5 things that could happen on SmackDown Live after Royal Rumble 2018
Just like last week, WWE pulled out a really enjoyable episode of SmackDown Live leading into the Royal Rumble. Last week’s show was geared almost completely toward concluding the United States Championship tournament, but this week was back to normal with a very strong push for the Royal Rumble PPV this Sunday. Unlike RAW, in which the Rumble was barely mentioned, SmackDown attempted to make people care about the show, and pushed it fairly hard.
They focused mostly on the WWE Title match and gave the Tag Title match and women’s Rumble some love while not doing a lot geared toward the men’s Rumble. That was somewhat disappointing, but the wrestling on the show was solid and they paid attention to the fact that there’s an important show on Sunday, so that’s forgiven. So what were the predictions I made for this week, and how did I do?
- One big old fashioned roster-wide brawl
I’m going to give myself half a point on this one because while the entire roster didn’t brawl (as I said above, they did a minimal build for the match itself), the women did indeed have a melee that involved almost all of them getting tossed over the top rope. I also said last week that I was hoping that they wouldn’t do an all-out brawl because I’m not a big fan of them, so I’m glad it didn’t happen. It would have been cool if the men and women brawled at the same time, but otherwise, I wouldn’t be jazzed about it.
- 10-woman tag team match
I’m taking half a point on this one, too. It was a one-on-one match with Naomi and Liv Morgan, but the locker room emptied after the match and they all ended up fighting anyway, and I did say that I expected that to happen.
- Shane & Daniel Bryan go back to bickering again to start the show
I was glad to see that there was minimal bickering this week and that the conflict that they did have ended up taking a backseat to the actual matches that will be happening on Sunday. I was right that AJ, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn would be in the opening segment, but my prediction was that it would definitely be Shane and Bryan with the other three likely to appear. The quick backstage altercation the Commissioner and GM were part of was exactly what it should have been.
Quick and to the point. Shane questioned Bryan’s judgment, which Bryan took offense to, and then Shane questioned Bryan’s ability to be able to competently do his job. It only took two minutes to do instead of 15 and had the exact same impact so I’m glad to be wrong.
- Gable or Benjamin against an Uso
Finally! After multiple weeks of predicting this one, it happened! Chad Gable and Jey Uso had a really enjoyable TV match that saw Chad pick up a big win with the Chaos Theory rolling German suplex. I hope they make that his finishing move. It’s a good move and one of my favorites. The 2 out of 3 falls match on Sunday has a lot of potential to be an extremely good match.
- Orton hits an RKO on Nakamura during the brawl
It didn’t happen during a big brawl (again, I’m glad there wasn’t one although my idea was pretty cool), but I am giving myself full credit for this because Orton did indeed hit Nakamura with an RKO out of nowhere, and it was not a heel turn. A possible prelude to a turn, sure, but this was just Orton sending a message to the man that he has teamed with on a number of occasions that he has to be prepared because Sunday it will be every man for himself.
The RKO out of nowhere was unexpected and awesome, too, which was a big bonus. I’m really hoping that Nakamura and Orton feud at some point this year. I’d like to see Nakamura win the Rumble and eliminate Orton (either last or just in general) before Orton does fully turn heel and challenge Nakamura for the #1 Contendership at the Fastlane PPV. We shall see what happens.
Overall, I was 3 for 5 this time, just like I was for RAW. My two best sets of predictions yet! I’m so proud of myself. This week will be another edition of predicting what could happen on the first SD Live after a PPV, so it could be interesting. Let’s get to it.
#5 Charlotte cuts a promo on Ronda Rousey
I am praying that I am wrong about this one, but I’m going to go ahead and make the prediction anyway. The speculation is extremely strong that Ronda Rousey is going to be in the Rumble match, and in my eyes, it got even stronger when Triple H openly denied it this week during a conference call. With Stephanie McMahon on commentary for the match (ugh), it’s possible that instead of having Rousey win, they might be setting up a confrontation between them that could lead to something at WrestleMania (double ugh), which would allow a different, more deserving woman to win.
I will not be holding my breath, however, and I am preparing for the worst. I guess both of those scenarios are both terrible, at least to me -- but I will be watching the women’s Rumble with the expectation that Rousey will be there, and that she will either win or have an altercation with Stephanie that makes her lose. That way, if neither of those things happens, the match will be that much better for me, and I’ll be happy. Things tend to be better when you go in with low expectations, and I definitely am thanks to this.