Daniel Bryan returning to WWE TV, Tag title match set for SmackDown

SmackDown’s season premiere episode will include Daniel Bryan’s return to WWE television.

WWE has announced that Bryan will make his WWE ThunderDome debut as he kicks off this Friday’s season premiere edition of SmackDown. Bryan remained on SmackDown when he was drafted as the brand’s third pick during the second night of the WWE Draft this Monday.

Bryan and his wife Brie Bella welcomed the birth of their second child, a boy named Buddy Dessert Danielson, this August. Bryan hasn’t made an in-person appearance on SmackDown since June.

A SmackDown Tag Team title match has also been added to this Friday’s SmackDown season premiere episode. SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits will defend their titles against Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode.

The Street Profits were SmackDown’s second pick during night two of the WWE Draft. They were the Raw Tag Team Champions when they got picked, but there was a segment on Monday’s Raw where The Street Profits and The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) swapped Tag Team title belts.

Kingston & Woods retained their Raw Tag Team titles against Ziggler & Roode on Monday. Ziggler & Roode were drafted to SmackDown on the episode and did a post-show interview where they said they’re coming after The Street Profits’ titles.

Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman for the Universal Championship, The New Day (Big E, Kingston & Woods) vs. Sheamus, Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro in a six-man tag match, and Jeff Hardy vs. Lars Sullivan are also set for this week’s SmackDown. To celebrate the season premiere, Fox will also have a special 30-minute pre-show prior to SmackDown. It will begin on Fox at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time and will be hosted by Renee Paquette (formerly known as Renee Young in WWE) and Booker T.

The six-man tag is being billed as The New Day’s SmackDown farewell match. While Kingston & Woods were drafted to Raw, Big E is remaining on SmackDown.