There’s already a new Tribal Chief in WWE

SmackDown airs tonight (Apr. 19) with a live show emanating from PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the second episode of SmackDown during the four week build towards Backlash, which takes place next month in France.

There’s already a new Tribal Chief in WWE

Roman Reigns is off TV right now, but The Bloodline drama remains the most interesting angle on WWE television.

Last week’s episode of SmackDown featured a major angle where Paul Heyman stressed there are consequences to winning and losing. Solo Sikoa took that message to heart, holding Jimmy Uso accountable for The Bloodline’s loss at WrestleMania by turning on his own brother and kicking him out of the group via repeated Samoan spikes. Sikoa replaced Jim with the debuting Tama Tonga.

Afterwards, Tonga told Heyman this was all done by orders of the Tribal Chief. However, it’s pretty clear from the wise man’s reaction (and from Sikoa stomping on his phone call to Roman) that Reigns isn’t the Tribal Chief who called this play. That very likely means there’s a power struggle coming to The Bloodline, with a new Tribal Chief looking to rise up and take over while Roman is away from WWE.

Right now it appears that Sikoa is the guy who is trying to assume power and fill those shoes, but who knows, maybe Tonga was referring to the Final Boss. Either way, it looks to me like there could be a Bloodline Wolfpac vs. Bloodline Black and White story coming out of this angle later this year.

As far as tonight’s SmackDown is concerned, I’d expect Sikoa and Tonga to continue last week’s destruction by taking out whoever is unlucky enough to stand in their way. Is Jimmy Uso in any condition to show up looking for revenge? Will Heyman reveal any information regarding Roman Reigns’ reaction to what Solo and Tama are doing in his absence? Is Jacob Fatu about to arrive in WWE?

Tonight’s card

There’s a WrestleMania rematch tonight when LA Knight goes one-on-one with AJ Styles. This rematch has higher stakes, because the winner becomes the number one contender to Cody Rhodes’ WWE Universal championship. Conventional booking says Cody should face a heel out of the gate, so Styles might just find an underhanded way to prevail over the megastar this time.

Bayley defends the WWE Women’s Championship for the first time since she won it from IYO SKY at WrestleMania. You can ignore that thing I just wrote about conventional booking, because Bayley’s first title defense is against her friend and fellow babyface, Naomi. Tiffany Stratton felt the glow last week when Naomi beat her to earn this title match, so maybe Tiffy Time will try to ruin this match. Either that, or Damage CTRL will resurface with evil intentions in mind.

Triple H replaced the Raw Tag Team Championship this week with the upgraded World Tag Team Championship. It’s logical to assume the same thing will happen tonight with current SmackDown Tag Team Champions Austin Theory & Grayson Waller. It’s only fair that they replace the blue straps with a shiny new WWE Tag Team Championship in its place.

Whether that happens or not, A-Town Down Under will have an official number one contender for their belts by the end of the night. That’s because General Manager Nick Aldis has booked a Fatal 4-way match between Street Profits, Authors of Pain, New Catch Republic, and Legado Del Fantasma.

Other stuff to keep an eye on

– It seems like Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill are sticking together as a team post-WrestleMania, so it’s just a matter of time until they win the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.

– Bron Breakker made quick work of that chump Cameron Grimes last week. Which jabroni is getting similar treatment opposite Bron tonight?

– Legado Del Fantasma denies having anything to do with the backstage attack on Dragon Lee on the eve of WrestleMania 40. Carlito is totally the culprit here, but nobody in the LWO can see it yet.

– What’s next for Bob Lashley after he failed to become the number one contender to the WWE Universal championship? Could he instead set his sights on YouTube douchebag Logan Paul’s United States championship?

– Kevin Owens and Randy Orton are two other babyfaces who need something to do for Backlash. Will they join forces for a little while longer to terrorize heels like Pretty Deadly?

– The WWE Draft begins on next week’s episode of SmackDown. Will WWE announce any new information or rules about the draft on tonight’s broadcast?

What will you be looking for on SmackDown?