, Isla Dawn, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark are even slight threats to WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill at Clash at the Castle. Will something happen tonight on SmackDown to change that perception?

– Will Legado del Fantasma face any consequences for taking out Apollo Crews backstage last week, or is General Manager Nick Aldis too busy to deal with lower card drama?

– Is there any update on Bobby Lashley’s health situation? The Street Profits are mightily struggling in his absence.

– Giovanni Vinci is totally screwed on this new SmackDown roster, isn’t he?

– Will any Raw stars cross over to SmackDown tonight given some of them are traveling together for this Scotland trip? For example, could The Judgment Day show up to rip on Drew McIntyre’s home country?

– Speaking of the live audience, these international shows are pretty much guaranteed to bring in the loudest audience reactions of the year, and that atmosphere alone makes SmackDown worth watching tonight.

– Thanks to Cagesider FigurePetitFour’s comment last week, I have to ask the question, where the f*** is Pretty Deadly? They haven’t wrestled since the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the night before WrestleMania 40, more than two months ago.

What will you be looking for on SmackDown?