owens

Title Match Set for Next Week’s SmackDown Live

As seen on tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live, AJ Styles pinned Chris Jericho in a Fatal 3-Way for US Championship to capture the title. Kevin Owens announced after the match that he wants his rematch for the Title on next week’s show.

Also confirmed for next week’s show is John Cena facing Nakamura for a shot at the WWE Championship against Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam.

Rumored Matches for WWE Battleground

PWInsider reports that WWE is planning to have a 5-way Elimination Match at the upcoming WWE Battleground event that will feature Charlotte, Natalya, Tamina, Becky Lynch and Lana.

As previously noted, it’s expected that they company adds Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin and AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens for the United States title to the card. It was noted over the weekend that the US title match was actually removed from the listing on WWE.com, however it appears they still plan to have the match on the show.

Inaccurate Reports of Kevin Owens’ DVD Being A Hot Seller

It was reported last week that Kevin Owen’s DVD is currently a hot seller, however that may not be the case exactly.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that this story surfaced when several fans received emails from stores like Best Buy and Amazon saying that they don’t have any copies of the DVD available and won’t for several weeks. This doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a hot item and could be an indication that these companies have under-ordered the DVD because the demand was slightly higher than previous WWE releases. These companies are waiting for a new shipment DVDs before the next batch becomes available for customers.

As of this writing, there is no concrete numbers available in terms of what Owens’ DVD sales are like because it’s a new release.

Randy Orton Explains His “Dive” Tweets

While appearing on Hot 104.1 last week in his hometown of St. Louis, Randy Orton explained why he made his tweets about “dives” on Twitter that got everyone talking. Here is a transcript of what was said:

“I’m putting over AJ [Styles] strong, right? AJ, he has dives. A lot of guys that I work with do dives. I’ve been dived on a lot. I don’t have a problem with dives out of the ring, but when a lot of these guys, who don’t have anything to fall back on, and they’re not making any money doing it, they’re going around town wrestling on these independent shows — which is awesome, by the way. A lot of our guys, like AJ, Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins wouldn’t be here without the indie scene. But they’re smart. A lot of these guys are going to go out there and they’re going to break their neck at 23 years old, doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing.

“It’s a display of athleticism, no doubt, but … I’m not going to watch gymnastics. I want to go watch a story, a fight between a good guy and a bad guy. How many flips they do each, I’m not keeping a tally … But do you know who had my back on it? Guys like AJ. Guys that do dives and know what they’re doing … Kurt Angle texted me after that. He didn’t do dives. If he did, he would put it where it should have went … he wouldn’t have done it just to do it …

“If that’s where our business is going, to where it’s just a preconceived, choreographed match with a bunch of acrobatics — back flips, front flips, gainers off the top rope, shooting star presses, moonsaults to the floor — then I don’t want to be a part of it. But I’ll tell you what: I don’t think that’s where it’s going.”

Here is footage of Orton’s appearance on the show:

Chris Jericho Returns to Action Next Week

Chris Jericho has been added to the RAW brands’ international tour dates on June 28th in Singapore and the June 30th & July 1st events in Tokyo, Japan.

Jericho’s last appearance with the company was back in May, where he was written out of WWE storylines after an attack from Kevin Owens. Since his time off he has been touring with his Fozzy band.

Important Questions That Smackdown Should Answer

This week’s Smackdown got a few gears going shortly after Money in the Bank. Lana and Naomi look to be fighting again. Daniel Bryan returned, and then he stripped Carmella of the Money in the Bank briefcase and scheduled a rematch for next week. Good for the women.

Meanwhile, Jinder continues to reign as the WWE Champion (30 days and counting!), and the Hype Brothers Bros asked for the title shot that they rightfully earned. Daniel Bryan, for some reason, decided not to give them their title opportunity, but forced them to earn it again. This will most likely lead to shenanigans from the Usos to get Zack and Mojo out of the title picture.

Still, this week left us me with more questions than answers. Here are three of those questions that I feel need to be asked.

Is Smackdown Doing Randy v. Jinder III?

If I’m going to be honest, their last two matches have hardly managed to set the world on fire. There are certain duos in the ring who will always have excellent chemistry. Okada – Omega, Styles – Ambrose, Owens – Zayn, Punk – Cena, Orton – Christian, etc. Unfortunately, Orton – Mahal is not one of those pairings.

Mahal wrestles a rather pedestrian style, and Orton is a tricky guy to have chemistry with. A lot of talented wrestlers just don’t really click with Orton. It happens. So why are they continuing the feud between Orton and Mahal?

Let’s even look at it from a kayfabe perspective. Orton lost his rematch. Why should he get another match? He could feasibly earn it again in a match, but they didn’t do that. Randy just said he was gonna RKO a bunch of Indians to get revenge on Jinder.

Then there’s Baron Corbin waiting in the shadows with his Money in the Bank contract. While he is exactly the type of guy to cash in on Jinder, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll have a heel cash in on a heel. What I’m trying to say is that there is going to be a lot of change in the WWE title scene, but we don’t know what’s going to happen.

Where on God’s Green Earth Is Rusev?

This is a question that many people have been asking since last month. Rusev demanded a title match at Money in the Bank, but then he was conveniently forgotten. Of course we all found out that Rusev was only medically cleared like last week, and then we all thought “cool. Maybe he’ll be at Money in the Bank.” Nope. Instead, we got Mike and Maria Kannelis, who, don’t get me wrong, are a cool and welcome addition to the Smackdown roster, but they’re not Rusev. So where on God’s green earth is Rusev?

They clearly had something before he got injured. He had beef with Mahal for some reason. I’m not entirely sure why because to be honest, there was a period of time where I stopped watching Raw completely and only watched Smackdown. But I know they had a squabble.

The story really writes itself. Rusev could’ve helped Jinder retain at Money in the Bank, and then turn on Jinder so he could get the WWE Championship. Or have Rusev return and attack Jinder, because they have unfinished business.

Rusev is one of the best performers on the roster today, so Smackdown should find a way to put him on the show.

How Far Will Smackdown Go with the Kevin Owens Open Challenge?

I like the idea of the Open Challenge. It helps the image of a fighting champion who is looking for competition and looking to prove himself. It also showcases the skills of often overlooked superstars, and makes them look like they want the gold.

This week, Owens defended the US title against Chad Gable in a pretty good match. Gable returned from doing absolutely nothing the last few months, while Jason Jordan got exactly 10 seconds of screen time. While I like the idea of the Open Challenge, there’s still AJ Styles hanging around in the title picture.

Was this Open Challenge a one-time thing? I think it’s a potentially great idea to have Styles keep answering the challenge and Owens repeatedly denying him and defending it against someone else. Of course, that’s just me, and surely there’s some sort of flaw that I don’t see.

So how far will Smackdown take the Open Challenge? When will Styles and Owens face off again?