Samoa Joe’s Replacement for WWE Events
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Battleground is nearly upon us. After Sunday, plans will be set into motion. Summerslam depends entirely on what happens at Battleground. Will Baron Corbin be the next to fall to Shinsuke Nakamura? Will the New Day finally become Tag Team Champions? Who will be Naomi’s opponent at Summerslam?
With that in mind, who needs to win this Sunday? Which victories would be ideal? Who will affect Summerslam in the best possible way? We’re going to find out.
First off, allow me to say this. This feud is so backwards and unnecessary that it’s almost funny. Do Smackdown really want two of their top stars to fight some anti-American foreigners? Apparently so.
Rusev is capable of so much more than just “I hate America, you fatties.” Cena can cut better promos when he’s not talking about “the flag represents all of us!” I don’t care that they’re fighting again. It’s just that the feud is straight out of the ’80s. All it needs are some prayers and vitamins and the Hulkster could do it. Not good.
I firmly believe that if anyone is to walk away from this victorious, it should be Rusev. Cena’s established; feeding everyone to someone for 10 years straight will do that. Cena can lose. Rusev’s coming back from an injury.
It’s not even a standard match; Cena doesn’t need to eat a pin. Have Rusev back over him with a truck or handcuff him to the ropes or something. Just let Rusev win. If Rusev loses, where does he go from there? Nowhere. A victory will give him a little nudge up the card.
At Battleground, AJ Styles and Kevin Owens will once again lock horns over the United States Championship. Owens lost the title at a live event in Madison Square Garden, and he hopes to reclaim it. Styles hopes to hold onto the championship for some time.
While many are clamoring for Styles to move back into the WWE title picture, I would like to see him have a meaningful run with the US title. He plans on hosting an Open Challenge, and it would be interesting to see less-utilized guys have a chance to wrestle with him. Styles can make anyone look good, so this Open Challenge should be a great idea.
As for Owens, I’m not quite sure where he would go from here, but he always makes his way back. He lost his first ever feud on the main roster. As Universal Champion, he was a complete joke. But he recovered. He always does. Him losing to Styles will not be the end of his career.
While many view the result of this match as a “rock and hard place” scenario, I don’t think it is. There is only one preferable outcome to the Punjabi Prison match. Orton needs to regain his championship.
The Jinder experiment has run its course. Mahal’s been cutting the same weaksauce promos for 8 weeks now. People have stopped caring about the WWE Championship. That’s not good.
While another Orton reign is not something anyone is looking forward to, it would be a lot better. For one, Orton can cut a promo without sounding like a teen currently going through puberty while smoking two packs a day. Mahal’s voice cracks more one promo than there are days in his title reign.
Lastly, Mahal wrestles a fairly pedestrian style that doesn’t exactly light the world on fire. If Orton were to regain the championship, he could actually have good matches. If he were to defend the WWE title against Nakamura, Corbin, or Owens at Summerslam, that could be great. It sounds better than Mahal v. Cena or something.
We noted over the weekend that Kevin OWens blacked out his Twitter account after he lost the United States Championship title to AJ Styles at the Madison Square Garden event Friday night. He has taken to his account and explained his actions:
My Twitter account is blacked out to represent the future of the U.S. now that the United States Title is held by a terrible human being.
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) July 11, 2017
The United States of America deserve a champion they can be proud of. Someone good. Someone kind. Someone with dignity. That someone is ME!
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) July 11, 2017
Tonight, I begin my path to reclaiming MY Title and promise to everyone, but more importantly, the children, that I will get it back.
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) July 11, 2017
Welcome to SmackDown Live for the 11th of July 2017!
The blue-brand got quite the shake-up this past week, when AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens at a live event in Madison Square Garden to become the United States Champion. Title changes rarely occur at live events and with the two set to square-off at Battleground, it seemed surprising that AJ would win the belt a few weeks prior. Rumour has it that KO might be injured and unable to defend his title at Battleground, which is why the change occured sooner. So it’s unclear if AJ will face a new opponent at the PPV, or if Owens will get a rematch. Owens is scheduled to wrestle tonight, so it’s hard to imagine his injury is severe.
John Cena returned to SmackDown Live last week with a heart of fire and is now set to duel with Rusev at Battleground in a Flag Match. This seems like it will be a one-off feud between the two patriots, as opposed to a rebirth of their former rivalry. The main event for tonight’s show is said to be a tag team match that puts Cena and AJ together against Rusev and Owens.
Elsewhere on SmackDown, WWE Champion Jinder Mahal will be in action against Tye Dillinger, who made a strong showing in last week’s Battle Royal. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Randy Orton appear tonight and possibly help Dillinger to a win to keep his momentum. Baron Corbin and Shinsuke Nakamura are also scheduled to face off tonight, ahead of a probable showdown between them at Battleground. Tonight’s show will also feature The New Day, Naomi, The Uso’s, and more.
Get talking on the Ringside News and Ringside Talk apps, which you can get for free on your app store! Enjoy the show!
Triple H recently spoke with Sky Sports. Here are some highlights from the interview.
The announcement of Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor in a boxing match: “I think that is the – look I’ll go a step further and say all sports is entertainment, the news is entertainment today, it’s just the way of the world. This is what people do with their time. It’s no different. I think there is an interest level there. Can a world class boxer, probably the best ever, can he stand in the ring with an MMA guy and can that MMA guy bring his striking skills up to the level of someone, like say, a Floyd Mayweather? The one thing it will be, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is entertaining. One thing Floyd Mayweather is, is entertaining. One thing Conor McGregor is, is entertaining, and it’s funny that you say it’s sports entertainment. I’d invite both guys, that really want to showcase what they do, I invite both guys to come to Monday Night RAW because there is no bigger platform that they can have to show the world, and tell the world, who they are and why they’re the man.”
Previously Working With Mayweather: “Yeah, Floyd got involved then. I trained Floyd to step into the ring with The Big Show, which was a big highlight for me, and he did. He got it the ring at our Super Bowl, Floyd is a big fan and has a huge respect for what we do, we have stayed in touch over the years, and here he is getting thrown out of the ring by the Big Show. At the level of athlete that he’s at, for Floyd to agree to that kind of stuff was amazing for us, but you know he’s a huge fan and couldn’t have been more engaged in what we do. The Mayweather / McGregor fight, people can say what they want, but it’ll be entertaining.”
Possibility of doing a match with boxing star Gennady Golovkin (GGG): “It would be the perfect fight, we have a little beef over the three letter thing going on, maybe. It’s funny you should – we had a date at Madison Square Garden for GGG’s last fight and we made an arrangement to allow GGG to have that date for his last fight – there’s a little bit of history there. I’d love to get in the ring with him and see what we can do.”