WWE SmackDown: Potential Spoilers, Rumors, News and Preview for July 18

Final preparations for Battleground will comprise Tuesday's WWE SmackDown.

The go-home show ahead of Sunday's pay-per-view will see John Cena talk smack, AJ Styles look to continue his winning ways, and Jinder Mahal bring a bamboo cage into town. Title bouts and grudge matches need some added buzz, and the latest SmackDown looks ready to take care of that.

Birmingham, Alabama, will host as the blue brand puts on what looks like a strong show in the making. 

WWE, though, won't have the luxury of moving some talking segments to Talking Smack. The post-SmackDown talk show is no longer running on Tuesdays. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reported that Vince McMahon pulled the plug on it.

Who will show up to the Legacy Arena? What segments are announced for the show?

Backstage news, storyline analysis and the SmackDown preview on WWE.com help provide those answers ahead of Tuesday's SmackDown, which is set to air at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network.

News, Potential Spoilers

Randy Orton will be back just in time for Battleground.

After taking some time off to shoot the movie Changeland, The Viper is poised to return to SmackDown. Orton mentioned on Twitter that he wrapped up filming: 

And as Jason Powell noted on ProWrestling.net, Orton is advertised for a dark match against Mahal on Tuesday night.

We may soon see hints of what WWE has cooked up for Becky Lynch, too. A date with an MMA star appears to be in the works.

Dave Meltzer wrote for Figure Four Online, "The company is pushing some sort of a tease of Cris Cyborg with Becky Lynch at SummerSlam. It's clearly something worked out between the two of them which the company is involved with."

Heading into that PPV, the blue brand's tag team division will be suffering from depth issues thanks to The Colons being out of the mix.

Primo Colon is reportedly hurt. Pro Wrestling Sheet's Ryan Satin previously revealed, "The former WWE tag champ recently injured his knee and is scheduled to have it surgically repaired soon."

Colon hasn't competed since June. WWE has yet to announce the injury, however.

SmackDown Streaks

Styles is in the midst of another hot streak.

He and Cena knocked off Rusev and Kevin Owens on last week's show. That marked his fourth straight win on SmackDown, per CageMatch.net.

Add his United States Championship win at Madison Square Garden on July 7, and The Phenomenal One is gaining momentum in a hurry.

The Ascension hasn't had a chance to do that. The duo hasn't wrestled on SmackDown since May 9 and has since missed nine consecutive shows, per CageMatch.net. In addition, Konnor and Viktor haven't won a TV match since February.

The Colons missing time may force WWE to showcase these two in the coming weeks, though.

Last Leg of Battleground Build

As noted in the SmackDown preview on WWE.com, Mike Kanellis is set to make his in-ring debut for the company. He'll face Sami Zayn, the man he attacked with a glass vase last week.

Mike and Maria Kanellis have been preaching about the power of love. It's time now to how that doctrine and Mike's gimmick translate to the ring.

In addition, the mystery of who trashed Breezango's office will continue.

WWE announced last Tuesday that Tyler Breeze and Fandango will star in another Fashion Files segment this time around. The promo points to the fashion-minded duo doing an X-Files spoof for their latest comedy sketch.

Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura, meanwhile, won't be doing any joking around. They are set to face Owens and Baron Corbin in tag team action.

Credit: WWE.com

This will serve as a warm-up for Styles vs. Owens and Nakamura vs. Corbin at Battleground. 

KO, though, is famous for not getting along with his tag team partners. He and Corbin should have quite the tumultuous alliance.

Styles' tag team partner from last Tuesday will be in the house as well. Cena is going to discuss his flag match against Rusev on the show. WWE history suggests that this talk won't go uninterrupted and will almost certainly descend into violence.

Rusev and Cena's match has little juice thanks in part to it being announced so close to the PPV, so WWE has work cut out for it in trying to boost the hype around it.

The WWE Championship bout will get some attention, too. Mahal promised last week that he would bring the Punjabi Prison to SmackDown.

Whether he will just use it to try and intimidate Orton or fight inside it to provide a preview of that Battleground match is unclear.

SmackDown has a good number of stories to juggle heading into Sunday's PPV. Zayn, Breezango and others don't have a match on the card yet, either. It all has to fit into a two-hour window.

WWE is going to be big-time busy in Birmingham.