Becky Lynch cast further doubt on Sol Ruca’s medical condition days before their feud at WWE Clash in Italy.
Continuing her series of daily rants on X, Lynch mocked Ruca claiming that she is still not medically cleared to compete.
“I told Sol Puka (cause she makes me want to puke!!!!!) she wasn’t ready to step in the ring with me and she didn’t listen!!!!! I hope she make it to Italy although she’s not medically cleared! Some people think it’s because she LOST HER MIND!”
Ruca sustained a leg injury during her SNME match against Lynch last weekend. It happened after an awkward landing while attempting her signature move, the Sol Snatcher. The referee stopped the match which led to Ruca winning via disqualification. The nature and impact of injury is undisclosed, and there is no official announcement by WWE nor Ruca on the matter.
Ruca moved to the main roster on the Raw after WrestleMania and shortly after clashed with Lynch backstage. The most significant confrontation happened when Lynch interrupted her Raw contract signing and chaos ensued when the champion accidentally struck Adam Pearce in the commotion.
The two are set to face off at Clash in Italy on May 31 for the Intercontinental Championship at the Inalpi Arena in Turin.
I told Sol Puka (cause she makes me want to puke!!!!!) she wasn’t ready to step in the ring with me and she didn’t listen!!!!! I hope she make it to Italy although she’s not medically cleared! Some people think it’s because she LOST HER MIND!
Rey Mysterio has a lot on his plate these days. Outside the ring, he’s going to a major onscreen character in Mexico. And inside the ring, he’s still in major championship contention.
Over the weekend, Mysterio was named the new General Manager in AAA. Just a few days later, on Monday Night Raw, he earned a shot at the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
Mysterio defeated Rusev to win the IC title shot. He hung Rusev in the ropes and attempted a 619, but Rusev caught the swinging kick and dragged Mysterio to the middle of the ring to apply the accolade. Mysterio slipped out of the submission hold and hooked a schoolboy for the win.
Afterwards, Mysterio was attacked by Rusev and Ethan Page. Dragon Lee hit the ring to even the odds, and the babyfaces sent the heels packing.
Penta is the reigning Intercontinental Champion. He won the belt from Rey’s son Dominik Mysterio at Survivor Series: War Games last November, and most recently defended it against Je’Von Evans tonight on Monday Night Raw.
The elder Mysterio is a two-time former Intercontintal champion himself. He first won the title from John “Bradshaw” Layfield at WrestleMania 25 in 2009. (To date, this remains JBL’s last singles match.) He lost the title to Chris Jericho at Extreme Rules in June that same year, then beat Jericho to win it back in a mask vs. title match The Bash later that month.
He eventually lost the championship to John Morrison on SmackDown the following September.
He has unsuccessfully challenged for the title several times since then, most recently in a six-man ladder match at WrestleMania 42. Penta walked in and out of that match as champion. JD McDonagh, Rusev, Dragon Lee, and Evans were the other combatants in the match.
Becky Lynch declared the title status of her SNME match against Sol Ruca this weekend.
Lynch confirmed on X that her bout with Ruca on Saturday is a non-title match. In typical Lynch fashion, she mocked Ruca for not doing anything to earn a title opportunity, and whether she could keep up with the ‘greatest female wrestler’ of all time.
“There seems to be misinformation regarding my Saturday Nights Main Event match! (The biased wrestling media is pushing the agenda that the title should be on the line!!) NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!! I CLEARLY stated that SUCKER Sol Ruca has done NOTHING to earn a shot at MY VERY PRESTIGIOUS IC TITLE!! We will see if she can hang with the GREATEST female wrestler of all time. A LOT of people don’t think she will, but we will see!! Thank you for your attention on this matter – BTB,” tweeted Lynch.
Ruca officially signed her Raw contract on the May 4 edition of the show. Lynch interrupted the segment to confront Adam Pearce for enabling IYO SKY to challenge for her title the week before. The newest Raw member called her out for overshadowing her moment. Amid the chaos, Lynch accidentally hit Pearce, and later blamed Ruca for it. In the weeks that followed, the two collided in backstage segments further intensifying their feud.
SNME takes place this weekend in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Penta will defend his Intercontinental Title against Ethan Page, The Street Profits challenge The Vision for the World Tag Team Titles, Alexa Bliss, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley team up against Jade Cargill, B-Fab and Michin in a six-woman tag team bout. The Women’s Tag Team Titles will also be defended with Brie Bella and Paige facing The Irresistible Forces.
There seems to be misinformation regarding my Saturday Nights Main Event match! (The biased wrestling media is pushing the agenda that the title should be on the line!!) NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!!!! I CLEARLY stated that SUCKER Sol Ruca has done NOTHING to earn a shot at MY VERY…
Rusev is aware of the concerns surrounding his lack of experience with ladder matches and cautioned his WrestleMania 42 opponents.
Rusev took to Instagram with a message for his opponents in the high-stakes match. He acknowledged reservations about his participation in the stipulation match and is determined to prove everyone wrong.
“Ladder match at WrestleMania. All week I keep hearing how “This is not Rusev’s type of match”. How my power fears their speed. I’m not afraid of my opponents, I’m afraid for my opponents.”
“It’s kinda hard to climb anything with a broken back, so I will handle the ground warfare and I will catch them from the sky one by one. I may not fly like those guys, but I’ve been climbing ladders my entire life. When I left my home country Bulgaria, when I slept in my car, when I broke my neck, or when I rode a freakin’ tank into WrestleMania.”
“So this is kind of a poetic moment, ladder match, WrestleMania. This lone soldier (statue) behind me reminds me of me. Just sitting on top of the world looking down on everybody else. And you know when it’s your time.”
“This is my time. This is my match. And at this WrestleMania, Rusev will have his day, and become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion.”
On the March 30 edition of Raw, Penta announced the ladder match for his Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 42. The bout will feature Je’Von Evans, JD McDonagh, Rusev and Penta. The last time a ladder match for the Intercontinental Title took place at WrestleMania was in 2016.
Rusev has a brief history competing in the stipulated match when he was a participant in the 2018 Money in the Bank signature bout.
Dominik Mysterio has an idea for a stipulation match at WrestleMania 42 to regain the Intercontinental Championship.
Ahead of his title defense this weekend at AAA Rey de Reyes, Mysterio spoke with Brad Gilmore on The Collection Podcast about his mindset going into the bout. He also talked about his quest to win back the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania.
Mysterio said:
“So first things first, I gotta retain my AAA Mega Campionato this Saturday at Rey de Reyes, which obviously is not a problem. But I think going into it, I want my IC Championship back. I don’t care what I have to do. I know Penta’s an ugly, ugly dude. So, I’m willing to put my hair up on the line against his mask and that IC Championship if he’s more than willing to. You know, hell, I’ll even put up my mustache, whatever it takes to get my IC title back, because at the end of the day, I beat this dude probably seven or eight times already. He got lucky on this last one because of Finn Balor’s dumba**. But, anyways, I would like to walk in as a double champ or walk out as double champ of WrestleMania.”
Mysterio first won the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 41. In September 2025, he defeated El Hijo del Vikingo to win the AAA Mega Championship.
Mysterio later entered a feud with Penta that lasted for much of 2025 in WWE. Penta defeated Mysterio to win the Intercontinental Championship on the March 2 edition of Raw amid tensions within The Judgment Day.
Gunther believes the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship has risen during his reign.
Since winning the title last June, Gunther’s had several well-reviewed matches including against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle, which received a five-star rating from our own Dave Meltzer. He recently told Ariel Helwani that he set out to make the Intercontinental title “mean something again” and believes he has been successful in doing so.
Gunther said:
Just to be able to do my part in the history of that championship is a privilege, I think, and I take that very serious.
When asked if it was his goal to make the Intercontinental Championship feel important again, Gunther responded:
Yes, 100% that was my approach. I was like, I get the opportunity now and I’m going to make the absolute most of that, like, make it mean something again because you’re right, the last years it wasn’t a very popular presented title. But often it is on the one that holds the title to make that change again. And yeah, I was successful doing that, I think. When people talk about the Intercontinental Championship match on a card, it’s seen in a very different light than it was the last years.
Other notable matches during Gunther’s reign include a title defense against Ricochet on the 12/16 SmackDown. The match went 21 minutes and received a four and three-quarters star rating from Meltzer. A title defense against Sheamus on the 10/7 SmackDown went 18 minutes and received a four and one-quarter star rating.
A fatal five-way match has been announced for next week’s SmackDown..
Drew McIntyre, Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, LA Knight, and Karrion Kross will meet on next week’s show in Pittsburgh. The winner of the match will get the next shot at Gunther’s Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 39 next month in Los Angeles.
McIntyre came out during Friday’s show and officially called out Gunther, who he has confronted in recent weeks. Instead, Sheamus came out and was upset that McIntyre had called out Gunther without consulting him. As the two argued, LA Knight came out and made his claim for the championship. After Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Kross came out to make their claims, everyone ended up getting into a brawl.
A tag team match between The Viking Raiders and Braun Strowman & Ricochet was also added to next week’s show.
Here is the lineup for next week’s show so far:
Fatal five-way: Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus vs. LA Knight vs. Karrion Kross vs. Kofi Kingson
WWE SmackDown last night featured more returns to the company and an Intercontinental Championship match in the main event.
After making their WWE return on last Friday’s show, Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux were back this week. Scarlett interrupted an in-ring promo by Drew McIntyre. With McIntyre distracted, the Usos jumped him from behind. The Usos then told Scarlett to tell Kross that this is the Bloodline’s territory. Scarlett responded to the Usos by saying Kross has the same message for them.
Much like what was done on Raw with the United States Championship, there was a video package on last night’s show detailing the lineage of the Intercontinental title. Later in the night, Gunther successfully defended the belt against former two-time champion Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event.
Hit Row returned to WWE on SmackDown as well. B-Fab, Top Dolla, and Ashante “Thee” Adonis become the latest formerly released talent to be brought back to the company by the new regime.
We also saw another team advance in the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship tournament this week. Raquel Rodriguez & Aliyah defeated Shotzi & Xia Li to advance.
The Intercontinental Championship will be on the line on next week’s WWE SmackDown.
Ricochet will defend the title on television for the first time since April 22, facing Gunther. The match was announced during this week’s SmackDown episode.
Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser defeated Ricochet and Drew Gulak in a tag team bout on the May 27 SmackDown, then the title match was made official this week.
Ricochet defeated Sami Zayn to win the Intercontinental title on the March 4 SmackDown episode.
Also announced for next week’s show, Max Dupri will reveal the first client of his Maximum Male Models stable. Dupri has been aligned with Mansoor and Mace in dark segments at SmackDown tapings in recent weeks.
Also set for next week, Lacey Evans will return to the ring for the first time in over a year, facing an unnamed opponent.
Here is next week’s lineup:
WWE SmackDown, Friday, June 10 —
Intercontinental Championship: Ricochet (c) vs. Gunther
Lacey Evans in action
Max Dupri debuts the first Maximum Male Models client
The annual Andre the Giant Battle Royal, as well as an Intercontinental title match, has been announced for next week’s SmackDown.
For the second year in a row, the Andre the Giant Battle Royal will be held on SmackDown as opposed to the WrestleMania pre-show. Meanwhile, Ricochet will defend the title against Humberto and Angel of Los Lotharios after both Angel and Humberto defeated him in matches tonight.
People shown in the match graphic for the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle royal include Commander Azeez, The Viking Raiders, Apollo Crews, Damian Priest, Finn Balor, Robert Roode, Jinder Mahal, R-Truth, Shanky, Reggie, Drew Gulak, Akira Tozawa, Madcap Moss, Cedric Alexander, Shelton Benjamin, and Mansoor.
On tonight’s SmackDown, Angel was able to defeat Intercontinental Champion Ricochet in a singles match due to interference from Humberto. After the match, Ricochet challenged Humberto to a match. Humberto ended up winning by count out after Angel grabbed Ricochet’s legs as he attempted to re-enter the ring from the outside.
Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship on tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
After working over Nakamura’s left leg during the bout, Zayn pinned Nakamura after a simple kick to the leg, winning the IC title for the third time in his career. Zayn’s title win was taped last week in New Orleans, but aired tonight.
Nakamura had held the title since winning it from Apollo Crews on SmackDown last August in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After dealing with injury issues, Nakamura had made just one defense of the title on television, defeating Crews in a rematch on SmackDown in September.
Zayn reclaims the Intercontinental Championship for the first time since 2020, after he dropped the title to Big E on a December 2020 SmackDown episode during the WWE ThunderDome era.
Both of Zayn’s prior runs with the title came in 2020, including a WrestleMania 36 title defense against Daniel Bryan.
Shinsuke Nakamura is set for his first televised defense of the WWE Intercontinental Championship since September.
Nakamura will defend the Intercontinental title against Sami Zayn on SmackDown on Friday, February 18.
In addition to the match being Nakamura’s first televised defense since September, it will be his first title defense of any kind since November. His last IC title bout came on a WWE UK tour in Manchester on November 10. Nakamura defeated Jinder Mahal in that match.
Nakamura also defeated Mahal in a championship contender’s match on tonight’s episode of SmackDown, a match that also featured Zayn on commentary.
Zayn has been feuding with Jackass Forever star Johnny Knoxville since the beginning of 2022. Their interaction was a highlighted spot in the Royal Rumble match last weekend, and Zayn appeared earlier this week at the Jackass Forever premiere. At the premiere, an angle was shot where Zayn was “ejected” from the event.
During a segment on Friday’s WWE SmackDown, a new look to the WWE Intercontinental belt was unveiled.
Sami Zayn was doing a promo alongside champion Shinsuke Nakamura when he said he got him something. Zayn then pulled the new black and gold belt out of a bag and presented it to him.
It’s the second new design of a WWE title in the last eight days as they unveiled the new-look Universal title with a blue strap on last Friday’s SmackDown.
This is the latest update of the title that was created back in September 1979. The first champion was Pat Patterson who “won” the title in a fictional match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nakamura will face U.S. Champion AJ Styles and NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong in a non-title triple threat match at Sunday’s Survivor Series. He won the title in at July’s Extreme Rules by defeating Finn Balor to begin his first I-C title reign.
Matt Sydal is off today’s card, I guess the travel issues from a few days ago are still ongoing (that is the official New Japan word, anyway). Shibata is also out the rest of the tour due to his injuries. They announced that David Finlay is taking Sydal’s place, and whoever wins the match are the new NEVER six-man tag champions.
This was a surprising result. Solid match, not much of note. Just your typical opener. Romero submitted to Taguchi’s ankle lock in the upset.
Might be a storyline reason to this as Barreta and Ospreay pretty much left Romero in the dust following the match, possibly teasing dissension.
Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Yoshitatsu & Captain New Japan
This was more of an angle than anything. Yoshitatsu cut a promo announcing that his poll had concluded, and that Captain New Japan was out of the Hunter Club. Yoshitatsu was civil about it, but CNJ turned on him, laying him out and joining Bullet Club in a three-on-one assault. CNJ laid out Yoshitatsu with the uranage and Takahashi pinned him with the pimp juice DDT not long after that.
CNJ continued the assault after the match, laying the Bullet Club flag on Yoshitatsu and choking him with a rope. My best comparison for this is like Crush or Horace Hogan joining the nWo C-team.
Tenzan, Kojima, and Nagata’s themes all seemed to be dubbed again on New Japan World. Weird.
This was pretty good, everyone seemed to step it up a notch. Kanemitsu brought his A game and looked really good here. Kanemitsu brought it early to GBH. He actually showed a great amount of fire and intensity here, but got cut off by a double lariat/clothesline combo by GBH. Honma laid in a Boston crab and Kanemitsu made it to the ropes. He tried a comeback, but Honma took him down again with a Boston crab and this time Kanemitsu submitted.
reDragon defeated Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
Nagata and Nakanishi worked a lot against O’Reilly. Nakanishi had another off night, struggling to get to the top rope and slipping twice on his way up. Nakanishi at one point overpowered both members of reDragon single-handedly. O’Reilly trapped him in an armbar. Nakanishi tried to get him up, but O’Reilly kept it on. Nakanishi collapsed and eventually submitted.
David Finlay, Ricochet & Satoshi Kojima defeated The Young Bucks & Adam Cole to become the new NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions
Fantastic match, probably the best match on any show so far. This was a total Young Bucks six-man in that they did a bunch of crazy stuff, especially when Ricochet was involved in the action. It’s hard to describe, as there were so many crazy moves throughout.
The crowd was into it. Ricochet wiped everyone out with a fantastic looking dive to the outside. Bullet Club took out Kojima with a triple superkick and isolated Finlay. Nick did a double swanton bomb as Finlay and Ricochet were draped on the bottom rope. Ricochet took out one of the Bucks with a flying cutter, Finlay followed with a rolling senton on Nick then Ricochet hit a great looking shooting star press for the win.
Finlay got the mic after the match and challenged the Bucks for the IWGP Jr. tag titles. From what it seems like Sydal has basically vanished from the Earth in this promotion.
Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale & Guerillas of Destiny defeated The Briscoes, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
Briscoes looked very good here. Everyone else held their own and it turned out to be a pretty good tag team match, nothing wrong with it. Tama Tonga got the win for his team, picking up the win with the Guerrilla Warfare. Makes sense as they are the future title challengers, probably at next month’s PPV.
Another good tag team bout, but nothing all that special at the same time. Everyone was fine. They continued to build the BUSHI/KUSHIDA rematch as they worked together for a few minutes. Robinson’s teammates did a double plancha as SANADA focused on Robinson. He kicked out of a TKO but got trapped in the Skull End and quickly submitted.
Another good tag match that did a good job in building matches for both promotions. They teased the Marufuji/Okada match for next month by having them go at it for a bit, both at the start and towards the end of the match. Jado and Gedo also faced off with Harada and Kotoge as they are next in line to receive a GHC Jr. tag team title shot.
Okada and Marufuji came in again and traded some big shots. Yano and YH worked together as well, as did YH and Harada. After some good back and forth, YH picked up with the win with his Karma finish, which is a pumphandle driver.
Okada and YOSHI-HASHI made it clear after the match that they wanted a shot at Marufuji and Yano’s GHC Heavyweight tag team titles. Good idea as that brings some intrigue to future NOAH shows.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Michael Elgin to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Amazing match, better than the six-man tag in some ways. It was very well paced and never dragged. Even the interference, which seems utterly normal now in New Japan main events, worked well and the last few minutes were incredible, the heat was unreal and the finish was one of the better ones I’ve seen all year. Definitely a must see match.
After a few minutes of back and forth, which also mainly involved Naito playing mind games, they went to the outside where Naito targeted the leg of Elgin, which he and the rest of LIJ had been targeting all tour. Naito focused on the leg, working on it, but Elgin cut him off with a big wheelbarrow suplex. Every time Elgin made a comeback, Naito would go right back to the leg to gain the upper hand.
Elgin drilled Naito with German suplexes and even caught Naito with a powerbomb but Naito came back with a tornado DDT, then gave him a hurricanrana off the top rope. Naito followed up with a reverse rana and worked on the leg some more, sinking in a submission but Elgin escaped. He caught Naito on the apron and laid him out with a Death Valley Driver, then followed that with the falcon arrow.
Elgin went for the buckle bomb, but Naito countered and took out the ref in the process. Elgin tried to hit the powerbomb but BUSHI and EVIL came out and stomped on him. In response, KUSHIDA and Tanahashi made the save. SANADA came out. EVIL laid out Tanahashi with the STO and BUSHI misted KUSHIDA. Elgin took out the rest of the Ingobernables by powerbombing BUSHI into his team.
Naito hit the Destino once the dust cleared but only got a near fall. Elgin laid him out with two lariats but Naito still kicked out. Elgin hit the buckle bomb and went for the powerbomb but Naito countered with the Destino and hit another to win the championship.
Final Thoughts:
This was probably the strongest of the three Destruction shows. It had two of the best matches of the entire tour (the main event and the NEVER six-man tag titles match) and the tag matches were okay to pretty good. It’s pretty obvious, however, doing three shows like this is overkill — it dilutes the cards and makes shows feel very long, which doesn’t happen often for New Japan cards. Today’s show was at least stronger than the others.
