Latest Rumors, Preview for 1st WWE SmackDown After Royal Rumble 2018

Shinsuke Nakamura will have to quickly pivot from celebration to eyes-on-the-prize mode at Tuesday's WWE SmackDown. After winning the men's Royal Rumble match on Sunday's marquee pay-per-view, Nakamura will have to brush off the confetti from his shoulders and get to business.

A WWE Championship match against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 34 is on the horizon.

SmackDown is also set to figure out who will be chasing the brand's other titles. The Usos will walk into Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center with the tag team titles still in their grasp. Bobby Roode remains United States champ after the Royal Rumble.

It's time now to start moving toward whatever WrestleMania matchups SmackDown has planned.

What is the Philly crowd set to witness? News updates, the SmackDown preview on WWE.com and storyline analysis help answer that before The City of Brotherly Love plays hosts to WWE action for the fourth straight night. The post-Rumble SmackDown will air at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network.

News, Rumors

Rey Mysterio made a surprise return to WWE at the Royal Rumble and looked to be in tremendous shape, but don't count on him doing his thing on SmackDown. At least not right now.

PWInsider's Mike Johnson noted, "The Rey Mysterio return was just a one-night appearance, although the monster pop he received certainly caught the attention of WWE management."

Samir Singh won't be around, either. Jinder Mahal's loyal sidekick is out with an ACL injury.

On Instagram, he revealed he was hurt when he posted a shot of himself in the hospital:

Adam Cole's move to the main roster may be fast approaching. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Wrestling Inc's Marc Middleton) the NXT star was at one point the planned surprise opponent for United States champion Roode on Sunday.

One would assume Cole sticks around with NXT to continue leading The Undisputed Era, but this news is a possible hint of joining the blue brand before long.

SmackDown Streaks

Roode has had plenty of victories to bask in of late.

The Glorious One knocked off Mojo Rawley on the Royal Rumble pre-show. Before that, he teamed up with The New Day to topple Mahal, Rusev and Aiden English on last week's SmackDown. Per CageMatch.net, Roode is 5-0 since Clash of Champions in December, and he's undefeated in TV and PPV action in 2018 so far.

WWE has committed to elevating Roode, and now, he's on the path to walking into WrestleMania with gold in hand.

Things haven't looked nearly as promising for former US champ Baron Corbin. The Lone Wolf has struggled to add wins to his record since dropping the title. 

He lasted only a minute and change in the Royal Rumble. Corbin has now lost six matches in a row including his last four SmackDown bouts, per CageMatch.net. He once seemed destined to be on SmackDown's top tier, but it's less clear where he sits in the brand hierarchy now.

A Focus on Championships

Roode won't have to wait long to find out who will step up to him next for a crack at the United States Championship. Tuesday's SmackDown will feature a Fatal 4-Way No. 1 Contender's match to decide his next challenger.

Rusev, Mahal, Kofi Kingston and Zack Ryder are set to collide in Philly with the hopes of soon facing Roode.

Credit: WWE.com

Mahal lost to Roode in the tournament finals to crown a new champ after Dolph Ziggler vacated his crown. The Showoff, though, is now back after a hiatus. One would imagine Ziggler will have something to say about how this bout goes down.

Tuesday promises to offer clarity to the SmackDown Tag Team Championship picture as well.

The Usos fended off Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin at the Royal Rumble to keep their reign going. The champs now may see fresh faces emerge as challengers.

WWE.com's SmackDown preview hinted as much when it asked, "Will another team step up to enter the Uso Penitentiary?"

As for the WWE Championship, the WrestleMania title match is all but set. Nakamura's Royal Rumble win and post-victory declaration that he will pursue Styles at The Show of Shows set up a thriller of a bout.  

There's little reason for WWE to veer from that path by changing titleholders before the big event. Instead, SmackDown is set to see a long build for the match, one that will begin Tuesday.

It will be interesting to see if the company maintains the babyface-against-babyface dynamic that Styles vs. Nakamura has or if one of those two men is due for a shift in character.