Another WrestleMania is in the books, and after a well-received episode of Monday Night Raw, SmackDown is now up to bat. WWE will have big appearances from two of its new Champions in Cody Rhodes and Bayley, but it will also start the process of lining up a number-one contender through two Triple Threat matches. WWE SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis took to social media to announce two Triple Threat matches for tonight’s show, with the fist match featuring Santos Escobar, LA Knight, and Bobby Lashley. The second match will feature Rey Mysterio, Kevin Owens, and AJ Styles, and that’s the first step to deciding who will eventually face Rhodes.
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The two winners of the matches will then face each other on next week’s SmackDown, and whoever is left standing will then move on to battle Rhodes in a match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. That match will likely take place at Backlash, which is happening on May 4th in Lyon-Decines, France. You can find Aldis’ full description of tonight’s matches below.
“SmackDown is live and sold out tonight from Detroit Michigan, the Motor City, and we have two huge Triple Threat matches,” Aldis said. “The first, Santos Escobar, Bobby Lashley, and LA Knight. The second, Rey Mysterio, AJ Styles, and Kevin Owens. The winners of those matches will face each other next week, and the winner of that match…well they take on the new WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, who is in the hizzy tonight for SmackDown. Yes, he will be here live and in person, and the brand new Women’s Champion Bayley will also be here tonight live 8/7 Central only on FOX. It’s a new era.”
You could see this going a number of ways, as there are two ongoing rivalries baked into these two Triple Threats. Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar have been at odds since Santos turned on Mysterio and The LWO, and they fought at WrestleMania 40 as well in a Tag Team match. The other rivalry also took place at WrestleMania, that being AJ Styles vs LA Knight, and this could be a way to tee up a rematch between the two.
Bobby Lashley and Kevin Owens are two superstars who you could easily see facing Rhodes in a Championship main event as well, so perhaps those other rivalries will lead to Lashley or Owens moving on to the next round. We’ll have to wait and see, and there’s always the potential for WWE to throw a curveball and add someone to the lineup last minute too.
Speaking of Rhodes, he had a monumental moment at WrestleMania 40, finishing the story and defeating Roman Reigns. In an interview with TODAY, Rhodes was asked now that the final chapter has been written in that story, what’s next? “I had said on “SmackDown,” I said when one good story ends, an even better one begins. And I think that’s where I’m at with it, is we did finish the story. The story of a Rhodes wanting to capture this championship that (Dusty) never did, we got that. Now the fun really needs to begin,” Rhodes said.
“The legacy of my dad and the specter, the kind of a ghost always chasing the accolades and the impact that Dusty Rhodes had, that’ll always be there. But now I got this one up on him and I need to – for all the new fans we have, you know, you look out in the crowd and you see all the cosplay, kids who look at me in a really special way. And for them I want to give them just an unbelievable run,” Rhodes said.
“So brand-new story, hopefully brand-new opponents, hopefully on both shows. I’m good to be tested. You know, we didn’t get that with Roman, and I don’t want to take away the specialness of the title by any means, but I do want to be far more active. Plus, I do the live events, which is not a throwaway thing. I do the live events, which is the heartbeat of WWE, these smaller, non-TV production shows. And to be able to bring that on them when it’s been absent this whole time, that’s special,” Rhodes said.
Who do you want to see take on Rhodes for the Title? Let us know in the comments and you can talk wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!
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Image Credit: WWE, Netflix
