This week on SmackDown Live, we saw several serious clashes of rivals with major implications for WrestleMania. The main event was a battle between the best of the roster for a chance to headline WrestleMania against Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship.
Meanwhile, the women were a huge part of the show. With Naomi forced to relinquish the SmackDown Women's Championship, Alexa Bliss and Becky Lynch battled to crown the next champion, and Natalya and Nikki Bella finally settled their differences in a vicious Falls Count Anywhere match.
Even with much of the night focused on closing out rivalries, more questions were presented, particularly for the Road to WrestleMania, with nothing made wholly clear. Even now, there is no clarity over who will face Wyatt at Mania, while the women's division is loaded with feuds left hanging in the balance.
The following are the top questions still burning after the February 21 edition of SmackDown Live, focused on what the Road to WrestleMania will look like going forward.
Without Naomi, Who Will Step Up To Challenge Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania?
Thanks to an injury suffered at Elimination Chamber, Naomi was only SmackDown women's champion for nine days before she had to relinquish her championship. Current Raw general manager Mick Foley was one of many to show his sympathy for the former champion:
Thanks to a vicious cheap shot and a handful of tights, Alexa Bliss is now a two-time women's champion, but she has lost her current rival. With Nikki Bella just beginning a rivalry with Maryse, the only female face left on SmackDown's roster is Becky Lynch, who is currently entangled with Bliss' friend Mickie James.
After another strong showing from all of SmackDown's women this week, the division absolutely deserves a title match at Mania, but who will stand up? Will Lynch battle Bliss again even with how long their rivalry has lasted? Will Natalya or Carmella need to turn again to balance out the roster?
Right now, nothing is certain, but the best option looks to be a triple threat between Bliss, Lynch and James. This would put the best workers in the division in the same ring at the same time and make certain they all get a WrestleMania paycheck.
Can The Usos Become a Realistic Threat to the Reign of American Alpha?
It was a tale of two halves for the tag team division this week, as American Alpha once more plowed through a potential title contender in Breezango only to be run down in a strong promo by The Usos. The segment represented the potential and problems the division currently faces.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross even noted this clear issue in representation in his praise and complaints about the segment:
Since the debut of Alpha on the main roster, the duo have pinned The Usos four times and lost only once, when Chad Gable was selling a knee injury that had sidelined him for weeks. The feud has been entirely one-sided as is true of Alpha's standing in the entire division. Their frequent squashes of talent have depleted the credibility of the division.
Still, The Usos cut an excellent and intense promo as they walked through the crowd, threatening the tag team champions and making it hard to remember that they had been defeated so often before. If they can keep up promos like this, they may just be able to overcome their booking so far to make for compelling rivals to American Alpha.
We have not seen enough from The Usos to believe in them, though, as SmackDown could easily have them lose another match to Alpha next week. The booking of the heels in the next few weeks will determine whether this rivalry is worthy of WrestleMania.
Will SmackDown Be Able to Sell John Cena and Nikki Bella vs. The Miz and Maryse as a WrestleMania-Worthy Match?
Rumors have been circulating for a long time that Nikki Bella was on her way out of WWE, hoping to have her last WrestleMania match alongside her current boyfriend John Cena. The expectation has been that this would lead to Cena and Nikki battling SmackDown's heel power couple The Miz and Maryse.
Now, the build to that match has begun, as Maryse cost Nikki her final match against Natalya, and Miz eliminated Cena from contention in the main event battle royal. At this point, it is not a stretch to state that the Cena/Nikki vs. Miz/Maryse is a near certainty for WrestleMania.
Mixed tag team matches, though, have rarely been a highlight of Mania. In fact, this would be the highest profile mixed tag in WrestleMania's history. To have the long-standing face of WWE, Cena, battling in a tag team match at Mania is a surprising enough drop in his placement on the card as it is.
It will take serious work from SmackDown Live's creative team to sell this story as more than reality television drama, as Upgrov writer Justin LaBar pointed out as the stars aligned for this match:
Can WWE make a match with few stakes and multiple stars to shuffle feel as worthy of WrestleMania as the multiple singles clashes at the event? Only time will tell, as this is a scenario that is completely new to Mania.
Who Will Main-Event WrestleMania vs. Bray Wyatt: AJ Styles or Luke Harper?
SmackDown's main event battle royal included all the top stars of the brand including, Cena, Miz, Dean Ambrose, Baron Corbin and Dolph Ziggler. It was meant to be the definitive match to crown a new challenger for Wyatt at Mania, with Randy Orton seemingly forgoing his Royal Rumble victory.
However, AJ Styles and Luke Harper took each other out at the same time to lead to an inconclusive finish for the match. Now, we will have to wait a full week for an answer that was promised for this week's SmackDown. Will Styles or Harper battle Wyatt at WrestleMania?
Obviously, this scenario was frustrating for everyone, which was showcased in the reactions of both the wrestlers:
This should lead to a great match next week between Styles and Harper, with Wyatt looming over the proceedings. Both men are strong in-ring performers without a WrestleMania main event to their name, so it will set up a huge match for either man.
While Harper's win would make sense, Styles has earned a Mania main event through his work over the last year and would also be left with no rival if he lost. Hopefully, next week, there will be no more questions left on who main-events WrestleMania for SmackDown.