WWE SmackDown Taped in London as Night of Champions Go-Home Show; Cody Rhodes, Gunther & Sami Zayn Featured

Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown will serve as the go-home show for Night of Champions, with the episode already in the can after being taped Tuesday night at the O2 Arena in London, England.

The broadcast will air in its usual Friday night timeslot on USA Network for viewers in the United States. Among those confirmed to appear on the show are WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, Gunther, and Sami Zayn — three of the promotion’s most prominent figures heading into what is traditionally one of WWE’s marquee premium live events.

The O2 Arena is one of the most iconic live-event venues in Europe, and WWE has a long history of drawing strong crowds there. Taping a go-home show overseas is always an interesting wrinkle, as the live audience experiences the show days before the television audience, which can complicate the usual atmosphere of urgency that surrounds a final build episode. Still, WWE has navigated international tapings successfully in the past, and the London crowd figures to be electric for a card of this significance.

With Night of Champions on the horizon, Friday’s SmackDown will be the last opportunity for the creative team to sharpen the storytelling heading into the event. Rhodes, Gunther, and Zayn all figure to be central to the final pitches made to the audience before the premium live event weekend kicks off.