The SmackDown Live-exclusive Clash of Champions pay-per-view is almost upon us and many fans are expecting big things for WWE’s last major event of 2017.
Will Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon co-exist as special referees? Will Carmella cash in on Charlotte Flair? Will Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn be fired? Will we see any comebacks or heel turns?
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Whatever happens, there’s a stacked card for this year’s event – you can check it out in full here – and we’re bound to get a few surprises from the blue brand over the course of the three-hour show.
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To whet the appetite ahead of the PPV, we take a look at five bold predictions of what might occur in Boston, Massachusetts this Sunday.
#5 Carmella’s cash-in is interrupted
When you consider what might happen in Sunday’s lumberjack match between Charlotte Flair and Natalya for the SmackDown Live Women’s Championship, you can almost certainly be sure of two things: Charlotte retaining and all hell breaking loose at ringside.
“The Queen” won the championship for the first time in November and, while it may have only been done to provide a feel-good moment in her hometown with her father Ric Flair, she’s undoubtedly the top woman on the blue brand and deserves a lengthy run with the title.
As for Carmella, month after month and pay-per-view and pay-per-view, many predict that she’ll cash in her Money In The Bank contract to become the new SmackDown Live Women’s champion, but we’re six months into her time as Ms MITB and it’s still yet to happen.
With so much chaos expected in Sunday’s match, an attempted cash-in on Charlotte could easily happen, but don’t be surprised if Ruby Riott and her fellow Riott Squad members interfere and prevent “The Princess of Staten Island” from claiming the gold.
#4 Rusev & Aiden English win the Tag Team titles
Of all the duos involved in the Fatal 4-Way match for the SmackDown Live Tag Team titles at Clash of Champions, the unlikely team of Rusev & Aiden English have the most momentum of them all.
With English’s dulcet tones and Rusev’s new crowd-pleasing demeanour, the pair has become one of the most entertaining acts in WWE over the last few weeks and deserve the new spotlight that they’re receiving.
As for the other teams involved in the match, The Usos and The New Day have been among the best Superstars on SmackDown Live in 2017 but the constant trading of the tag titles has made Jimmy & Jey’s most recent reign feel less important than maybe it should.
Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin seemed like genuine contenders when they first emerged as a duo but they’ve received less television time over the last month, leading us to believe that Sunday could well be the happiest “Rusev Day” in the day’s illustrious two-month history.
#3 Randy Orton turns heel
Before Survivor Series in November, we gave five reasons why Randy Orton could turn heel on his fellow Team Blue members to cost SmackDown Live victory in the five-on-five men’s elimination main event.
In the end, it was a far less drama-filled match than many people expected, with Triple H, Braun Strowman and Kurt Angle the only people to emerge from the match with potential storylines for the future.
Still, the fact remains that Orton is a much better heel than he is a babyface, as the man himself has admitted on multiple occasions, and it is surely only a matter of time before “The Viper” returns to his vicious ways once again.
He has run out of bad-guy opponents to face on SmackDown Live and, with everyone wondering which of Daniel Bryan or Shane McMahon will turn heel at Clash of Champions, perhaps WWE could swerve everyone and have Orton do it instead, allowing Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to keep their jobs in the process.
#2 Daniel Bryan & Shane McMahon actually get along
Consider this: Daniel Bryan, as far as we know, hasn’t been medically cleared by WWE to compete. He has had multiple concussions over the years and, try as he might return to the squared circle, it’s unlikely to happen in WWE anytime soon.
Look at when he was apparently ‘chokeslammed’ by Kane in October. All we saw was D-Bry being lifted up into the air before the lights went out and there was a crashing sound as if he was thrown through a table.
In all likelihood, WWE didn’t even have Bryan take the move from Kane in that segment, yet many are predicting the SmackDown Live General Manager to get physical at some point in Sunday’s match between Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura & Randy Orton.
It may not seem the boldest of predictions, but why can’t Bryan just get along with Shane McMahon, his fellow authority figure and fellow guest referee, and let the two teams do battle instead?
#1 Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers split for good
Yep, we know he’s done it before. In fact, over the last month, Jinder Mahal seems to love nothing more than beating up The Singh Brothers, his trusty right-hand men, whenever he decides to throw a post-match temper tantrum.
It happened when he lost his WWE Championship to AJ Styles in Manchester, England in November and it happened after Samir & Sunil were defeated by “The Phenomenal One” in a handicap match on SmackDown Live later in the month.
As Detective Chief Inspector Styles revealed on the big screen this past Tuesday, the trio was reunited during WWE’s tour of India, despite Jinder’s attacks in recent weeks, and The Singh Brothers are bound to get involved again at Clash of Champions.
With “The Modern Day Maharajah” almost certain to lose, expect him to launch another post-match attack on his allies this Sunday, possibly bringing an end to their time together once and for all.
