WWE has announced Kevin Owens vs. Nakamura for next week’s episode of SmackDown Live. In addition to the match, the company has also Jinder Mahal and AJ Styles will face off in a segment. Here is an excerpt of their announcement:

“Shinsuke Nakamura clashes with Kevin Owens this Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE
The fate of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn will be decided during a tag team battle against Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura at WWE Clash of Champions, as the troublesome duo’s careers in all of WWE will be on the line. But before the huge showdown in Boston, KO will have to step inside the squared circle with The King of Strong Style on this Tuesday’s edition of SmackDown LIVE, with Zayn and Orton in their partner’s respective corners.

After Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan forced Owens to be handcuffed to the ring rope to prevent him from interfering in Orton and Zayn’s match this past Tuesday, KO used bolt cutters to escape and subsequently unleash a vicious attack on The Viper, with a little help from his best friend. The assault was thwarted thanks to the Nakamura, who burst onto the scene and clobbered KO and Zayn with thunderous Kinshasa knee strikes.

What will happen when these two rivals lock horns? Find out this Tuesday on SmackDown LIVE at 8/7 C on USA Network!“

The post Big Match & Segment Announced for SmackDown Live appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: WWE

Edge Talks Shinsuke Nakamura

On a recent episode of his and Christian’s podcast, WWE Hall Of Famer Edge spoke about Shinsuke Nakamura’s chances of “getting there” on the WWE main roster.

“It’s strange with Nakamura, man, because, like you’ve said, we’ve seen his matches with AJ [Styles] in New Japan and everything. With Randy [Orton], I’ve seen it. And with Sami [Zayn], I’ve seen it. But that match too, man, I really loved that match and after that, it’s like, anything else is going to be tough to live up to.

“I mean, maybe [Nakamura will “get there”]. Maybe. Who knows? It’s a different beast entirely. People can blame it on booking, this, that, or the other. I don’t know. I think it’s weird. It just goes to show how different places to wrestle are completely different environments.”

Let’s just hope that Shinsuke isn’t wasted on the main roster from here on out. I think that the “dream feud” with AJ Styles could go far to cement Nakamura’s place in WWE.

AJ Styles Update

As we reported last night, AJ Styles missed the opening show of the current SmackDown Live South America tour in Buenos Aires. Apparently, AJ caught a stomach bug and wasn’t able to wrestle last night, leaving a lot of fans disappointed and complaining on social media. However, he is expected to be on tonight’s Buenos Aires show.

The post AJ Styles Update; Edge On Shinsuke Nakamura’s Chances Of “Making It” On The Main Roster appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

On October 8th, Hell will be upon Smackdown. Yes, everyone’s favorite bastardized gimmick match is returning. Hell in a Cell is nearly here. Of course, not all the matches will be contested inside the Cell, but there will be other matches.

Among these other matches are at least three championship matches. While the US title match hasn’t been announced yet, it’d be stupid to leave it off the card. For the purpose of this article, I’m assuming there will be a match.

Who will emerge victorious on October? Who will lose their coveted gold? Here are some guesses.

Baron Corbin

I think it’s safe to assume that at Hell in a Cell, the United States Championship will be defended in a triple threat match. AJ Styles is likely defending it against both Tye Dillinger and Baron Corbin. While many are no doubt pulling for Dillinger to pick up a win, I think that WWE must pull the trigger on the Lone Wolf if he is to ever be taken seriously as a competitor. WWE have done a great job with Corbin post Money in the Bank, what with him losing his cash-in and him losing to a smiling John Cena in 8 minutes. Needless to say, a loss for Corbin would be disastrous.

It would be easy to make Dillinger eat the pin, thus extending the program between Styles and Corbin. The feud can extend to whatever’s in December (also a great PPV name), where Corbin goes over. This frees up Styles for another feud, and hopefully they can put him back in the main title picture.

The post Predicting the Champions After Hell in a Cell appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: WWE

SummerSlam’s 2018 Location

Including next Sunday’s pay per view, WWE SummerSlam has been in New York City (NYC) for three consecutive years. For the 2018 edition of SummerSlam, it was unknown if the WWE would remain in NYC or shift west once again to Los Angeles. LA hosted the “Biggest Party of the Summer” for six consecutive years, between 2009 and 2014. On late Sunday night, the WWE revealed SummerSlam will remain in NYC, specifically Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.

NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, Monday Night RAW, and SmackDown Live will also emanate from the Barclays Center in 2018.

“Rising Sun” in NYC

At this year’s SummerSlam, Shinsuke Nakamura will participate in his first SummerSlam match against WWE Champion Jinder Mahal. It won’t be Nakamura’s first time in the venue, though, as he won his first NXT Championship at the Barclays Center. On the night he won the NXT title, violinist Lee England Jr. performed a special rendition of Nakamura’s “The Rising Sun” theme. Ahead of next Sunday’s SummerSlam, WWE released new videos of England Jr. and composers CFO$ performing another unique rendition of Nakamura’s theme across New York City, such as Times Square, Central Park, Washington Square Park, and the Barclays Center.

The post WWE SummerSlam 2018 Location Announced; Special Shinsuke Nakamura Theme Across NYC appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Welcome to our SmackDown Live results, less than a week away from WWE Battleground!

WWE Champion Jinder Mahal brings the Punjabi Prison structure to SmackDown Live! It’s been a decade since we’ve had a Punjabi Prison match in WWE, so I’m curious to see if the structure itself will have changed at all. It’s unclear what Mahal will do with the Prison but Randy Orton is scheduled to return on tonight’s SmackDown!

The main event for tonight’s SmackDown Live gives us a preview to two of Battleground’s biggest matches as AJ Styles teams with Shinsuke Nakamura to face Kevin Owens and Baron Corbin. SmackDown Live has unfortunately been featuring quite a few tag matches recently, which always feels like lazy booking, but I expect these four guys to put on a heck of a match. Sparks should fly between the combatants as Owens faces Styles for the US Championship in less than a week, and Corbin also faces Nakamura at the PPV.

We get a big in-ring debut on tonight’s SmackDown Live, which sees Mike Kanellis take on Sami Zayn. For weeks Sami has unintentionally crashed the romance between Mike and Maria Kanellis, which led to Mike finally bursting last week and smashing a glass over Sami’s head. I figured this match would be kept until Battleground but we’re getting it tonight, which will probably end in a no contest or some form of screwy finish that leads to a Battleground rematch.

And finally, The Fashion Police will take one step closer to finding out who was behind their attacks, and John Cena is set for a sit-down interview ahead of his Flag Match with Rusev! Are you excited for the show? Let us know on the free Ringside News and Ringside Talk apps, and enjoy the show!

The post WWE SmackDown Live Results – July 18 2017 appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

The following card is being rumored for the upcoming SmackDown-brand WWE Battleground event:

Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship
Jinder Mahal (C) vs. Randy Orton

Tag Team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships
The New Day (C) vs. The Usos

WWE the United States Championship
Kevin Owens (C) vs. AJ Styles

SmackDown Women’s Championship
Lana vs. Naomi

Rusev vs. John Cena

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

Sami Zayn vs. Mike Kanellis

WWE Battleground takes place on July 23rd from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. As always, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of the event.

The post Rumored Card for WWE Battleground appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

WWE is advertising Jinder Mahal defending the WWE Title against Shinsuke Nakamura for upcoming WWE Live Events for the SmackDown Live brand in July.

Randy Orton is not scheduled for these events, so it’s very possible that Nakamura could be filling in for Orton. We will keep you updated.

The post Nakamura Being Advertised for Upcoming WWE Title Shot appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: WWE

Shinsuke Nakamura Booked In Title Matches Against Jinder Mahal

Shinsuke Nakamura is set to take part in some WWE Championship matches sooner than some may have thought. He is currently being advertised to wrestle champion Jinder Mahal in several house show matches in the early part of July.

While Nakamura has been announced as a participant in the Money In The Bank match, these upcoming house show bouts aren’t necessarily indicative of WWE’s creative direction this summer. With Randy Orton being taken off of several upcoming shows, it’s highly plausible that Nakamura is simply a replacement for Orton on the shows. Time will tell.

John Cena Talks Wanting To Return Home To WWE

As we’ve reported in the past, John Cena is currently on hiatus from WWE until around the time of SummerSlam. He is being promoted for the July 4 edition of RAW in Phoenix, likely a one time appearance with a patriotic theme. However, don’t expect him back full time for a couple of months.

John is clearly getting the itch to come back and commented recently on Twitter.

Taking a second to regroup and recharge. Finishing up a wonderfully funny project in Atlanta, then a trip back home is long overdue @WWE

— John Cena (@JohnCena) May 28, 2017

The post Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jinder Mahal For The Title; John Cena Talks Return appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

The hype behind the upcoming Backlash pay-per-view is thanks to one man, Shinsuke Nakamura. He arrived on the Smackdown Live brand two nights after Wrestlemania. He has been involved in promos and a lot of loud fan chants, but has yet to have a single match. That changes on Sunday when he takes on the Show-Off, Dolph Ziggler.

Now the potential behind this match is beyond belief. Ziggler is one of the best performers in the company regardless of his win-loss record. Putting a talent like him against someone as gifted as Nakamura is going to be magic. Most people are expecting Nakamura to win the bout, as they should. With the way Nakamura has been promoted, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to lose his very first match on the main roster to a mid-card heel who is floundering around.

Or would it?

The post Reason Why Nakamura Should Lose At WWE Backlash appeared first on Wrestling News & WWE News, Rumors & Spoilers.

Photo: WWE

Samoa Joe Talks About Moving Up To WWE’s Main Roster

When Samoa Joe arrived in WWE, he was told that there may not be much more for him other than NXT. He said on a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho that he saw NXT as an opportunity to get his foot in the door to show the company what he could do.

“I think the initial idea was, ‘let’s just bring him in for NXT’ and we got such a good response with everything that it kind of really blew up even beyond that and here I am on the main roster.” Joe said, “and really to the company’s credit, it wasn’t something that was set in stone. Like, the scenario that was laid out before me was like, ‘listen, we can use you here in NXT, but we don’t really think that it’ll go much beyond that.’

“I really wasn’t worried. It was kind of a foot-in-the-door deal and I had a lot of good people rooting for me at the time.

“I think it was a cultural thing here in WWE. I think that for a long time, past TNA projects that they had brought in hadn’t done well. And I think there was a major push within the company that says, ‘we’re going to build guys from scratch on our own.’ They had put a tremendous amount of money into the PC and the Performance Center, which is producing great talent. So it was kind of like, ‘hey, this is a guy who can help us build NXT into a brand.’”

Joe definitely made a name for himself in NXT, and since hitting the main roster, he has only shined brighter.

Cedric Alexander Returning To Action Soon

WWE has announced that Cedric Alexander is returning to in-ring action soon.

It's almost time…@CedricAlexander is RETURNING SOON to #205Live on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/NIXB9Gdvx3

— WWE (@WWE) May 10, 2017

The Cruiserweight hasn’t been seen since suffering a knee injury back in December.

Shinsuke Nakamura In The US Title Picture?

It looks as if Shinsuke Nakamura may already have his next feud already lined up. When he gets done dispatching Dolph Ziggler at Backlash, it appears as if he will be in contention for the US Title. He and Kevin Owens are being advertised for the June 26th live event in Bakersfield, California, so maybe we will get Owens vs Nakamura heading into the summer.

We’ve seen it once before back in Ring of Honor, and it was both great in terms of action and so entertaining in terms of Owens (Kevin Steen at the time) trying to figure Nakamura out. A repeat of this would be incredible.

The post WWE News: Samoa Joe, Cruiserweight Returning Soon, & Possible Nakamura Title Feud appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.