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Want to know what's happening in the major angles in WWE right now? Get eyes on our Raw preview and Reactions, since everyone knows Monday night is when the important stuff happens.
Want to know what is definitely happening on tonight's SmackDown from North Little Rock, Arkansas? Peep our spoiler post.
On Thursday mornings, we'll dig into the mid-card, the interesting and/or horrible stuff happening on the fringe away from your John Cenas and Stings. Plus, pretend for a spoiler-free minute that we're the Legendary Teddy Long and guess at the blue brand's patented tag match of the week!
Bellabrate Good Times...Come On!
ICYMI...Nikki Bella broke the most important record in the history of records on Monday night, and thereby rendered every women's wrestling match in the future irrelevant in advance.
Okay, I troll. Sorry. A lot of folks were legitimately pissed off that The Fearless One is now the longest reigning Divas champion ever, despite only a handful of title defenses in the 295-ish days it took her to break the old mark and the win that sealed the deal involving botched Twin Magic and divine McMahon intervention.
Charlotte, the second generation performer who just wanted to share a(nother) tearful moment with her dad, Ric Flair - maybe you've heard of him, is bummed, but determined to claim the butterfly belt on Sunday at Night of Champions.
What they should do: This has been laid out elsewhere, but here we go...Charlotte and/or her crewmate Becky Lynch should go hard at the record - basically saying what angry fans are saying. Nikki hasn't earned it, her claiming it as an accomplishment is a farce, etc. I actually like BEX as the one to voice those complaints, because I think she makes the best Daniel Bryan-esque fan surrogate for later on down the road.
Let The Nature Girl continue on with the family/heartwarming moment angle. Basically, that's her character so far anyway, and that kind of an appeal will work, at least in part, for a whole lot of folks.
The biggest, most important thing here is that Nikki has to play the cheating villainous she did on Raw Monday night and in the fallout video, not the tweener she was in her pre-match promo or the "nobody believed in me" heroine from social media. If they can build on what was honestly a pretty good match and focus on pro wrestling storytelling instead of trying to be everything to everyone, we can get this thing on track and put the rage in the rear view.
What we're afraid they'll do: Play tonight's party angle like a bit for Total Divas, where every woman on the roster except for Charlotte is happy for Nikki since her hard work paid off and...alright, I'm getting mad just thinking about it. I'm willing to cut the #DivasRevolution a lot of slack because, as myself and others have said before, WWE is the only chance these women have of making a good living by wrestling. But the surest way to sabotage that chance is to try make Bella the protagonist and antagonist of the story.
Now do The Celestine Prophecy
Kevin Owens baited Ryback into a title match, one bite of an apple at a time. Earlier this week, it was by interrupting the Intercontinental champ when he was about to deliver one of his rambling motivational speeches in front of the WWE Universe. The same audience Big Hungry hawked his new age handbook to a few months back to solidify his babyface turn.
First denouncing The Secret as a tool of the weak, KO then ripped up and threw it in The Big Guy's face. That was all it took to get a title shot...what does Owens have in mind to make sure this championship match ends differently than the last several of which he's been a part?
What they should do: Let the French-Canadian "run his mouth", because he'll sell the title and their upcoming pay-per-view (PPV) bout better than a million stories of waking up hungry. Then in the inevitable confrontation, have Ryback get the upper hand, because that way I'll feel a little better about Kev's chances on Sunday (the old, whoever stands tall on television is going down at the big show cliche).
What we're afraid they'll do: Have Big Show wander down to ringside, sucker punch the former NXT champ and lay him out like he was Cesaro. (sniff)
The Theodore Long Honorary Tag Match goes to...
I give up. WWE has already announced that Dean Ambrose & Roman Reigns will face WWE and United States champion Seth Rollins & Mr. Money in the Bank Sheamus in tonight's main event. It's almost like a guy or gal can't watch the opening segment hoping a fight breaks out that an authority figure will turn into a multi-person contest for later on in the show anymore.
Bray Wyatt and fam will undoubtedly get involved in the advertised tag, but probably not in a way that leads to it being turned into a five-on-five. While I'd love to see my fears about The World's Largest Athlete turned into a Show & KO vs. Ryback & Cesaro match, the smart money is probably on Sasha Banks' Team B.A.D. mixing it up with PCB. We haven't had one of those heatless trios affairs in a while, so it'll be a way for WWE to keep up the troll job...and in the meantime actually continue Paige's losing streak storyline.
Which could go to some really interesting places. Or detour right back to "crazy jealous catty chicks" territory...
(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)