The Ring General is officially trolling the American Nightmare

If you thought the push toward the main event of next week's SmackDown was just another standard title build, you clearly haven't been paying attention to the Ring General. Gunther is dragging the Undisputed WWE Championship match into deep water, and frankly, it is the kind of psychological warfare that makes wrestling worth watching.

The announcement from the June 12 episode in Providence solidified it: we are getting a title clash, but it is going to be officiated by a special guest referee. We don't have the name yet, but the mere mention of it implies Gunther is trying to tilt the scales, or at least break Cody Rhodes' focus. As Wrestling Inc reported, the stakes for this encounter are massive, and stacking the deck is just the move a guy like Gunther would pull to keep the belt away from the babyface.

The tournament grind is getting exhausting

Let’s talk about the mid-card churn, because the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments are currently clogging up my weekend queues. While it is great to see talent like Jade Cargill and Charlotte Flair testing their mettle, the pacing of these brackets feels like a marathon run in lead boots. We saw matches pitting Valkyria against Ruca, and Jey Uso scrapping with the likes of LA Knight and Finn Balor, but the narrative flow is stuttering.

It is standard booking procedure to keep the audience occupied, but watching the same structural format every Friday night is enough to make a fan check out before the main event. Eric Corbridge correctly noted the high-stakes friction during the latest episode, but when you pile four-way matches together, the individual stories get buried under the rubble of constant interference and near-falls. Sometimes, less is more, and right now, the product feels like it is being stretched thinner than a budget catering spread.

AEW is pivoting to the Survival of the Fittest

Meanwhile, over on the dark side of the programming guide, AEW is gearing up for their Survival of the Fittest match to determine the next TBS title challenger. Hikaru Shida and Persephone have already punched their respective tickets, which brings at least some much-needed credibility to the TBS division.

As F4WOnline detailed this week, the qualifying process is underway, but let's be honest: the novelty of these multi-person specialty matches is wearing off across the industry. When Ringside News confirmed these qualifiers, it felt more like a box-ticking exercise than a hunt for a legitimate top-tier contender. Shida is a workhorse, no doubt, but the surrounding booking needs to be more than just a ladder of qualifiers to keep the audience invested for more than 15 minutes.

The outlook for next Friday

Back to the blue brand, and looking at the calendar for June 19, the tension between Gunther and Rhodes is hovering at a 9 out of 10. Whether the guest ref is a neutral arbiter sent to ensure integrity or a plant meant to ruin Cody’s night, the build-up is effective. It is vintage professional wrestling heat: simple, direct, and slightly annoying if you are a Cody fan.

I have my suspicions that we are heading toward a double-cross that will leave the title picture in shambles by the end of the broadcast. If WWE doesn't stick the landing on this one, the blowback from the crowd will be deafening. They have the pieces on the board; now they just need to move them without tripping over their own egos. The attendance figures in Providence were decent, but a lackluster finish next week will render that local energy entirely moot.