5 things that could happen on smackdown live next week

This week’s episode of WWE SmackDown Live featured the fallout from last Sunday’s Clash of Champions PPV event. It was a very easy and quick watch (far easier to sit through the the slog of RAW this week) even though very little of importance happened.It’s not unusual for the last few shows of the year to exist just because they have to, so that’s nothing new. It was a simple 2-hour show with nothing actively bad and a few highlights as well. Here’s what I predicted would happen on this week’s show:- Zayn and Owens are still employedOne for one right here. In fact, Shane McMahon did indeed try to screw them over, and while Bryan didn’t side with the best friends, he did give them a somewhat cheap win by fast-counting Randy Orton’s shoulders, but it was after Shane pulled the exact stunt he did to Stone Cold Steve Austin at the 1998 Survivor Series. He didn’t hit the mat for three when the match was surely over, so Bryan did the opposite.- Bludgeon Brothers meet up with The AscensionAfter their dominating performance at Clash of Champions, I expected that it was possible that Breezango’s pals, The Ascension, might step up to get revenge for their fallen comrades, but that was not the case. As a matter of fact, none of the three teams even appeared on SmackDown Live this week. - Rusev and English have a big celebrationSadly, Aiden English and Rusev were unsuccessful in their bid to win tag team gold on Sunday. They didn’t have a celebration, but they did participate in a great, funny backstage segment with The New Day and had a fun, quick match later on in the show. I don’t get any points, but the stuff on SmackDown was truly a lot of fun, and shows how well both teams can do serious and comedy without becoming jokes.- Ruby Riott becomes number 1 contender in a battle royalI was indeed correct in my guess that the women’s Royal Rumble would be announced this week, as it happened on Monday Night RAW, and Ruby Riott was indeed involved in a match this week, but it was on the losing end of a match that saw her team with Sarah Logan against Charlotte and Naomi. How are they going to determine a challenger for Charlotte at the Rumble? Will she just go without a title match? Maybe Naomi just gets it for… well, whatever reason. We’ll see.- Orton turns on NakamuraThis was so unbelievably unfair. I assume they ended the show a little bit too early and had to fill the extra time, but the celebratory poses after Orton, Nakamura, and Styles defeated Owens, Zayn, and Mahal went on and on for so long that I was convinced that Orton was going to nail Nakamura with an RKO out of nowhere and then glare across the ring at AJ Styles. That was just one big tease. I’m still betting that it’s going to happen, but when? Maybe the first episode of SDL in 2018.Overall, I completely missed the mark. 1 out of 5 is the official score, but Sami and Kevin were pretty much guaranteed to keep their jobs so that was an easy point. Let’s talk about what could happen on the night-after-Christmas edition of SmackDown Live.#5 Gable and Benjamin get a tag team championship matchShelton Benjamin and Chad Gable beat The Usos in a non-title matchThey won’t win said match, but after the stellar performance in the 4-way at Clash of Champions that saw them only moments from becoming champions, followed by their victory over The Usos in a non-title match this week, I think they have earned a shot. It’s a good match to put in the commercial-free first hour of the show.I think Gable and Benjamin are still leaning toward becoming a heel tag team. They were going that direction for a little while and then it tapered off, but I believe that’s the goal. They will try to cheat to win after the Usos just won’t stay down, and then after the match, they may clip one of the Usos knees, just like they did to Gable on two separate occasions.

5 things that could happen on smackdown live next week

#3 A tournament for the US Title is announced