Photos: First Look at WWE SmackDown's New Entrance Stage for FOX Premiere

Friday Night SmackDown's premiere on the FOX network officially kicks off at 8 p.m. Eastern at the [...]

By Connor Casey

Friday Night SmackDown's premiere on the FOX network officially kicks off at 8 p.m. Eastern at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. To commemorate a new era for the Blue Brand, the show received a brand new entrance stage for Friday's show that looks noticeable different from both the previous version and the new set Monday Night Raw got earlier this week. Photos of the new stage first made its way online via Instagram user @lasportsguy79 on Friday afternoon.

Check out the photos of the stage below and let us know what you think over in the comments section! So far four matches have been announced for tonight's show — WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Brock Lesnar, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks and Bayley, Shane McMahon vs. Kevin Owens in a Ladder match and Roman Reigns vs. Eric Rowan.

The episode will also serve as the 20th Anniversary special for the Blue Brand, which will feature a number of returning legends include Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Ric Flair, Sting, Goldberg, Mick Foley, Kurt Angle, Booker T, Trish Stratus and Lita.

SmackDown's premiere is just the latest event in what has been one of the busiest weeks in recent wrestling history. This week's edition of Monday Night Raw served as the "season premiere" and featured three championship matches, all of which saw the champs retain. Then on Wednesday the first edition of the "Wednesday Night Wars" between AEW Dynamite and NXT took place. Despite NXT booking a mini-TakeOver event with three championship matches, Dynamite managed to dominate the ratings with 1.4 million viewers compared to NXT's 891,000. So far both shows have announced two matches for next week — NXT will feature Crusierweight Champion Drew Gulak vs. Lio Rush and Kushida vs. Walter, while Dynamite will feature Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears and The Young Bucks vs. Private Party in the first match of the AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament.

Following SmackDown, WWE will conclude the week with the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Sunday night. Only three matches have been booked for the show so far — Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship,Lynch vs. Banks for the Raw Women's Championship and Reigns & Daniel Bryan vs. Rowan & Like Harper. The first two of those matches will take place inside the Hell in a Cell structure.

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