After American Alpha defeated The Usos in rather quick fashion, the Usos turned heel and attacked them. First, they rammed Jason Jordan’s shoulder into the steel post, and then proceeded to assault Chad Gable’s leg, thus “injuring” him in the process. While American Alpha were scheduled to face Heath Slater and Rhyno at Backlash in the finals for the inaugural Smackdown Tag Team Championship.
Shane McMahon then said on Talking Smack that American Alpha were being pulled out of their match at BackLash due to Gable being injured for 2-4 weeks. It is obvious that this injury is just for storyline purpose, but the question is, why was this the case?
The word on this is that the pulling of Alpha from the BackLash card has to do with two things: Heath Slater, and The Usos. It was reported shortly after Summerslam by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that The Usos would be turning heel very soon, as Smackdown Live needed a top heel tag team to counter the top babyface tag team that are to be American Alpha.
Now, with Alpha being gone from BackLash, Shane then announced that the semi-finalists who were unsuccessful, i.e, The Usos and The Hype Bros would be squaring off at BackLash and the winner would go on to the Tag Team tournament finals to take on Heath Slater and Rhyno.
The reason why Alpha were pulled in this case is said to be because they want Heath Slater and Rhyno to win the titles, and thus want to protect Alpha by not having to take the fall, whether it is by interference by The Usos or not. The Usos are favoured to defeat The Hype Bros on Sunday.
A likely scenario would be a furious Jason Jordan coming out and helping Slater and Rhyno defeat The Usos. It is also highly possible that The Usos may win the Tag Team Championships as well, in order to gain more heat for them by defeating Slater and Rhyno, who are currently extremely over and beloved by the entire WWE Universe. Naturally, the long-term plan is for American Alpha to overcome The Usos.
Presumably right off the bat after Gable’s “injury”, they will most likely be chasing The Usos, whether it is for the tag team championships or not. Perhaps they could even beat them at No Mercy in October.
It is not known what the fate of Slater will be if he loses. It is being said that he may be offered a contract whether he wins or loses at BackLash
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