The importance of Backlash for WWE cannot be stressed enough. As you might’ve heard a million time before, this is the first brand-specific pay-per-view of the new brand split era and WWE cannot afford to make mistakes while pulling this off. The pressure, just like the importance is immense in this case and the homecoming edition of SmackDown will give us an idea of what to expect at the show.
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WWE has some compelling storylines to be wrapped up before Sunday night and the focus will be on these as WWE brings out another episode of SmackDown Live. Here are some of the developments that we could expect during the show this week.
The tag team tournament semi-final
The Usos and American Alpha will square off this week on SmackDown. The semi-final matchup of the tag team tournament is bound to be a treat for the tag team wrestling fans. The background stories of these two tag teams are interesting. Usos come into the match as an established tag team that have been around for a long time whereas, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan comes in with a point to prove.
Whoever wins the match will be the favorite to be crowned tag team champions at Backlash and this is why the match is so interesting. We will be able to measure the faith that WWE has on American Alpha with this match as a solid booking will be a good sign for the team.
Heath Slater’s kids
Heath Slater and his kids turned out to be a trending topic on social media last week. After the drafts, Slater has slowly turned into one of the most entertaining names on SmackDown roster. The pairing of Slater and Rhyno is working perfectly as of now and it would be a shame if WWE ends their journey this week on SmackDown.
Slater and Rhyno will be going up against The Hype Bros at this week’s episode and the winners will move on to Backlash for the title match. The underdog story of Slater will only be complete if he makes it to Sunday. Also, letting Slater and Rhyno lose to Hype Bros after getting so much attention would make no sense at all.
The momentum game
SmackDown will get its own Women’s champion Sunday at Backlash and all six women competing in the match will want the upper hand this week. As this week’s SmackDown is the homecoming edition of Backlash, the word ‘momentum’ will come to play. WWE has split up the match into different subplots with Nikki Bella and Carmella getting the major highlight.
The other four women also will want to make some kind of impact ahead of the showdown on Sunday. The usual path that WWE chooses in such situations is chaos and it might be no different this week as well.
More matches for Backlash?
Backlash currently has five matches on the card. Headlined by Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles, the pay-per-view will also boast three title matches and a showdown between Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt. Though the card looks good enough, according to the WWE pay-per-view standards, they usually have eight or nine matches on the card.
Five is clearly a low number and we could get this problem solved this week. WWE might add a couple of matches to Backlash but at the same time, the lack of depth of the roster will be a big problem. Anyways, we will get a complete picture when SmackDown gets completed.
Last minute decorations for title feud
The WWE championship will be up for grabs at Backlash. AJ Styles and Dean Ambrose will battle for the title and last week, AJ pulled off a master class by hanging around on top of the ropes. It was a talking point on the internet as well, but then again, the feud is yet to get the attention that it deserves.
Both Styles and Ambrose have the calibre to deliver a huge matchup on Sunday Night, but the buildup has been a bit slow on WWE’s side. This trend should be changed this week on Raw as an effective segment during this week’s SmackDown can take this match to a different level.
WWE also announced a segment for the show which would see AJ Styles confront Dean Ambrose in the middle of the ring before their match at Backlash. It promises to be an explosive way to set things up perfectly for SmackDown’s first PPV in the New Era.
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