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WWE has been steamrolling in their buildup to the Crown Jewel event and has opened up the coffers to attract some huge celebrities to participate in the company’s fourth big outing in Saudi Arabia.
Even though the buildup towards the event has been grand, the company still needs to focus on building some other Superstars and rivalries, while also building up its most entertaining brand, NXT.
With all that in hand, the company will be looking to do something big on each brand’s episode this week. Keeping that in mind, we have compiled a list of five things that the company should do during the upcoming episodes of RAW, NXT, and SmackDown this week.
#1 Andrade & Aleister Black impress once again
Last week on RAW, we watched Andrade moved to the RAW brand after a decent run on SmackDown and immediately coming out to score a win over Ali. Right after that, Aleister Black too emerged on RAW to score a huge victory over former NXT colleague Eric Young.
Both men made a big statement on the RAW brand right after their arrival, and need to carry on that moment.
When both men were part of SmackDown, they were booked well but featured in far too few matches. Black got very few televised matches during his SmackDown run, while Andrade was seen as a breakout star at first but slowly disappeared from television after bringing Rey Mysterio to the brink of retirement.
Keeping in mind that both men are former NXT Champions, the RAW brand has two extremely valuable assets in their hands now which they should use effectively.
The creatives should allow the two men television time again this week, and give both Superstars big wins to carry forward. This could result in a rivalry between them in the coming weeks, and we could potentially get a No. 1 contender for the United States Championship out of them.
#2 Authors of Pain run through the division
We’ve been talking about this for weeks, and this should finally happen in the coming episode of RAW to make the two men relevant again.
Former RAW Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain have been away from the ring for quite some time now, and the company has been signaling towards their in-ring return through backstage promos.
At a time when RAW was building their return, it was extremely surprising to watch the two men go undrafted on the two dedicated nights for the WWE Draft. However, their stint as free agents did not last too long, and the two men were signed by RAW recently to further build their tag team division.
Now that the news is out, the company should restart building the two men before fans start thinking of them as afterthoughts who weren’t given importance during the drafts.
With The Viking Raiders holding the RAW Tag Team Championships, the company should start feeding other tag teams to AOP from the upcoming episode and build them towards coming out as worthy title contenders. Not only will this be the best way to revive the fans’ interest in the two men, ill will also give them a top tier rivalry to look forward to in the RAW tag team division.
#3 NXT teases a possible alliance
There’s no denying that there is no faction more talented and dominating than The Undisputed Era. The four men, led by Adam Cole, have managed to revolutionize the Black and Gold brand and bring much more interest in the company’s product.
For months, we’ve seen Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong dominate other competitors and dish out 5-star performances in the process. Now that all four men hold a Championship belt, we know the impact they’ve made on WWE as a whole.
Last week, the four men destroyed the challenger to Roderick Strong’s North American Championship before Strong interrupted another match to determine the contender to his title.
Now that the four men have messed with not just Tomasso Ciampa and Velveteen Dream but also with Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic, we could see a movement against them soon.
Dream is slated to be out of action for some time, but we could see Ciampa or Finn Balor stand up and lead a revolution against The Undisputed Era, to give the four men the biggest run for their money they could ask for this week.
A partnership between Ciampa, Balor, Lee, and Dijakovic could prove to be the undoing of The Undisputed Era and could give fans one of the biggest faction feuds they’ve seen in recent times.
#4 Roman Reigns comes to Daniel Bryan’s aide
SmackDown has been building from the ground up again after a move to the FOX network and the recently concluded WWE Draft. The effects of the draft may not be evident right away, but it feels like the top of the men’s roster on SmackDown has a void that has been created due to the involvement of athletes of other sports and the wildcard rule.
Last week’s SmackDown saw neither Brock Lesnar nor Bray Wyatt appear on the show, and it was up to Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Baron Corbin to carry the brand ahead.
Keeping that in mind, WWE did well to team Bryan and Reigns yet again to deliver a good performance in the main event of the night.
Carrying that forward, WWE should invest more in this storyline and partnership which can pay its dividends in the long run. Now the company should allow Reigns’ to come to Bryan’s aid next week and help Bryan fend off the heels to book another tag team match.
This will allow them to pair Bryan and Reigns for some time to come and keep them relevant on the Blue Brand while Lesnar, Wyatt, and Strowman are busy in other feuds.
Once the company frees them up and moves away from the celebrity feuds after Crown Jewel, we could see Reigns and Bryan develop differences and compete against each other in due time to give fans the feud they’ve been waiting for.
#5 Ali turns to the dark side
Ali has been an inspiration for many young and diverse fans who have looked up to the young Superstar, his character, and his gimmick. Ali was a huge star on 205 Live, and even though he never won the Cruiserweight Championship, he was able to remain as one of the brand’s top and most talked-about Superstars.
Ali’s gear and gimmick of staying in the light showed how he was always the babyface and the good guy, but he has recently tweeted a few times that could see him incline towards a change in character.
During the previous episode of SmackDown, Ali was inducted into Team Hogan for the Crown Jewel event. To show his excitement, Ali tweeted out a message that was very unlike him and seemed to take a jab at the Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan.
WWE could use this aspect extremely well and turn Ali heel on the upcoming episode of SmackDown where he could attack someone like Daniel Bryan or one of the members of Team Hogan.
