With the COVID-19 outbreak a few weeks back, Smackdown’s been in upheaval with several employees, wrestlers and behind the scenes people, testing positive. As such, Smackdown has been a little lacking in presentation the last couple of weeks as they’ve had to shuffle segments.
It led to the Undertaker’s tribute two weeks ago, and is probably a reason we’ll be seeing a replay of Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt’s Money in the Bank match.
It’s great buildup for their upcoming swamp match at Extreme Rules, but it’s also a solid chunk of time taken out of the show that they don’t have to squeeze something in.
This makes us wonder just how many of their wrestlers tested positive or chose to remain home instead of doing the tapings if they don’t have anyone they can plug in or a storyline set up.
Still, it’ll be fun to see the match again. Maybe we’ll see something we missed previously.
AJ Styles looks for a new challenger
AJ Styles is arguably their best performer currently on the Smackdown brand, so it’s likely he’ll put in an appearance to look for a new challenger. It feels out of place given how he likes to do things the “smart” way, but he can’t help his mouth sometimes, so it wouldn’t surprise us if he gets someone’s attention after mocking another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ7L9lFARAA
It’s what he does best, especially now that he can move on from Danial Bryan and Drew Gulak following last week’s dominating performance.
There’s always a chance that we could see Matt Riddle come out to stake his claim since he previously beat Styles in a non-title match, but he’s tied up with King Corbin, so could we se Corbin and Styles team up?
At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. The WWE has been relying on gimmick matches for the last couple of weeks, so why not throw another tag match together at the last minute?
Of course, they could use this as an opportunity to bring someone up from NXT to challenge Styles. Riddle made his debut against Styles, so there is the possibility Adam Cole will make the jump now that he’s lost the NXT Championship to Keith Lee.
It’d make sense and inject new life into the brand as he’s considered by many to be the best wrestler in the world. Putting him with Styles in a long running feud would be perfect and really ramp up the attention and competition the brand sorely needs.
With rumors of Dominik Dijakovic heading to Raw soon, it’d make sense for Cole to make the jump as well. Maybe the Undisputed Era will appear as well. It seems like a tall order, but the WWE has been quiet about things and this would make sense if only to get some shock value out of the show.
Of course, there are plenty of others that could feud with Styles. Who would you like to see challenge him for the Intercontinental Championship?
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