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Stomping Grounds is just two weeks away, and WWE wasted no time in announcing a few major matches for the event right after the Super ShowDown pay-per-view.
While a few of the matches have a lot of story behind them, others are still fresh and need to be built on. Additionally, WWE still needs to build storylines and contenders for other matches for the event as SmackDown seems to be leading the mid-card matches at pay-per-views in recent times.
Keeping all that in mind, we could be treated to a number of surprises this week on SmackDown Live to ensure that the blue brand does not lose out on its ratings.
In this article, we will take a look at 3 of the biggest surprises WWE could pull off on SmackDown this week, and how they could impact the superstars and the storylines involved.
#3 SmackDown finds a brand new challenger
Last week’s SmackDown saw the SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan spoke in an interview. They insulted the entire tag team division of the brand and spoke about how no one was worthy of challenging them.
While they were cracking jokes and getting booed by the WWE Universe, Heavy Machinery made their way out to the middle to challenge the champions who conveniently left the scene.
Even though Heavy Machinery might not be the best options to win the SmackDown Tag Team Championships, the return of former Raw Tag Team Champions could shake things up.
Akam and Rezar, famously known as the Authors of Pain, were missing in action since Akam suffered an injury some months ago. The duo made their return on Friday in Saudi Arabia at the Super ShowDown event.
Even though their return was unceremonious, it’s noteworthy that the two men currently are among the few teams that can give WWE’s tag team division some hope.
WWE could use a program between Heavy Machinery and Authors of Pain before giving one of the teams a chance to challenge for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
#2 Alexa Blis turns full heel
Last week on Raw, Alexa Bliss played the perfect babyface as she stood by Nikki Cross who looked to impress the "Moment of Bliss" hostess in her match with Peyton Royce.
On SmackDown, on the other hand, Bliss seemed to completely change character in just 24 hours and played a heel as she hosted SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley in her talk show A Moment of Bliss.
Unless WWE’s new Wild Card rule also allows superstars to play different characters on different brands, it seems like the creatives of both shows were not sure how to handle the former Raw Women’s Champion.
Now that Alexa Bliss will be challenging Bayley for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at Stomping Grounds, expect her to play a villainous character against WWE’s favorite Hugger.
Will WWE make the efforts to portray Bliss as a top heel by turning her against Nikki Cross this week? We’ll find out before the end of this week’s SmackDown.
#1 The Anoa’i family reunion
On the May 27, 2019, episode of Raw, a new superstar made his debut for the brand in a one-on-one match with ‘The Best in the World’ Shane McMahon. Lance Anoa’i bravely fought against Shane McMahon in his debut match after Drew McIntyre’s interferences made it difficult for him to keep focus.
Similarly, Roman Reigns lost his match at WWE Super ShowDown to Shane McMahon after interference from Drew McIntyre, the man who he will face at Stomping Grounds.
This week on SmackDown, we could see Roman Reigns get some back-up as Lance Anoa’i could become his sidekick and teammate to take on the heels before the next pay-per-view.
Check out some interesting facts about Lance Anoa'i!
Lance had already taken to Twitter after his first match to state that the WWE Universe hadn’t seen the last of him, and this could mean that the creatives have some plans in store for him.
