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The latest episode of WWE SmackDown Live will take place in Louisville, Kentucky on Tuesday, May 7.
One of the biggest stories heading into the show involves WWE’s new ‘Wildcard Rule’, which means a select few Raw Superstars will be allowed to appear on this week’s SmackDown Live.
With the Money in the Bank pay-per-view just two weeks away, we can also expect all four SmackDown Live Superstars from the men’s ladder match (Ali, Andrade, Finn Balor and Randy Orton), as well as the four Superstars from the women’s ladder match (Bayley, Carmella, Ember Moon and Mandy Rose), to appear on the show.
Elsewhere, Shane McMahon will crown new SmackDown Tag Team champions after The Hardy Boyz were forced to relinquish their titles last week, while it is being advertised that Kevin Owens will issue a response after being attacked by WWE champion Kofi Kingston.
WWE has also announced two matches that will take place on the episode, with Ali going one-on-one with Andrade and Bayley, Carmella & Ember Moon facing Charlotte Flair, Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose.
In this article, let’s take a look at five possible scenarios and storyline developments that we could see during the show.
#5 Shane McMahon & Elias are named tag champions
As soon as WWE released a strangely worded statement which revealed that Shane McMahon will “crown” the new SmackDown Tag Team champions, we speculated that the authority figure may keep one title for himself and hand the other to Elias.
Two days later, the company published a follow-up article which listed some of the potential new tag champions, and it just so happens that, despite never teaming up together, Shane & Elias were featured on the list.
Presuming that Shane will give the titles to himself/someone else rather than announce a one-night tournament, there are not many tag teams left on the blue brand who, from a storyline perspective, could realistically receive the titles without even winning a match.
Heavy Machinery, The Colons, Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura and The B-Team are the only duos left on SmackDown Live, and none of them are in prominent storylines like Shane & Elias are right now.
The alternative option would be to hand the titles to a Raw tag team (say, The Viking Raiders or AOP?), but that would make the Superstar Shake-Up even more farcical than it has been over the last few weeks.
#4 Kevin Owens stands tall against Kofi Kingston
Last week’s SmackDown Live ended with Kofi Kingston standing tall after attacking Kevin Owens during the latest edition of ‘The Kevin Owens Show’.
With the two men set to meet for the WWE Championship at Money In The Bank on May 19, Owens has shown his true villainous colours over the last two weeks by assaulting Kingston and Xavier Woods a fortnight ago before mocking both men during the show-closing segment last Tuesday.
Given that Kingston gained the upper hand during their altercation last week, WWE’s pre-PPV logic dictates that we will most likely see Owens build some momentum this week to improve his credibility as a title contender as we move closer to MITB.
After all, Kingston is only one month into his WWE Championship reign, so it seems highly improbable that he will lose his title any time soon, hence why he defeated Daniel Bryan on Raw. For that reason, Owens needs to look as strong as possible over the next two weeks.
#3 Randy Orton makes his mark with RKOs outta nowhere
Randy Orton will be involved in the men’s Money In The Bank ladder match along with fellow SmackDown Live Superstars Ali, Andrade and Finn Balor.
Last week, the babyface team of Ali & Balor joined forces to defeat Andrade & Orton in a tag match on SmackDown Live, and it has been announced that Ali and Andrade (w/Zelina Vega) will go one-on-one this week.
The finish to last week’s match saw Ali pin his upcoming opponent after an 054 from the top rope. Seconds later, even though the match had already finished, Orton struck an RKO outta nowhere on Balor, while Ali had the last laugh by connecting with two superkicks to send “The Viper” flying through the ropes.
Needless to say, Orton will be out for revenge this week, so expect him to strike with a few RKOs at the end of the match to send a message to his upcoming Money In The Bank opponents.
#2 The babyface women pick up the win
Looking at the women from SmackDown Live who will compete in the Money In The Bank ladder match, all four of them are in need of momentum before May 19.
Bayley has been more interesting since moving to the blue brand but she has still lost two matches in a row, while Carmella has not won a one-on-one encounter in 10 months and Ember Moon has been out of in-ring action recently after undergoing elbow surgery.
As for Mandy Rose, she is currently involved in a storyline with Sonya Deville which is essentially a test of their friendship, so she at least has a fall-back story if she does not win at MITB.
With that in mind, it seems much more likely that the babyface trio – Bayley, Carmella & Moon – will emerge with the win over Charlotte Flair, Deville & Rose in this week’s six-woman tag match.
#1 Raw invades SmackDown Live
The biggest storyline development on the May 6 episode of Raw came during the opening segment when Vince McMahon broke his own Superstar Shake-Up rules by announcing that a ‘Wildcard Rule’ will occasionally be used on future episodes of Raw and SmackDown Live.
What does that mean, exactly? Well, as we saw on Monday’s Raw, a select few Superstars from the opposing main-roster brand will be allowed to show up on the other show.
This week’s Raw saw Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, Elias and Lars Sullivan appear on the red brand, despite their statuses as SmackDown Live Superstars, while the WrestleMania 35 rematch between Kingston and Bryan even main-evented the episode.
Michael Cole mentioned at the end of the broadcast that all eyes will be on SmackDown Live to see which Raw Superstars appear, so expect to see plenty of red brand representatives on Tuesday night.
