SmackDown Live: WWE Preview (7/2)

SmackDown comes to us live tonight from inside the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas!

The New Day

Kofi Kingston

Last night, Samoa Joe choked out the WWE champion, bringing Kofi Kingston his first loss since before WrestleMania. Joe looked unstoppable last night. Kofi never tapped, but he still was unable to answer the ref, resulting in referee stoppage of the match.

Now that Joe has defeated Kofi, there’s no reason why he can’t do the same at Extreme Rules. Kofi will respond tonight but he needs to keep his head on a swivel. Expect Joe to be there tonight as fired up as ever, ready to choke another member of New Day out.

Xavier Woods & Big E

These two are geared up to take on Bryan & Rowan at Extreme Rules for the SmackDown tag team titles. The match hasn’t been officially announced as of yet, but it’s inevitable.

The New Day pinned the SmackDown tag champs twice last week. Going forward, New Day atop SmackDown Live holding not only the WWE title, but the SmackDown tag titles as well, will solidify them as one of the best trios in WWE history.

Sonya Deville & Mandy Rose

Last week, Sonya Deville defeated Ember Moon due to a timely distraction from Mandy Rose. After the match, Rose & Deville embraced and shared a moment that seemed to be a little romantic.

This was one of the biggest stories coming out of last week. There was no mention of this on commentary or even on WWE’s official Smackdown preview. If WWE wants to reach out to a wider audience, like the LGBTQ community, they need to run with this. There was so much talk about it last week that WWE has to do something big with this.

SmackDown Woman’s Championship

Last week, Nikki Cross defeated SmackDown Woman’s champion, Bayley to give Alexa Bliss another opportunity at Bayley for her title. The story up to now is Bliss is using Cross to do her dirty work, fighting battles for Bliss that she knows she can’t win and then Alexa coming up short every time.

Last night, Carmella pinned Bliss in mere seconds, resulting in Cross challenging her directly after. Cross won the match, and once again looks better than Alexa. In an interview after the match, they told Cross that many fans want her to face Bayley instead of Bliss.

WWE has planted the seeds for animosity between the pair and whether this leads to a triple threat at Extreme Rules remains to be seen.

Overall

This is Eric Bischoff’s first SmackDown as head writer, so it needs to be a good show. Raw was one of the most interesting shows WWE has put out all year long last night; expectations are high and all eyes will be on the blue brand tonight.