4 most likely WWE title changes before Money In The Bank 2019

The May 13-14 episodes of WWE Raw and SmackDown Live will take place in London, England, which can only mean one thing: get ready to see a title change.

During WWE’s last three visits to the UK, there has been a total of three title changes, with the Raw Tag Team titles changing hands on two occasions and the WWE Championship changing hands one time.

In November 2017, Sheamus & Cesaro defeated Dean Ambrose & Seth Rollins to win the Raw Tag Team Championship during an episode of Raw in Manchester, England, while the surprises kept coming the next night when AJ Styles won the WWE Championship from Jinder Mahal.

Then, in November 2018, Rollins was forced to defend the Raw Tag Team titles on his own against AOP, resulting in another title change in Manchester.

In those three cases, WWE posted spoiler articles on its website before the pre-recorded shows aired, which presumably means that these title changes are purposely done in order to get more people to watch the show to see how the championship match unfolded.

With WWE's TV ratings in America currently at an all-time non-holiday low, let’s take a look at four of the most likely title changes that we could see on the upcoming episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live.

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#4 Women’s Tag Team Championship

The IIconics caused an upset at WrestleMania 35 when they defeated Sasha Banks & Bayley in a Fatal 4-Way match to win the Women’s Tag Team titles.

Since then, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce have appeared on both Raw and SmackDown Live, losing the majority of their non-title matches, and their next set of challengers are yet to be determined.

WWE has announced that Asuka & Kairi Sane will face Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville on the next episode of SmackDown Live, but maybe that advertisement should be taken with a pinch of salt when you consider that around 30 per cent of advertised SmackDown matches do not end up happening.

The only way the Women’s Tag Team titles change hands is if Asuka & Sane defeat The IIconics instead of Rose & Deville on Tuesday, which is unlikely but not impossible.

#3 Intercontinental Championship

The Intercontinental Championship has been largely forgotten about since Finn Balor donned his “Demon” attire to defeat Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 35.

It looked at one stage as if Andrade would be next in line for an IC title opportunity after he defeated Balor in a non-title match. However, both men have been concentrating on the upcoming Money In The Bank ladder match over the last few weeks, so the IC title rivalry has taken a backseat.

SmackDown Live takes place five days before Money In The Bank, so it would not be at all surprising if WWE booked another match between Balor and Andrade on Tuesday. After all, the two men have been involved in multiple confrontations with each other, as well as fellow MITB participants Ali and Randy Orton, in recent weeks.

The question is whether WWE would be bold enough to put the title on the line and potentially take it away from Balor at this early stage in his reign.

#2 United States Championship

The WrestleMania 35 match between Samoa Joe and Rey Mysterio looked all set up for Mysterio to win the United States Championship. However, the high-flyer suffered an ankle injury six days before the event, meaning he was not fully fit for WWE’s biggest show of the year.

The encounter still went ahead but it was clear that Mysterio was not ready to compete, as Joe destroyed his opponent by making him pass out after just 60 seconds.

Mysterio got back on track with a non-title victory over “The Samoan Submission Machine” on Raw a fortnight ago, leading to the announcement last week that the two men will square off in a WrestleMania rematch at Money In The Bank.

We have often seen WWE book PPV matches five or six days early on Raw and SmackDown Live, so perhaps that could be the case again here with Mysterio defeating Joe in a United States Championship match on Raw.

#1 Raw Tag Team Championship

While the SmackDown Live tag division was decimated in the 2019 Superstar Shake-Up, the Raw roster now has The Viking Raiders, The Club, The Revival and The Usos vying for Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins’ Raw Tag Team titles.

Out of those duos, it has become clear in the last few weeks that The Viking Raiders’ Erik & Ivar will earn a Raw Tag Team Championship opportunity in the not-too-distant future.

The former NXT champions remain undefeated in WWE and they have beaten current champions Ryder & Hawkins in two non-title matches in recent weeks.

It is inevitable not only that the Raiders will face the former Edgeheads for the titles, but they will almost certainly defeat them to kick-start their reign of dominance over the Raw tag division.

Recent storylines suggest that the title match will take place at Money In The Bank, but past UK booking logic points towards a title change happening this Monday in London.