5 things that could happen on SmackDown next week

I really enjoyed SmackDown Live this week. Most people online seem to have panned the episode, but I feel differently. It was significantly different from any other WWE show recently. They didn’t start with a 20-minute interview segment, the show was primarily just matches, and they did something different by using the selfie-cam videos to have wrestlers cut promos on the Royal Rumble match.

I know that 40 minutes of the show was comprised of Jinder Mahal matches, but I personally think they were his two best matches yet. Better than two of the three AJ Styles matches, at least. The one where AJ won the title was good, but the non-title one a number of months ago and the Clash of Champions rematch were not good matches. In any event, here’s what I postulated last week.

Overall, I went 2 for 5. The women continue to lack any story or character development at all, and Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal both won their semifinal matches. Good show this week. What might happen in next week’s episode, the final piece of major WWE programming before the Royal Rumble?

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#5 One big old fashioned roster-wide brawl

A bunch of wrestlers fights in the ring on RAW before the Royal Rumble match

It’s the last episode of the show before the Rumble! Chances are very high that something is going to spark a brawl that will lead to the locker room clearing out and coming down to the ring, and the show will fade to black as chaos ensues inside and around the ring.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if they found a way to sneak the women into the brawl as well, so both male and female superstars would be able to have their brawl before the show. The women may brawl on a smaller scale earlier in the show since there are only 10 of them, but I think that’s enough women that they could make up a significant part of the brawl to make it all that much more chaotic to close the show.

I personally am not the biggest fan of these brawls, because there are so many other ways to build to the Rumble match, but WWE likes to just throw everything directly in your face with the least amount of effort possible, so this is the likely way to close the show.

#4 10-woman tag team match

The Riott Squad stand tall after beating Naomi, Becky, and Charlotte

I don’t know how good the chances actually are of this occurring, but WWE seems dead set on not doing anything interesting with the women, so they might just throw them all out in the ring for one big jumble of a match. It could actually play into the big brawl at the end of the show, too.

Since there are 7 heels and only 3 faces in the women’s division on SmackDown, you would have to put two heels on the face side. I would do Charlotte, Naomi, Becky Lynch, Carmella, and Natalya vs. Ruby Riott, Sarah Logan, Liv Morgan, Tamina, and Lana. The match would play out with some miscommunication happening on the face/heel team with Natalya and/or Carmella walking out on the match or possibly just turning on one of her teammates.

If, say, Carmella gets in the ring and boots Charlotte in the face, things will go south pretty quickly and both teams would end up in the ring fighting each other. The match would get thrown out and a brawl would commence. This could be the Royal Rumble preview brawl for the women. What I would prefer to see would be a bunch of referees and security guards coming down to break up the fight, only to see the women rejoin the fray later on during the men’s brawl. I think that would be great.

#3 Shane & Daniel Bryan go back to bickering again to start the show

The General Manager and Commissioner of SD Live have been at each others' throats for weeks

Chances are high that either Daniel Bryan or Shane McMahon will come out to the ring to begin next week’s episode of SmackDown Live. If not them, then it will be Sami and Kevin, with Bryan and McMahon, and possibly AJ as well, eventually interjecting themselves into the segment. Kevin and Sami will try to get them to keep playing sides with Daniel Bryan on their side and saying that Shane hates them and is showing favoritism to AJ.

I don’t know where it might go inasmuch as what kind of match they make for later on in the show, or if there are any ramifications at all and it’s just to play up the handicap match for the WWE Title, but I feel pretty confident that the show will start off with all of these men, or at least Bryan and Shane, in the ring for a promo.

#2 Gable or Benjamin against an Uso

The Usos will defend against Gable and Benjamin in a 2/3 falls match

I’m going to go out on a limb and call this one again this week. Neither team has wrestled on TV for a few weeks, and it makes sense for them to have some more physical interaction before the PPV match on Sunday.

They obviously can’t do a tag team match since that’s what they are building up to, but a one-on-one would be well enough. Maybe even a pair of one-on-one matches, as I said in my column last week, might be possible. I would much prefer a pair of short one-on-one matches so all four members of the teams get a chance to wrestle, but I have no idea what’s going on and if they plan to slightly downplay The Usos until the DWI issue is over with.

#1 Orton hits an RKO on Nakamura during the brawl

It has to be a matter of time before Orton hits an RKO on Nakamura

My number 5 moment is that there will be a big brawl to close the show. I think that it’s only a matter of time before Randy Orton turns heel, and Shinsuke Nakamura - who he had one singles match to determine the No. 1 Contender for the WWE Championship and later tag teamed with, as recent as two weeks ago - could be the man who would face the brunt of Orton. This could be a big moment that foreshadows it.

This wouldn’t be the actual turn, but I think that at some point the brawl might break down into a few individual guys attacking each other, and at some point in the fray a bunch of guys could hit their finishers on each other. I think it would be awesome for Orton to “accidentally” nail Nakamura with the RKO.

It would also be a different way to go about the brawl, making it different from normal. Usually, it’s just a bunch of guys punching and kicking each other indiscriminately with a few guys getting tossed over the top rope. Instead, maybe some of the more prominent guys can get some space in the ring to hit their finishers or another big move.

This could lead to a bunch of RKOs out of nowhere, and Nakamura will find himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and become one of the victims. Nakamura could eliminate Orton from the Rumble, and then Orton could go full heel on the next SmackDown and try to challenge Nakamura for his title shot. Yeah, that’s a bit of fantasy booking on my part, not just a possible prediction, but for months I’ve been begging to see Orton turn on Nakamura, and the time is now.