WWE SmackDown Preview: 5 Things You Need to Know for Tonight's Show

WrestleMania season continues to fly by, as we're now just nine days away from the WWE's biggest pay-per-view of the year.

Next week's episode of Raw should be one hell of a go-home show, but since next week's Smackdown will feature a good amount of footage taped from the WWE's WrestleMania Axxess event, tonight's Smackdown episode is going to be incredibly important for the final build to WrestleMania.

The WWE has to make the most out of this opportunity to generate some late interest in Mania and to help build up some of the top story lines on the Smackdown brand.

So, what should we booking look out for on tonight's episode?

Here are five things you need to know for the upcoming episode of Friday Night Smackdown.

Note: The following preview is spoiler-free, but stop reading if you don't want to have any idea of what's going to happen on tonight's show.

5. Brodus Clay Is Back in Action

After going on a lengthy hiatus that lasted several weeks, Brodus Clay returned to action on last week's Raw with yet another squash match victory.

But not surprisingly, he was absent again from this week's Raw, leaving many to wonder if that was the last we'd see from Clay for a while.

Fear not, though, my friends. The Funkasaurus is back on this week's edition of Smackdown, and he's going to be in action against a superstar from the blue brand.

Now, you have a couple of reasons to tune into tonight's show: You can see Clay's incredible ring entrance, and you can see if he's going to get his first loss since he returned under the Funkasaurus character a few months ago.

4. Big Show vs. Kane: Part Two

On Monday's Raw, we saw a throwback to the early 2000s when The Big Show took on Kane.

The bout didn't last long, however, as Cody Rhodes interfered and helped Kane get the victory over Show in less than a minute.

As a result, Big Show will get himself a rematch against The Big Red Monster on tonight's Smackdown and will be looking to even the score with a guy he has a lot of history with.

But given what happened on Monday's Raw, Big Show will surely be on the lookout for his WrestleMania opponent, and Kane might be doing the same as well.

With just nine days until Mania, there's no doubt that wherever Show and Kane are, Rhodes and "The Viper" will be lurking. 

3. We'll Get a Promo Between Daniel Bryan and Sheamus

While most of the major WrestleMania feuds have featured a ton of promos between all the superstars involved, the verbal interaction between Sheamus and Daniel Bryan has been minimal.

There hasn't been a whole lot of talking between the two, and in fact, there hasn't been much physical interaction between them, either. But that changes on tonight's Smackdown.

I'll let you see for yourself what goes down between the World Heavyweight Champion and his No. 1 contender, but I, for one, am really excited about seeing these two go toe-to-toe on the mic.

The other three major Mania feuds have all been built up really well primarily through words, and it's time for Sheamus and Bryan to do the same.

2. Two New Team Long Members Will Be Announced

So far, only three participants have been announced for Team Long at WrestleMania 28, which means that we still need three more baby faces (or maybe even a heel) to be added to the Smackdown general manager's squad.

On tonight's episode of Smackdown, however, the magic number will shrink to one when it is announced that two WWE superstars have been added to Team Long.

I'm not going to spoil the surprise and reveal which two superstars are now going to be participating in the bout, but I will give you a hint: You'll probably like one of the additions to Team Long and hate the other.

By the way, both new members of Team Long are going to be in action on tonight's show and looking to build up some momentum as we get closer to WrestleMania.

1. A Star-Studded Main Event

Smackdown is giving us a nice little treat in the main event.

WWE Champion CM Punk will team up with Sheamus to take on World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan and the man who headlined last year's WrestleMania, The Miz.

A couple of weeks ago on Raw, we saw Sheamus and Punk vs. Bryan and Chris Jericho in a very good tag team match, and I would expect to see another good showing this week when The Miz takes Jericho's place.

Punk, unable to get his hands on Y2J, will undoubtedly be looking to lay the hurt on Bryan and Miz, while Sheamus is hoping to get yet another victory as he approaches the biggest match of his career at WrestleMania 28.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.