3 ways SmackDown can catch up en route to WrestleMania 36

SmackDown needs all the help it can get on its road to WrestleMania! Ever since moving to Fox - a blockbuster move everyone suspected would make Smackdown the “A-Show” - WWE’s blue brand has felt nothing more than a weekly televised house show. It has mostly been dominated largely by random tag team matches and Roman Reigns vs. Baron Corbin - which mind you, is still going on.

While its Monday Night counterpart seems to have most of its top WrestleMania offerings this year already established on TV, SmackDown appears to have nothing set for the biggest show of the year yet. If rumours are to be believed, any ideas that management had for SmackDown at WrestleMania too are up in the air now; most notably the planned Universal title bout and John Cena’s appearance.

But this may be a blessing in disguise for the blue brand as they’re not short of options now. All they need to do is make the smart call with Superstars on hand, and SmackDown will be just fine at WrestleMania.

With that said, here are three decisions WWE needs to take en route to WrestleMania 36 in April for the blue brand to have a significant showing at The Show of Shows.

#3 AJ Styles gets drafted back to SmackDown

While yours truly has been very vocal in the past about letting The Undertaker retire already, even I can’t pass the prospect of The Phenom facing The Phenomenal One on the Grandest Stage of Them All!

Yes, as reported first by Dave Meltzer on his Wrestling Observer Radio earlier this month, The Deadman has been keen to face Styles one-on-one as he considers the former WWE Champion to be the current generation’s Shawn Michaels.

These rumours were only strengthened last week on RAW when Styles name-dropped The Undertaker amongst other current and former Superstars, and went as far as calling himself ‘Mr. WrestleMania’ - a moniker HBK himself adopted back in the day.

So everything is going good, the WWE oonly needs to make sure this feud takes place on SmackDown as opposed to Styles’ current home on RAW.

As mentioned earlier, SmackDown needs all the help it can get, and having a marquee bout featuring two names who have been synonymous with the blue brand represent it at WrestleMania, is far from being the worst idea.

The Undertaker has always felt like a blue brand loyalist (especially since the 2000s) and we all know how Styles was the "face who ran the place" in the early years of the current brand split incarnation.

Not only should the brand host this dream rivalry, but SmackDown needs to be a key factor in the build towards that match as well, it’s where Styles feels at home and at his best. The Phenom and The Phenomenal One can both make their returns to the blue brand, and agree to face each other for supremacy over the other.

Besides, add in the fact that RAW already has too many top programs going for itself to look elsewhere, and you have a ready-made solution to the SmackDown problem without much extra effort.

#2 Sasha Banks challenges Bayley

While it can be argued that as a heel champion on SmackDown, Bayley has been doing her best work since moving up to the main roster, a single glance over the remaining women’s roster on the blue brand is enough to realize that there’s an issue here.

Not to take away from any of the female competitors on the brand, but there currently doesn’t seem to be a single legitimate challenger to the women’s champion on the entire brand.

If she’s healthy by the time WrestleMania rolls around, Sasha Banks absolutely needs to challenge Bayley for her title. If this means going through five other competitors in yet another chamber match this year - so be it. If this means a heel vs heel dynamic - so be it.

SmackDown needs a Bayley vs. Banks program now more than ever to bring back legitimacy to the women’s roster.

Yes, there are reports of Banks sustaining an ankle injury, but we need to hope she's back in time to kick-start her own path to WrestleMania - and there's no greater option than challenging the current SmackDown Women's Champion.

On a card which most likely will feature two gigantic women’s matches elsewhere in Lynch-Baszler and Flair-Ripley, Smackdown will need to go all out with its offering.

There is no need for an uninspired one-on-one or multi-women bout. Let The Boss and the champion milk their history together for a successful build, and go out at WrestleMania to remind the WWE Universe of why exactly we fell in love with women's wrestling in the first place.

#1 Book Cena-Fiend & Reigns-Goldberg

For the longest time now, it has been speculated that Roman Reigns and The Fiend will compete for the Universal title at The Show of Shows.

This month though, all those backstage plans reportedly went up in the air, due to several likely contributory factors, like Goldberg impacting TV ratings, Cena’s return to the blue brand, and possibly the PPV streaming deal with ESPN+.

Whatever the reason might have been, WWE now has a few massive decisions to make i.e what matches to book for Mania.

As we speak, The Fiend is set to defend his Universal title against Goldberg at WWE Super Showdown, in a match that has grown to become more unpredictable with every passing day since it was announced.

Needless to say, it would be a detrimental long-term decision to take the title off Bray Wyatt so close to Mania. Yes, WWE has booked itself into a corner with the possible lineup of Wyatt matches in the upcoming days and months, but it's easy to get out of this situation with flying colours.

For starters, Wyatt needs to retain the title (no matter what it takes). It is understandable that WWE would want to protect Goldberg from taking a clean loss at this point, so as frustrating as it may sound, a screw job finish works!

Once that’s out of the way, let Cena and Reigns enter the Elimination Chamber match, and have Cena win to challenge The Fiend at The Show of Shows.

Wyatt and Cena’s story writes itself too - Cena was the superstar who handed Wyatt his first major loss and that too at WrestleMania a few years ago. This storyline comes full circle which could be an intriguing story from The Fiend's perspective WWE could opt to tell. Conversely, Cena on the other hand, can hype this bout on the basis of his possible record-breaking title win.

A Cena vs. Wyatt match today is bigger than a Reigns vs. Wyatt match, and also lends some unpredictability to the outcome of the universal title bout - something we rarely see in big matches involving Roman Reigns.

On the other hand though, pairing Reigns with Goldberg for a one-on-one match at WrestleMania would be a no-brainer. This could be WWE’s “franchise vs. franchise” bout this year - something the company loves to book almost every year in April.

Goldberg will not lose much stock coming off a loss at Super Showdown, and WWE can keep capitalizing on his star power. Both heavyweights can have a short and explosive match at the Showcase of Immortals, something similar to Lesnar-Goldberg from WrestleMania 33.

This match however, would not need the Universal title attached to it. In fact, if anything, having the title in the mix would only spoil the possible result of this bout, as Reigns will most likely be penciled to win. Without the title on the line though, WWE can smartly tackle the predictive nature of this bout.

All in all, if WWE decides to go this route, it will make sure Smackdown thrives on the road to WrestleMania.

Edited by Nishant Jayaram