Last week in WWE, we saw Monday Night Raw start a new phase after the end of Payback, SmackDown Live build towards Backlash, and NXT start setting the card for NXT TakeOver: Chicago. This week, a lot of questions should be answered on all shows in terms of new feuds, title matches, and more.
Monday Night Raw
Last week’s main event to Monday Night Raw was incredible and it served its purpose to set up for the next few weeks of programming. First and foremost, The Miz became the new #1 Contender for Dean Ambrose’s Intercontinental Championship. During that win, Samo Joe attacked Seth Rollins outside the ring to continue their feud which seemed to be over after Payback. In the same match, Bray Wyatt ruined Finn Balor’s chances of winning by attacking him as well. Tonight should help push all three of these programs.
The only match announced for tonight’s show so far is a Tag Team Turmoil match to determine the new #1 Contenders to the Raw Tag Team Championships. It features the recently turned Sheamus and Cesaro, Enzo Amore and Big Cass, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, Heath Slater & Rhyno, and The Golden Truth.
One question still remains for Raw: Will Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns make an appearance? Both men suffered injuries from their main event match at Payback, and it seems like this battle is far from over.
SmackDown Live
For the next two weeks, SmackDown Live is all about the road to Backlash. There are three matches set in stone for the Pay-Per-View: Kevin Owens defending the United States Championship against AJ Styles, Randy Orton defending the WWE Championship against Jinder Mahal, and The Usos defending the SmackDown Tag Team Championships against Breezango.
We still don’t know what is going on with the SmackDown Women’s Championship. Naomi defended the championship against Charlotte two weeks ago, but The Welcoming Committee (Carmella, Natalya, & Tamina) attacked both women involved and ruined the match. The following week, Carmella and Natalya would proceed to defeat Charlotte and Naomi in a tag match thanks to underhanded tactics from James Ellsworth. With Becky Lynch siding with Charlotte and Naomi, what does this mean for the Women’s Division and the SmackDown Women’s Championship?
In non-title feuds, there are two pairs of Superstars that seem to be building a match towards Backlash, but nothing has been officially announced yet. Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin have been fighting back and forth since they both failed to beat AJ Styles to become the #1 Contender for the United States Championship. Corbin got himself suspended two weeks ago when his assault on Sami Zayn during Talking Smack led to the Lone Wolf shoving a referee. Now that Corbin’s suspension is over, things can resume between him and Zayn.
The other feud that doesn’t have an official match yet is between Dolph Ziggler and Shinsuke Nakamura. The King of Strong Style moved to SmackDown Live in the Superstar Shake-up, and Ziggler doesn’t want the former two-time NXT Champion stealing his spotlight. Ziggler tried to get the better of him in a couple promo segments, but it just led to Ziggler almost eating a Kinshasa knee strike from Nakamura. With Nakamura being in all of the promotional material for Backlash, it is certain that he will have a match.
205 Live
As usual, it doesn’t seem like anything is advertised for 205 Live as of this writing, but that can change during tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw. Neville and TJ Perkins are still working together to keep Austin Aries out of the Cruiserweight Championship title picture, but every other angle they have been running over the past few weeks could be wrapped up (with the exception of Brian Kendrick and Akira Tozawa). Without a doubt, there will still be fun in-ring action.
NXT
It seems like NXT is finally back to putting on important episodes every week. There are two matches advertised for this week’s episode: Aleister Black returning to action (assumedly for a squash match) and Hideo Itami battling Roderick Strong for a shot at the NXT Championship at TakeOver: Chicago. Strong hasn’t been wrestling, but he has been prominently featured with character building video packages. Itami returned from injury a couple weeks ago when he attacked Bobby Roode and last week, he scored a victory over Kona Reeves.
That is all of the usual weekly programming for WWE this week. Last week seemed pretty uneventful in terms of in-ring action, but this week should turn that around. Also as a quick honorable mention to those interested, this week is the season finale of Total Divas.
