5 things that could happen on SmackDown next week

bobby roode — Bobby Roode celebrates after winning the United States Championship

I really enjoyed SmackDown Live this week. Most people online seem to have panned the episode, but I feel differently. It was significantly different from any other WWE show recently. They didn’t start with a 20-minute interview segment, the show was primarily just matches, and they did something different by using the selfie-cam videos to have wrestlers cut promos on the Royal Rumble match.

I know that 40 minutes of the show was comprised of Jinder Mahal matches, but I personally think they were his two best matches yet. Better than two of the three AJ Styles matches, at least. The one where AJ won the title was good, but the non-title one a number of months ago and the Clash of Champions rematch were not good matches. In any event, here’s what I postulated last week.

Overall, I went 2 for 5. The women continue to lack any story or character development at all, and Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal both won their semifinal matches. Good show this week. What might happen in next week’s episode, the final piece of major WWE programming before the Royal Rumble?

#5 One big old fashioned roster-wide brawl

royal rumble — A bunch of wrestlers fights in the ring on RAW before the Royal Rumble match

It’s the last episode of the show before the Rumble! Chances are very high that something is going to spark a brawl that will lead to the locker room clearing out and coming down to the ring, and the show will fade to black as chaos ensues inside and around the ring.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if they found a way to sneak the women into the brawl as well, so both male and female superstars would be able to have their brawl before the show. The women may brawl on a smaller scale earlier in the show since there are only 10 of them, but I think that’s enough women that they could make up a significant part of the brawl to make it all that much more chaotic to close the show.

I personally am not the biggest fan of these brawls, because there are so many other ways to build to the Rumble match, but WWE likes to just throw everything directly in your face with the least amount of effort possible, so this is the likely way to close the show.