WWE Smackdown preview (April 30, 2015): WMD or WTF?

What you need to know

We barely had time to celebrate Seth Rollins retaining his WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Extreme Rules with an "SKO out of nowhere" on Randy Orton before the Seth and Kane's issues started up again. Rather than give the Director of Operations credit for an assist in the steel cage, Rollins' had to make a not-that-funny crack about his Authority-mate's age, so The Demon made one about Seth's immaturity and...

Out came The Viper and The Big Dog in short order to make their cases for title shots based on what The Future pulled on them at WrestleMania and ER, respectively. There was some tension between those two, and they only had a few hours to sort it out, because Kane made them tag partners for later in the night. Of course, he made himself tag partners with the guy he was just arguing with, too, so, at least things were even in the "odd bedfellows" department.

While that was going on, we had the impromptu King of the Ring tournament to break up the segments of "will Kane break away from The Authority?" Monday's first round matches were pretty much the usual time filler we get on Raw, just with a clear objective. There was good wrestling to be had, especially in a couple of upsets where R-Truth defeated Stardust and Neville beat Luke Harper. But the big storyline to spin out of the quarterfinals was a continuation of Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler, as a distraction by the Celtic Warrior cost Dolph in his bout with Bad News Barrett and a Ziggler run-in caused Sheamus to...win his match against Dean Ambrose by disqualification?

Don't worry. The Show-Off apologized, and The Lunatic Fringe accepted.

New tag champs The New Day are feeling themselves, bullying everybody backstage into clapping with them. They're also keeping their win streak alive with via the numbers game and a liberal interpretation of the rule book. Big E beat Tyson Kidd on Raw with an assist to a Xavier Woods' leg grab.

Standing U.S. champ John Cena is keeping his open challenge alive, but Heath Slater didn't get a chance to take advantage of it when Rusev kicked him off the stage in Green Bay. Cena is ready to face the Bulgarian in a Lana-negotiated "I Quit" match at the next pay-per-view (PPV). He's also willing to piss off feminists and people who don't think jokes about men who keep women in sexual slavery through violence and intimidation are ever appropriate to further the split between Rusev and his social ambassador.

Only word on Intercontinental champ Daniel Bryan came through his wife, Brie Bella, who told us that The Beard really wants to be back with his beloved WWE Universe. If her sister doesn't do a better job as gatekeeper, Bryan might be the only champ in the family. New attitude Naomi is still aiming for Nikki's belt, and she went right through Brie on Raw to prove it.

Undercard face pushes continued for Fandango, who lost to Adam Rose when ex-dancer and current Rosebud Rosa drew his eye at the wrong moment, and Damien Sandow, who undercut a nice straightforward promo with an imitation of my eight year old nephew, and Curtis Axel. Ryback's recent elevation is to make you think he's a main eventer so when Bray Wyatt defeats him it helps The Eater of Worlds. For now, the intrigue of rescuing his real-life brother Bo Dallas and whther or not his promos are really directed at The Big Guy will have to suffice for Bray fans.

On Tuesday night, Barrett used his spider-sense to take Truth out of the tournament. and Ziggler remembered that auditory interference is much more useful in WWE than actual physical violence and his taunts helped Neville advance to the finals.  The Sensation (which WWE is pushing as The Jumpin' Geordie's new moniker) fought hard but was a little too fixated on his finisher, and ended up taking a Bullhammer so Bad News could ascend to the throne.

And miscommunication between Kane and Seth cost them the main event on Monday night, while a WWE App vote set-up by the Big Red Monster placed the champ in a Triple Threat against both Reigns & Orton for Payback.

What to look out for

After crowning a king, WWE stayed in the seat of John Deere's power - filming Smackdown at the Wireless Center in Moline, Iowa. If you can't wait to find out what's on tonight's show, you can get spoiled right here.

We've already been promised a tag team championship rematch between The New Day and the many nicknamed duo of Kidd & Cesaro (currently pushing themselves as Best Team Ever on social media). Does that happen, or get separated out into multiple singles matches? Will Natalya and Woods be added to make it an intergender six-person?

Or will WWE just find another way to turn a one-on-one affair into a pairs bout to meet their contractual obligation to provide the internet with a chance to make Teddy Long jokes every week? Maybe something continuing the dreamy pairing of former Shield brothers Ambrose & Reigns...there has to be some way to get Big Show back on television this week! He has to make Floyd Mayweather references so WWE can feel connected to Saturday night's big fight!

Photos of Sandow in a new shirt made the Twitter rounds on Tuesday night, so he'll be mocking someone tonight. Something should happen to either build the feud or the con regarding Wyatt vs. Ryback, in addition to a segment and/or match designed to further Naomi's heel or Nikki's face turn.

(Note: I know some folks have come looking for a more definitive match listing - that will be posted behind spoiler text in the comments. If WWE.com releases more information on anything that's officially going to take place on tonight's show, that'll be updated here)

It's a return to the main event days where many of us will watch six or seven hours of prime time WWE programming the week!

Will we look back on it as time well spent, or like the victims of a Big Show WMD?