From The Rumor Mill: Possible title match spoilers for Backlash

What's the story?

Backlash takes place tonight live from Newark, New Jersey and sees Shinsuke Nakamura fight for the WWE Championship for the third time in a month whilst Carmella defends her SmackDown Women's Championship for the first time against former Champion Charlotte.

However, reports suggest that both Carmella and Nakamura could be walking out of New York with Championship gold.

In case you didn't know...

Nakamura has already lost to Styles as part of WrestleMania weekend and again at The Greatest Royal Rumble last week.

Nakamura's frustration over his loss to Styles at WrestleMania last month forced him to turn heel and he's recently taken to sneaking up on the WWE Champion and low blowing him at every attempt.

Carmella finally cashed in her Money in the Bank contract on the SmackDown following WrestleMania after the help from The IIconics, and will now face former Champion Charlotte one-on-one for her title for the first time.

The heart of the matter

Dave Meltzer discussed Nakamura's match with Styles on the most recent episode of The Wrestling Observer, where he speculated that the scenario that makes the most sense for the WWE Championship at tonight's event, would see Nakamura finally walk out with the gold. (Transcript via RingSideNews)

“There’s no reason not to [change the WWE Championship] they’re booked against each other going forward. If AJ beats him again it would make no sense if they’re going to keep booking them unless they’re going to move to AJ and Joe. So I think a title change makes the most sense. I don’t know if they’re going to do it but I think it makes the most sense.”

Carmella's first title defense as Women's Champion was a hot topic of discussion recently and Mike Johnson of PWInsider mentioned that he believes it's too soon for Carmella to lose the Championship back to Charlotte.

The same rule could also be applied to Jeff Hardy, who only recently picked up the United States Championship before he was switched over to SmackDown Live.

What's next?

Backlash beckons in a new era for WWE, but reports surrounding the event currently suggest that it's unlikely that any Championships will be changing hands.

Author's take

Nothing is ever certain in WWE, the company like to throw curveballs whenever they can which are designed to shock the WWE Universe.

Backlash has been built up as a pay-per-view that could be used as a way to build bigger feuds heading into Money in the Bank next month.

Since this is the first pay-per-view event since WWE announced that the brand split was no longer a thing, it will be interesting to see how the company marks the occasion.