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WWE SmackDown Live: Division Power Rankings Before Backlash

By Warsame A

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Smackdown Live. Photo by WWE.com

The SmackDown Live Mid Card Division

Highlights of the Division

The odds of AJ Styles walking out of Backlash with the US Title dropped dramatically after losing to Jinder Mahal this past Tuesday night. Sporting a .500 win/loss record for the year isn’t phenomenal at all and not securing any momentum before the championship match is extremely disturbing. If AJ loses to Owens, what will be next for him? He doesn’t have any grounds to challenge the WWE Champion who ever that will be and also what goal will he pursue next? The WWE brass got their hands full on this potential headache. 

It’s no shame that Baron Corbin lost to Randy Orton in the main-event of Smackdown Live. What he must do is take care of business against Sami Zayn at Backlash. The Lone Wolf has been on a losing streak the past few weeks and could potentially be free-falling all the way down the mid card rankings. If the WWE is serious about pushing Corbin as their next WWE main event star, they need to do a better job of giving him a push similar to what Jinder Mahal is experiencing at the moment.

Meanwhile, in the pretenders section of the division, Ty Dillinger will face Aiden English for the third time while Erick Rowan and Luke Harper will have a rematch at Backlash. Both matches will not move the needle for any of these four pretenders. The Perfect Ten is the only competitor who has a shot to move up the rankings but he needs to defeat better opponents to do that. Beating Aiden English for the third time is laughable at this point, a step-up in competition is the only recipe to spice up his young Smackdown Live career. 

Let’s see the rankings for the division this week.

WWE United States Champion: Kevin Owens (10 Wins – 7 Losses)

Contenders

  • No. 1 Contender: AJ Styles (7 Wins – 7 Losses)
  • Contender No. 2: Sami Zayn (6 Wins – 12 Losses)
  • Contender No. 2: Chris Jericho (5 Wins – 8 Losses)
  • Contender No. 3: Baron Corbin (4 Wins – 10 Losses)
  • Contender No. 4: Mojo Rawley (6 Wins – 3 Losses)
  • Contender No. 5: Rusev (3 Wins – 7 Losses)

Pretenders

  • Pretender No. 1: Dolph Ziggler (4 Wins – 9 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 2: Tye Dillinger (3 Wins – 0 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 3: Sin Cara (2 Wins – 6 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 4: Luke Harper (1 Win – 9 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 5: Erick Rowan (1 Win – 4 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 6: Aiden English (1 Win – 5 Losses)