Bobby Lashley Clashes with Uncle Howdy on WWE SmackDown

One of the most out-of-nowhere feuds in WWE just played out its next chapter on tonight’s SmackDown. Those who have been keeping tabs on Raw and SmackDown know that at the moment there is a rather interesting feud happening between Bray Wyatt and Bobby Lashley, and while Wyatt wasn’t in attendance tonight, Uncle Howdy certainly was. That led to a confrontation between Uncle Howdy and Lashley, who was looking to talk with Wyatt face to face and instead got attacked by Uncle Howdy. Howdy got slammed to the mat though before vanishing from the ring, and now we wait to see how Wyatt will respond.

Lashley started things out by saying “So for the past two weeks Bray Wyatt has been telling me to run, but I don’t run from anyone. Because that didn’t work, he starts playing little kids games like the muscle man dance. It looked to me like a sign of weakness, and where I come from, you come to talk to someone to their face. Since he’s not man enough to come to me, I came to SmackDown to see him. So I say Bray Wyatt, if you’re man enough, I’m here, so come see me.”

That’s when Uncle Howdy’s music hit and Lashley waited in the ring. Then Uncle Howdy hit him from behind and started laying in punches, knocking Lashley down to one knee against the ropes. Uncle Howdy ran and bounced off the ropes but Lashley was back on his feet before he could make it back, and Lashley would lift him and slam him down to the mat.

Before Lashley could capitalize, the lights blacked out again and this time explosions could be heard. When the lights came back, only Howdy’s jacket was left behind in the ring, and the commentary team was stumped as to what happened and where Howdy went.

It remains to be seen what happens from here, but Wyatt is expected to face Lashley at WrestleMania 39. He previously issued a challenge to whoever won the match between Lashley and Brock Lesnar at Elimination Chamber, and it was Lashley who would emerge victorious.

Since then Wyatt has already sent some on-brand messages to the All Mighty, including the Muscle Man dance video that fans saw on Monday Night Raw this week. These aren’t being received all that well by Lashley, and he has now earned a bit of payback by taking out Uncle Howdy…at least temporarily. Now we’ll have to see how Wyatt responds, and it’s sure to be a surreal response. You can find the full card and the expected matches yet to come for WrestleMania 39 below.

Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match: Roman Reigns (C) vs Cody Rhodes

SmackDown Women’s Championship Match: Charlotte Flair (C) vs Rhea Ripley

Raw Women’s Championship Match: Bianca Belair (C) vs Asuka

Brock Lesnar vs Omos

Expected matches include:

Seth Rollins vs Logan Paul

Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships Match: The Usos vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn

Bray Wyatt vs Bobby Lashley

Becky Lynch, Lita, and Trish Stratus vs Damage CTRL

What do you think of the WrestleMania 39 lineup so far? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!