WWE announced that Dolph Ziggler will be returning to Smackdown Live on February 13 in Bakersfield, and will be facing Baron Corbin. The winner of the battle between Ziggler and Baron Corbin will be added to the WWE Championship match at WWE’s Fastlane pay-per-view on March 11 in Columbus, Ohio. This will be Ziggler’s first time on Smackdown Live in seven weeks.
The match was first announced by Smackdown Commissioner Shane McMahon on Twitter, and the championship stipulation will mean AJ Styles will have to defend his title against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn and the winner of this match.
While Dolph Ziggler versus Baron Corbin is so far the only match announced for Smackdown Live, several matches for Mixed Match Challenge and 205 Live have been confirmed.
Scheduled for immediately after Tuesday’s Smackdown Live will be WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge airing on Facebook. For February 11 it will be Elias and Bayley taking on Rusev and Lana.
For 205 Live there will be two Cruiserweight Title Tournament first round matches taking place. Akira Tozawa will be facing Mark Andrews and Drew Gulak is taking on Tony Nese. There is a local connection to the matches, as all four wrestlers previously wrestled for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla.
These matches are part of a 16-man tournament to crown a new cruiserweight champion after the previous title holder, Enzo Amore, was released from the WWE amid sexual assault allegations. The finals of the tournament will be taking place at Wrestlemania in April.
WWE’s Smackdown Live will be taking place at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield. WWE was last in Bakersfield on June 26, 2017 and the last time that a WWE television taping was held in the city was on August 9, 2016, also for Smackdown Live. This will be the fourth time Smackdown Live has been filmed in Bakersfield since the Rabobank Arena opened in 1998. Tickets are still available for the event at WWE.com.
