What’s the story?
According to ewrestlingnews.com, American Alpha teamed up with Sin Cara, prior to SmackDown Live’s broadcast, to compete against The Ascension & Aiden English. Chad Gable & Jason Jordan were on the winning side of this 6-man tag team match that left the WWE Universe wanting more.
In case you didn’t know…
As a duo, American Alpha are noticeably absent from tag team competition. This is a stark contrast to just a few months ago when they were SmackDown Live’s Tag Team Champions. They held those titles from December 27th, 2016, until March 21st when they dropped them to The Usos. After that loss, they faded quickly out of the tag team division spotlight.
The heart of the matter
American Alpha as a team may have been relegated to the pre-show, but one of the members still found his way onto the live broadcast. During a segment in which Maria Kanellis searched backstage for Sami Zayn, Chad Gable poked his head out of the male wrestler’s locker room to say that he wasn’t in there.
This supporting role to Maria is a big step down from previous weeks when Gable competed in singles matches opposite the likes of AJ Styles and Kevin Owens. Getting to say a line about “Sami-wow-wow” is not nearly as exciting as those high profile singles matches, but it’s still more screen time than Jason Jordan gets these days.
Jason Jordan did get to accompany Gable briefly at the top of the ramp before his Kevin Owens match, and he was also in the previous week's battle royal for a shot at the US Championship, but he’s taken a far less prominent role when compared to Chad.
Also read: Best and Worst of WWE SmackDown Live — July 11, 2017
What’s next?
This pre-show match could simply be a sign that WWE is waiting for an opportunity to re-insert them back into a televised storyline. Creative doesn’t always have something ready for everybody at all times. Even a team as talented as American Alpha might have to step out of the spotlight from time to time.
However, the repeated appearances by Chad Gable without his partner for weeks on end could be a testing of the waters for a future solo run. If the powers that be like what they see in him, a split might be in the cards.
Author’s take
There’s so much that still can be done with American Alpha. It’s a mistake that they aren’t getting more chances to go inside the ring while the cameras are rolling. WWE barely scratched the surface with what they’re capable of during their first run as SmackDown Live champions. If given the consistent opportunities to actually wrestle, they could once again be the workhorse tag team that NXT fans remember them being.
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