WWE SmackDown Results, Highlights, and Grades May 8, 2018

Following an awful Backlash Pay Per View, WWE SmackDown Live needs to hit all the right notes tonight. Samoa Joe will be making his “real” debut on the Blue Brand after losing to Roman Reigns on Sunday night, and the Samoan Submission Machine figures to be the focal point of the show.

There were no title changes for either brand at Backlash, which is the real “reset” point. WWE SmackDown Live will proceed with new storylines after the Pay Per View, as Jeff Hardy remains United States Champion, AJ Styles is the WWE Champion, and Carmella is riding high after defeating Charlotte Flair to retain the SmackDown Women’s Championship.

Expect to see hints of Carmella’s next challenger. Becky Lynch has the history with Carmella and has defeated the Princess of Staten Island time after time. She’s also a fan favorite. But Lynch supposedly has a match against former Absolution member Mandy Rose tonight. That could leave Asuka, whom Carmella has been insulting in the aftermath of her “shock” victory over Charlotte, in pole position.

AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura failed to resolve their conflict (yet again) at Backlash, thanks to a double count-out finish. This rivalry isn’t close to being over, but last week on SmackDown Live, Samoa Joe already asserted that he’s coming after Styles’s WWE Championship. Things are about to get interesting, which is welcome, since the main title on the Blue Brand hasn’t felt like a big enough deal.

Last night on Raw, Ember Moon, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor all qualified for their respective Money in the Bank ladder matches. Tonight on WWE SmackDown, The Miz and US Champion Jeff Hardy will battle it out for an opportunity to be in the MITB match. The Miz should be considered the favorite here. He’s on a path for the WWE Championship, and most people see him as the ideal briefcase-holder in 2018. Look for him to find some cheap way to cost Hardy, who scraped by Randy Orton at Backlash.

There will be two more Money in the Bank qualifiers. Daniel Bryan and The Miz have plenty of beef, but Bryan will take on Rusev for a shot at MITB gold. These are two fan favorites, and this one could go either way, despite Bryan coming off of a key win over Big Cass.

Charlotte Flair will be desperate to reclaim that SmackDown Women’s Championship, but imagine how good the briefcase would look in the hands of either Peyton Royce or Billie Kay? Royce will have her chance to enter the MITB match tonight in a qualifier against Charlotte, which will invariably involve either Lynch or Naomi coming to help Flair against Kay’s interference.

All in all, the build to the Money in the Bank Pay Per View should be exciting, and tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live has the potential to partially wash away the offensive taste of Backlash. Check back here at 8 p.m. ET for all the highlights, grades, and analysis you could ever want for tonight’s show.