Previewing The Money In The Bank 2017 Undercard Matches

This Smackdown PPV has a pretty thin card. You can't blame that on injuries. Injuries put Raw on the spot a couple weeks ago, but that is not the issue for Smackdown right now. It is all because of the Money in the Bank ladder match taking so many individuals. I will talk about that on Friday. But this is a sign that there is still a depth issue. And that depth issue becomes more troublesome when they still insist on doing these matches that pull away so many singles feuds. Maybe this should have been a multi-brand PPV.

The Usos defend the tag titles against New Day. New Day have an act that actually got popular. I think the WWE got carried away by having them hold the tag titles as long as they did last year. I also have seen some people question whether New Day have just gotten stale. They will break up sooner or later. And you might question if splitting them up might be a good thing. It will provide more midcard depth. But that might not be happening anytime soon.

Will New Day win the tag titles? There aren't many credible, fresh tag teams that look like they deserve to take the titles of The Usos. It might as well be the New Day that take the tag titles. After that, Jinder Mahal's lackeys might get some title shots. Helping them look more credible might help Jinder Mahal even more.

Speaking of Jinder Mahal, he defends the WWE Championship against Randy Orton. I pointed out a while back that the main-event titles have been changing hands too much this year. Kevin Owens retaining against Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble is the only instance of a main-event title being retained so far in 2017. It is about time the WWE develop a good reign that includes successful PPV title defenses.

That being said, Jinder Mahal retains here. You can talk about the possibility of the WWE trying to hand Randy Orton enough title reigns so he gets to 16 and makes it some kind of race between him and John Cena to see who beats Ric Flair's record first. That might be interesting, but I doubt the WWE does it. Just let Mahal retain and build a fresh feud going forward.