WWE SmackDown: 5 Things to Watch for During This Week's Edition

With just a little over a week until Night of Champions, this week's edition of SmackDown promises to be chock-full of important action that should have a major effect on the WWE's September pay-per-view.

While most of the RAW programming has been dedicated to WWE Champion CM Punk and his feud with John Cena, SmackDown has been featuring most of the other titles. Night of Champions is the only event of the year where every championship must be defended, so there is plenty of work left to do.

The United States, Intercontinental and Tag Team Championship pictures are all a bit murky at this point, so perhaps there will be some movement on that front this week. Also, the World Heavyweight Championship scene is likely to heat up as well.

Most are bored by the rivalry between world champion Sheamus and Alberto Del Rio, myself included, but the writers have a couple more chances to make it interesting. Del Rio has looked credible as of late, so hopefully the creative team can capitalize on that.

Here are the five things you should be keeping your eye on while watching this week's episode of SmackDown.

Is Alberto Del Rio's Hot Streak Going to Continue?

For the first couple of months of his feud with World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio looked like nothing more than a tiny speed bump along Sheamus' route to remaining champion.

Sheamus has beaten him on several occasions and most of us probably expect him to retain once again at Night of Champions, but Del Rio has been red hot as of late and suddenly looks like a legitimate challenger.

Not only did Del Rio defeat Randy Orton cleanly with the Cross Armbreaker on SmackDown a couple of weeks ago to regain No. 1 contender status, but he proceeded to beat John Cena in a Falls Count Anywhere match on RAW.

He was, of course, helped by interference from CM Punk, but it was as legal as a headlock in that match.

Had Del Rio been booked like this from the start, I'm guessing this feud would have been much more entertaining, but I guess it's better late than never.

With that said, it will be interesting to see if Del Rio is given yet another big win this week. If he is, maybe I will start believing that he has a real chance to beat Sheamus for the strap in Boston.

Will Dolph Ziggler vs. Randy Orton Be Set for Night of Champions?

One of the more entertaining feuds taking place in the WWE right now involves Dolph Ziggler and Randy Orton.

It all started when Orton foiled Ziggler's plans to cash in his Money in the Bank contract against World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus by hitting him with an RKO. Since then, Ziggler and The Viper have had a pair of singles matches against each other.

Orton defeated Ziggler on last week's SmackDown in a strong match, and Ziggler reciprocated on RAW, as he caught Orton by surprise with a roll-up.

Since both men have one notch in the win column, it stands to reason that they will have a rubber match. Perhaps it will take place on this week's edition of SmackDown, or maybe a bout at Night of Champions is in the cards.

I would personally prefer for the match to be delayed until Night of Champions, since Ziggler could really use a win over a top guy like Orton on a big stage.

There wouldn't be a title on the line, but to keep with the theme of the pay-per-view, I would love to see Ziggler forced into defending his Money in the Bank contract yet again.

Of course, he would once again come up with another clutch victory against an all-time great.

Who Will Be Antonio Cesaro's Next Opponent?

Since winning the United States Championship from Santino Marella at SummerSlam, Antonio Cesaro has been much more visible on WWE programming. He hasn't really taken that next step; however, he will have a chance to do so at Night of Champions.

Cesaro made his first successful title defense against Santino on RAW, and will have yet another opportunity to defend his belt at the upcoming pay-per-view.

Having said that, it is unclear what is next for the Swiss superstar after he beat Santino for the second time. It's possible that he could take on Santino yet again at Night of Champions, but why waste Santino's automatic rematch on RAW?

I don't hate Santino by any means, but he doesn't belong around any titles, and Cesaro simply isn't going to get a substantial rub by beating him again.

Cesaro needs to have a legitimate feud in order to look like a credible champion, and Santino can't provide that.

I would love to see him start an angle with Christian, especially since the two of them had a bit of a run-in just prior to Cesaro winning the title.

Christian hasn't been seen lately, however, and there is speculation that he may not be used until after his mandatory appearance at TNA Bound For Glory. However, if the WWE is serious about making Cesaro into something, Christian is the perfect opponent.

How Will the Tag Team Championship Picture Play Out?

The current tag-team scene is a far cry from the one that made the WWE so great in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it looks like some effort is finally being put into it at the very least.

Kofi Kingston and R-Truth have held the titles for the last few months, and while there isn't anything inherently wrong with them, they're a fairly boring tandem that hasn't done anything to spice up the division.

A couple of weeks ago on SmackDown, the teams of Primo and Epico, Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd, The Usos and The Prime Time Players got into a tussle backstage. All of them believed that they were worthy of No. 1 contender status and that has been a point of discussion ever since.

With Night of Champions on the horizon, one of those teams or perhaps another team needs to step up.

My hope is that general manager Booker T spurns the aforementioned teams in favor of newly formed duos such as Rey Mysterio and Sin Cara and possibly the reluctant pairing of Daniel Bryan and Kane. If those two teams were put into a triple threat against Kofi and Truth, it could possibly steal the show and get fans interested in tag-team wrestling again.

Failing that, a tag-team turmoil match would be decent as well. I just hope that we don't end up seeing a boring two-on-two match between the champions and a team that we've seen a million times before.

Who Is Next on Ryback's Food Chain?

For the past few months, Ryback has regularly wrestled on both RAW and SmackDown and has yet to lose a match since being repackaged.

He started by defeating local jobbers, sometimes two at once, and then graduated to low-card WWE talent.

Now that Ryback has been around for quite a while, though, it's time for him to have an actual match instead of squash match after squash match.

It looked like he might start an angle with Jinder Mahal, but Ryback has beaten him on four occasions and I don't see that going anywhere.

The crowd enjoys chanting his catchphrase, "Feed me more," but it also likes to call him Goldberg. In order to become his own man and not a Goldberg clone, Ryback has to face at least a little adversity and have a true angle.

Odds are that he'll just squash someone like Hunico or Heath Slater this week, but I would love to see him face Tensai.

For the past several weeks, Tensai has barely been used, but he poses a physical threat to Ryback and would be a nice first feud for him.

After that, perhaps Ryback can graduate to someone like Big Show and really establish himself as a top midcarder. Ryback has plenty of potential, but he won't get anywhere without credible opponents.

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