Whoever wins the 5-on-5, their team gets a guaranteed shot at the world title, the midcard title, the tag belts and the women's title. All teams therefore are 4 men 1 woman. Gives it stakes. Can be used to bring groupings together that normally wouldn't be, and can be explained away largely by self-interest.
on Smackdown, use it as a means to bring the Bloodline properly together. Hell, call up Solo for a one-match showcase where he can be functionally hidden from too much, but make the audience aware of him at least. Roman/Jey/Jimmy/Solo/Naomi.
RAW, make it a means to expand the Hurt Business. Lashley/Shelton/Cedric... hmm. Owens and Dana. Make KO into the Owen Hart of the group - he'd love that - and Dana Brooke is on record as being most useful and interesting when she's surrounded by black folk, let's let her lean into that. Besides, ain't shyt else to do with her, and they seem intent on keeping her around, so might as well give her a situation where someone else can talk for her.
fukk it, give them tune-up matches, too - Roman and Lashley sit out though. Use it to showcase NXT. Bring up Diamond Mine to get that work from THB, and send Legato in to get beat by the Bloodline. But key is, both groups look better than you'd assume, even in the loss. Now you've given a quick spotlight flash on the teams in NXT, but used it to get over the functionality of the others in the groups besides their 'leaders', and then on SS, have an NXT showcase match between Legato and Diamond Mine on some undercard shyt.
RAW wins, you do Owens v Lashely because both assume they should get the WWE title match, so you can have Lashley throw Owens at the ground a while to write him off and leave a route for Lashley to the main event and keeping Priest's run unsullied. Dana gets washed by Becky, leading to her and Liv teaming up down the line as jilted parties. Shelton and Cedric get something to do besides 24/7 bullshyt, and can, looming, in the wings for a perfect time to go at the tag champs.
Smackdown wins, you have Jimmy agree to ride with Solo to train him up, and let Jey continue to try and legitimize himself as Main Event Jey with a run at Shinsuke. Sonya interferes with Naomi's title shot because of course she does, and then you have a situation where the Bloodline can start bumping heads with the show's authority figures, especially as Brock would have the title at this time, so he'd be MIA more often than not, letting them build around a stewing Roman acting like he's being ducked, compounded by their issues with the authority over Naomi, so he can start getting paranoid assuming that they are fukking with him because Sonya hates his cousin's wife and because Pierce is too afraid of Brock to disagree with him.
Secondary idea- Same show: Zelina and Carmella vs Gigi and Jacy. Which doesn't happen because Mandy pops out with TA. fukkery ensues, and that leaves you with Nikki and Rhea in their faces but outnumbered. Enter Raquel, there to back up Rhea but also because she has business with Mandy. Zelina and Carmella run out to jump in because they're heels, obviously.
Sasha comes out. Evens the odds. Mandy grabs a chair, ready to hit Sasha from behind with it.
Cue Bayley's music.
Run-in to save. you have a 5-on-5. Sasha sacrifices herself to keep Bayley from taking a move - probably Mandy's flying knee. Mandy looks good taking Sasha out, it rehabs Sasha's untrustworthiness a bit, and gives them an in to let Bayley question if Sasha has changed. During the match, Rhea and Raquel work together to dominate - especially using Zelina's tinyness to highlight how big these women are. Highlight natural tag chemistry from the jump - commentary notes it's something we don't see from Rhea and Nikki. Sell the dissention.
Play it right, and out of this match, you have:
- Toxic Attraction looking intriguing to those who don't watch NXT,
- you give Mandy a solid elimination on a former multi-time women's champion
- you possibly have the stirrings of Sasha and Bayley back together,
- and you have Rhea clearly questioning if she's been holding herself back with Nikki when she could be teaming up with Raquel and wrecking the whole division.
Can build to a Raquel v Nikki match for the rights to Rhea's partnership. Which should end with Rhea coming out and helping Raquel destroy Nikki. Boom: Twin Towers gimmick for the big women, who are now firmly heels after wrecking Nikki together... and you have a tag division with Carmella and Zelina as champions, Toxic Attraction looming in the background (i.e. still getting ready in NXT), Sasha and Bayley possibly back together, (possibly Liv and Dana from the earlier stuff) and plenty of stories you can tell with all of it.
So in one show, you set up all of your challengers for all of your singles titles, you finally get some movement in the dead women's tag division, and around these 2 matches with 20 people involved in these segments, you have plenty of space on the card to run video packages showcasing those singles champions in their best light, and you can run a men's tag title match with RK-Bro if you absolutely have to I guess.
Personally I'd have the Street Profits make a reference about wanting the smoke, which leads to Riddle's ears perking up backstage because weed, (where he's there doing 'shaman duties' with MSK, who get a cameo. Again: because weed) Hell, have Corbin and Moss pop out with their trash comedy and throw in Alpha Academy being killjoys or something. Profits + RKBro vs Corbin/Moss/AA for a quick mid-show squash. Montez is rolling, goes up for the splash for the win: boom, RKO - Randy turns on their partners, and you have Profits v RKBro with Riddle caught in the middle trying to peace-keep because Randy Orton decided to be Randy Orton. Double points if AJ and Omos pop out after the match to pick the bones, with Tez and Dawkins not helping because Orton just burned the bridge, so now you have a three-team setup for the tag titles on RAW going forward.
So on the show, you establish pretty much all of your top storylines going forward that can be paid off as needed. And, it also manages to give all singles champions a night off. Which they should learn to do more often with people who aren't Brock.
