5 things that could happen on SmackDown Live next week
It wasn’t as strong a show as last week, but SmackDown Live this week was a solid episode with some good follow-up to WrestleMania. It’s tough to gauge what they are going to do with the women just yet because everything is up in the air due to Ronda Rousey’s debut at the Rumble. It looks like Ruby Riott may be Charlotte’s challenger at Fastlane and one would assume that if Rousey takes on one of the champions at WrestleMania it will probably be Charlotte. Elsewhere, Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon are still not fighting -- maybe they’re going to give up on that storyline.
It created some fine drama for a few months, but I honestly would not mind if they just dropped it. The inevitable split between Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens was started in earnest, and Rusev earned a shot at the US Title next week. Like always, it was a quick 2 hours, and it was easy viewing.
- Charlotte cuts a promo on Ronda Rousey
Charlotte did indeed get promo time on the show and mentioned Rousey and Asuka, but it wasn’t really a pointed promo as much as just some face time for the champion and a way to set up her next challenger before WrestleMania. I thought the Rousey stuff would be more clear-cut, but apparently, we’re probably going to have to wait until March to know what her status will be.
- Gable and Benjamin defend and retain their titles in a rematch
Surprisingly, The Usos retained their titles in 2 straight falls at the Rumble PPV. The match had an amazing first fall and an extremely short, disappointing second fall that ended awkwardly and abruptly. That was weird. In any event, The Usos cut a great promo about how nobody can beat them and when they finished their promo, the Bludgeon Brothers entered the arena for their match. With Jimmy and Jey specifically using the word “brothers” when saying that nobody could beat them, followed by the way the Bludgeon Brothers arrived, it looks like we have The Usos’ next challengers. Gable and Benjamin picked up an easy win on Breezango.
- Extremely disappointing women’s action
I’m not going to call it extremely disappointing, but the women only got one segment and no match. It’s very annoying that there’s so little going on with the rest of the talented women that it’s just one giant insult. I did like the Money in the Bank tease, so there was that. I feel like Carmella isn’t going to win the title.
- Jinder Mahal is announced as Bobby Roode’s first US Title challenger
Jinder did indeed get a shot to challenge Roode, but he was unable to win the fatal four way and will not be Roode’s next challenger. Instead, it will be Rusev, who will get his shot next week. I had Rusev pegged as Roode’s challenger for WrestleMania. That still may happen, though, because WM is still quite some time away.
- Nakamura and AJ Styles face off but Orton interrupts
Surprisingly, there was no Randy Orton at all this week. There’s no clear path at all for him this year leading into WrestleMania. Nakamura and Styles teamed up to defeat Sami and Kevin, who will be facing each other for a shot at Styles and the WWE Title at Fastlane in March. Oh god… we’re going to end up getting Orton vs. Baron Corbin at WrestleMania. Ew.
Overall, I went 1 for 5, as I’m going to count Charlotte’s promo as half a point, and the disappointing women’s segment as half a point as well. How about next week?
#5 Charlotte vs. Sarah Logan
After Ruby Riott and the Riott Squad attacked Charlotte this week and seemingly staked their claim for the next shot at the Women’s Title, Charlotte will likely be tasked with going through the Riott Squad before taking on Ruby herself.
With 5 episodes of SmackDown before the Fastlane PPV, I wonder if they will do the title match beforehand and maybe do a multi-woman title match on the PPV, but we’ll see what happens. I do think, though, that based on this week’s events we will see Sarah Logan next week and Liv Morgan the following week.
Or another 6-woman tag match, because why do anything even slightly different?