It’s possible the WWE didn’t think this through.
Between WrestleMania 34, the Superstar Shake-up, a number of call-ups from NXT and the Greatest Royal Rumble event and the co-branded Backlash pay-per-view taking place nine days apart from each other, the company has managed to cram dozens of storylines both on-screen and backstage in just under a month.
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And while both Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live both show promise with their freshly updated rosters, each brand’s handful of championships will remain up in the air until fans can finally exhale when Raw rolls around on May 7.
Based on the seven championship matches booked on Greatest Royal Rumble and the pair of matches already set for Backlash the Universal, Intercontinental, United States and Raw Tag Team Championships all have the potential to hop from their current shows to the opposing brand over the next few weeks, thanks to many of those title matches being announced before the Shake-up took place.
Let’s break down each of them.
Roman Reigns takes on Brock Lesnar in a Steel Cage match in Saudi Arabia for the Universal Championship. If he wins (which is likely), his Backlash dance partner has already been picked out in Samoa Joe, who just so happened to jump to the Blue Brand on Tuesday.
Joe also has the opportunity to snag the Intercontinental Championship off Seth Rollins in a four-way ladder match at Greatest Royal Rumble. If Rollins holds onto it past that, he’ll take on another new SmackDown addition in The Miz.
The United States Championship already set the land speed record for fastest flip-flop by switching from SmackDown to Raw and back in a matter of two days this week. Newly-crowned champion Jeff Hardy defends his title against Jinder Mahal in a rematch from Raw at Greatest Royal Rumble and the “Modern Day Maharaja” has a knack for winning titles when people least expect it. If Mahal wins, the title goes back to Raw.
Finally there’s the vacated Raw Tag Team Championships. Sheamus and Cesaro were already booked for a shot at the titles before the Shake-up and face the new team of “Woken” Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt on April 27. If The Bar wins, that could mean the Raw tag titles would be on SmackDown for the time being, which would be delightfully awkward.
It’s also entirely possible that none of the championships change hands between now and May 7, meaning everything stays exactly where it is. But this is the same company that once had the ECW Champion on the Raw roster and just changed the Undertaker’s casket match twice on a whim. Anything can happen.
