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As the road to Money in the Bank continues, SmackDown Live is beginning to emerge as the better show in the wake of the Superstar Shake-Up. While both brands have high-level superstars from top to bottom, it's starting to feel like the blue brand is regaining the mojo which it lost around this time last year.
With another edition of SD Live taking place tonight, there's plenty to discuss as we get closer and closer to June 17th in Chicago. There's a big-time MITB qualifying match, a six-man showdown, and plenty of other tidbits to get to.
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So with that being said, here's our preview for the May 29th episode of SmackDown Live.
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Last Man Standing
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Shinsuke Nakamura hasn't had much luck since coming up to the main roster, despite what many fans will choose to believe. The King of Strong Style's babyface run clearly wasn't working out for him, and now, as a heel, he faces the very real possibility of failing to win the WWE Championship for what feels like the millionth time.
Tonight, we'll see the next step in the build-up to his Last Man Standing showdown with AJ Styles, although he first has to deal with the challenge of The Perfect 10 Tye Dillinger. The two men have been going back and forth on social media over the last few days, with SD Live general manager Paige making the match official.
Whatever happens, it'll certainly be interesting to see whether or not Shinsuke will come out on top again this week.
Big Six-Man Tag Match
As the world waits to see which member of The New Day will be in the Money in the Bank ladder match, the WWE Universe will be treated to a high profile six-man tag team match on SmackDown Live tonight. The Miz continues to build momentum towards MITB alongside The Bar, whereas The New Day will want to try and avoid losing any more steam than they already have.
It wouldn't be surprising to see some kind of shenanigans, especially given the superstars who are involved. Hopefully, this bout is given the time that it deserves, because if they're given the chance to shine, these six can produce something special.
At the very least, we feel like we deserve a moment of acrobatic brilliance from Kofi Kingston.
MITB Build
While we all love the Money in the Bank ladder match, purely for the anarchy side of things, it does make the writing team a little bit lazy. They realise that they don't need to put together all too many elaborate storylines because the only thing that people are going to care about is Money in the Bank. Alas, as we look forward, that probably means we'll hear a lot of mentions to the briefcase.
It's starting to feel like they're building the MITB pay-per-view up to be the next addition to the big four, which would make sense, given where it lands in the WWE calendar. With just a few weeks remaining until the event, it'll be interesting to see whether or not all of the participants in the male match are confirmed, setting up a big scuffle on the go-home show.
Carmella’s Preparations
Following her loss to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34, many fans were worried that Asuka would fall out of title contention pretty quickly. However, that didn't turn out to be the case, as she prepares to challenge Carmella for the SD Live Women's Championship at Money in the Bank.
Carmella has been improving rapidly over the last few months, and since becoming champion, she's surprised quite a few people with just how effective she's been in the role. It'll be interesting to see what they do to try and keep the build-up fresh because as they move forward, another title loss for The Empress could impact her rise in the same way that it did for Nakamura last year.
Daniel Bryan vs Samoa Joe
As fans of WWE, we've been spoilt by the sheer volume of world-class wrestlers that have come into the company in the last few years. Two such examples are Daniel Bryan and Samoa Joe, who both built their reputations on the independent circuit before announcing themselves to the WWE Universe in very different ways.
It seems likely that the loser of their MITB qualification match will go on to challenge for the WWE Championship next, but regardless of that, this is a big-time showdown to be giving away on free television. It's probably going to end up being the main event of the evening, and that's the smart move to make given just how many people are dying to see it.
