The SmackDown Tag Team Championship match for SummerSlam is now official.
It will be The New Day challenging for The Bludgeon Brothers’ titles at the August 19 pay-per-view. New Day were confirmed as Harper & Rowan’s challengers when Big E & Kofi Kingston defeated Cesaro & Sheamus in the SmackDown tag team tournament finals tonight.
New Day defeated SAnitY in the first round of the four-team tournament, while Cesaro & Sheamus beat The Usos.
The Bludgeon Brothers were also back in action on SmackDown this week. In their first televised match since retaining against Daniel Bryan & Kane at Extreme Rules last month, Harper & Rowan squashed an enhancement team.
The updated SummerSlam card is listed below:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak
The New Day and Cesaro & Sheamus will be facing off in the finals of SmackDown’s tag team tournament next week.
Cesaro & Sheamus defeated The Usos tonight to advance to the finals, while The New Day defeated SAnitY in a tournament match on last week’s episode. The team that wins next week’s match will challenge for The Bludgeon Brothers’ SmackDown Tag Team titles at SummerSlam, which is taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19.
Though they appeared last week and had been in action at house shows and in dark matches, tonight was the first time Cesaro & Sheamus have wrestled on SmackDown since May.
AJ Styles responding to Samoa Joe is also advertised for next week’s SmackDown. Joe sent a “personal message” to Styles tonight, insulting Styles and saying Styles has put being WWE Champion ahead of his own family. Styles will defend his title against Joe at SummerSlam.
Ahead of it beginning tomorrow, WWE has revealed the matchups for SmackDown’s tag team tournament.
WWE announced today that The New Day vs. SAnitY will be the first tournament match and will take place on tomorrow’s SmackDown. That means that Cesaro & Sheamus will face The Usos in the other first round matchup on next week’s episode.
The tournament finals are scheduled for the August 7 edition of SmackDown, with the winning team getting a Tag Team title shot against The Bludgeon Brothers at SummerSlam. The pay-per-view will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19.
SAnitY (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe & Killian Dain) defeated The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) in a tables match on the Extreme Rules pre-show earlier this month. The Bludgeon Brothers’ program with Daniel Bryan & Kane also finished up at Extreme Rules as Harper & Rowan retained their titles.
On last week’s SmackDown, Young defeated Kingston in a singles match. He won with the wheelbarrow neckbreaker after Dain threw Woods into Kingston.
This Tuesday’s show will also feature Paige revealing AJ Styles’ WWE Championship challenger for SummerSlam, along with Carmella facing Becky Lynch in a non-title match. If Lynch wins, she’ll challenge for Carmella’s Women’s Championship at the PPV.
There weren’t any surprises among the announcements. It will be The New Day, SAnitY, The Usos, and Cesaro & Sheamus vying to become the team that challenges for Harper & Rowan’s SmackDown tag titles at SummerSlam.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson and Rusev & Aiden English are the most notable teams not in the tournament.
The tournament is set to take place on SmackDown over the next three weeks. Though they’ve been in action at house shows and in dark matches, this will be the first time Cesaro & Sheamus have wrestled on television since May 29. They moved from Raw to SmackDown in April’s roster shakeup.
SummerSlam will be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19. AJ Styles’ WWE Championship challenger for the pay-per-view is scheduled to be revealed on Tuesday’s SmackDown, and Becky Lynch will face Carmella in a non-title match on the episode. The angle is that Lynch will challenge for Carmella’s SmackDown Women’s Championship at the PPV if she wins.
To the WWE Universe and whoever else it may concern:
This will be the only statement we will make regarding Hogan’s reinstatement into WWE’s Hall of Fame. We do not wish to spend the energy debating the point, because between our kids, our external ventures, and this job, our energy is spread thin enough already, lol.
We are only writing this simply to provide an answer to the many who have bombarded us with questions on where we stand on the issue.
We preface this statement by emphasizing that this is our own opinion and may not necessarily reflect the opinion of anyone else affected.
How do we feel? Indifferent. We are not happy, or sad, angry or resentful. Who WWE puts into the HOF is totally and completely up to the company and from a career standpoint, there is no argument on whether or not Hogan should have his place. We have no problem with his re-induction in the slightest degree. It is impossible to even begin to mention the history and evolution of the business without mentioning his name and accolades.
On a personal level, when someone makes racist and hateful comments about any race or group of people, especially to the degree that Hogan made about our people, we find it difficult to simply forget, regardless of how long ago it was, or the situation in which those comments were made. But we also do not respond with more feelings of hate. Instead, we just do not associate with the people who convey or have conveyed this negative and hurtful mindset. This instance will be no different. Perhaps if we see him make a genuine effort to change, then maybe our opinion will change with him. Time will tell.
Through the course of our lives, people have used racist comments towards us and it doesn’t feel good. But if we stopped moving forward everytime we were met with prejudicial hatred, then we would have never achieved our current accomplishments.
We know we are worth it, we know our kids are worth it, and most importantly, we know that people that look like us are worth it and always have been. There isn’t a person on this planet who will be ever be able to say anything to make us think otherwise because we believe in ourselves as a people and don’t need anyones approval on that, regardless of who they are.
Having said that, his reinstatement won’t change anything for us. It will have zero effect on our ability to perform or the level of effort we will put into doing what we love to do, and that is: To deliver and entertaining product each week for our fan base.
Sincerely,
-The New Day
“Never trade your authenticity for approval.”
Titus O’Neil also responded to The New Day’s statement and refuted unfounded rumors that claimed he walked out of Extreme Rules due to Hogan being there: “In FULL AGREEMENT AND SUPPORT OF EVERYTHING SAID IN THIS STATEMENT. MY additional response to this from to follow as there have been NUMEROUS ERRONEOUS reports on my Views and Response-to this situation.”
WWE announced on Sunday that Hogan had been reinstated into their Hall of Fame. He was fired from the company in July 2015 when a leaked racist diatribe, where Hogan used the n-word multiple times and said he was “racist, to a point,” from the 2000s was made public. Hogan was backstage at Extreme Rules in Pittsburgh on Sunday and met with the WWE locker room, where he apologized for those comments. Hogan didn’t make an appearance on the pay-per-view broadcast.
As of now, all that WWE has announced about Hogan’s status with the company is that he is back in the Hall of Fame and was at Extreme Rules.
Paige announced on Twitter today that The New Day would face all three members of SAnitY (Killian Dain, Alexander Wolfe and Eric Young) in a tables match. It will take place on the kickoff show prior to the main card.
The match stems from an angle last week where the New Day were competing against one another in a pancake eating contest. They had just started when SAnitY’s music hit. The trio jumped them from behind, leaving them all lying.Young then launched off the top rope and put Woods through the table with an elbow drop.
Here is the latest card for this Sunday’s show, which will air live on the WWE Network:
AJ Styles vs. Rusev for the WWE title
Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley
Alexa Bliss vs. Nia Jax in an Extreme Rules match for the Raw women’s title
Dolph Ziggler vs. Seth Rollins in a 30 minute Iron Man match for the Intercontinental title
Carmella vs. Asuka for the SmackDown women’s title
Jeff Hardy vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States title
Bludgeon Brothers vs. Team Hell No for the SmackDown tag team titles
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens in a steel cage match
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt vs. the B-Team for the Raw tag team titles
Though it wasn’t in the ring, wrestlers from WWE and NJPW faced off at E3 this afternoon.
The New Day played The Elite in a team battle on Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, with New Day winning 2-1. Kofi Kingston defeated Nick Jackson and Xavier Woods defeated Matt Jackson, while Kenny Omega defeated Big E.
Woods and Omega, who are friends and both avid gamers, were originally announced as facing each other before their partners were added. New Day having Big E go against Omega then led to Woods vs. Omega, which was part of a bet where the loser’s team was supposed to eat habanero peppers. Omega won that 5-4.
After the “rivalry” between the teams was played up all broadcast, Woods called it a day they’ve been working towards for the past three years. Omega said he and Woods set out on a path to bring the worlds of pro wrestling and video games together. He said they shouldn’t be against each other and should work towards a common goal — and this competition between people from two different companies was the result. Both Woods and Omega referred to it as step one.
The Elite and The New Day have signed on for a match…but it won’t be in the ring.
It was officially announced today on WWE’s website that Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston and Big E will face Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks in a Street Fighter V team battle exhibition. It will be held inside developer Capcom’s booth at the 2018 Electronic Gaming Expo in Los Angeles, California.
Woods and Omega have been building a feud with one another on social media for years over their video gaming skills, particularly when it comes to Street Fighter V. The two faced off in a exhibition match two years ago at CEO 2016 where Omega defeated Woods. For this match, they built up feud via a contract signing on the Street Fighter V Twitter account where Woods accused Omega of not having any friends. Of course, this was all before Dominion where the Young Bucks and Omega reunited.
The bout will take place this Thursday, June 14, at 1 pm PDT. It will be streamed on Capcom’s Twitch account.
All of the participants for the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match may be known following Tuesday’s SmackDown.
One of the two remaining spots will go to a member of The New Day after they defeated Cesaro & Sheamus in a qualifier, and a Miz TV segment with Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods, where The Miz will try to find out which one is in the match, has been announced for the May 22nd episode of SmackDown.
Miz is one of the other wrestlers in next month’s ladder match and was on commentary for New Day vs. Cesaro & Sheamus, pushing the storyline that he thinks the New Day members are holding each other back because they’ve accomplished everything they can as a team.
Two qualifying matches are also set for Tuesday’s SmackDown. Samoa Joe will face Big Cass to determine the final wrestler in the men’s match, and Lana will take on Billie Kay in a women’s qualifier.
The New Day member and Joe vs. Cass winner will join Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, Miz, Rusev, Bobby Roode, and Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank. Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, and Becky Lynch have qualified on the women’s side.
Tuesday’s show is taking place at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts as WWE returns from its European tour.
Two SmackDown stars have qualified for their respective Money in the Bank ladder matches.
Becky Lynch managed to beat both members of what used to be Absolution, Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, tonight to advance to the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Meanwhile, The New Day beat The Bar, giving them the opportunity to compete in the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods will soon choose which one of them will be inserted into the bout.
Lynch joins Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss in the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Another participant will be determined next week on Smackdown when Lana challenges Peyton Royce. Meanwhile, only one spot is left for the men’s Money in the Bank match. The New Day participant joins Braun Strowman, Finn Balor, The Miz, Rusev, Bobby Roode and Kevin Owens.
The last participant will be determined next week on SmackDown when Samoa Joe battles Big Cass.
A debut and another Money in the Bank qualifying match is set for next week’s SmackDown.
Former NXT champion Andrade Cien Almas, along with his business manager Zelina Vega, will make their debut on the program next week. They were announced as coming in during the Superstar Shakeup a few weeks ago on SmackDown and had been promoting themselves with selfie videos since. Almas hasn’t competed on WWE television since losing the title to Allister Black at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans last month.
Also set for next week is a match between The New Day and The Bar, with the winner of the match choosing one member of their team to be a part of the Money in the Bank match. Both teams have been feuding since The Bar arrived on SmackDown, with Cesaro scoring a win over Xavier Woods tonight after the New Day pranked The Bar backstage by putting pancakes in their gear bags.
SmackDown will take place at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Three matches have been added to the lineup for tonight’s SmackDown.
Shinsuke Nakamura will face Shelton Benjamin, The New Day will be at full strength for the first time since Fastlane as they take on The Bludgeon Brothers in a two-on-two tag match, and SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya in another non-title match is set. Those are in addition to Randy Orton & Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal & Sunil Singh, which was announced last week.
Charlotte lost to Natalya last Tuesday when she was distracted by Carmella coming out and attempting to cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase. Charlotte hit Carmella with a big boot before she could officially cash in, then Natalya rolled up Charlotte for the pin.
The New Day vs. Bludgeon Brothers should get us closer to a SmackDown Tag Team Championship match being announced for WrestleMania, which looks to be The Usos vs. New Day vs. Harper & Rowan.
With AJ Styles returning to in-ring action at this weekend’s house shows, he may play a physical role on television for the first time since he faced Rusev on the March 13th episode of SmackDown.
The focal point of tonight’s SmackDown will be the fallout from Daniel Bryan being medically cleared to return and him being attacked by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn after he “fired” them last week. Bryan was planned to team with Shane McMahon against Owens & Zayn at WrestleMania 34, but Shane has been legitimately hospitalized due to a bout with diverticulitis and will need to undergo surgery for an umbilical hernia.
Shane posted a picture with his sons from the hospital today and thanked everyone for wishing him well: “Thank you everyone for the get well wishes. It truly helps. Im healing up, and I have the best medicine in the world with me.”
Another match and segment have been announced for tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin is set for the show, which comes after Corbin laid out Zayn and Kevin Owens last week. Zayn and Owens were attempting a post-match beatdown on AJ Styles after he defeated Corbin in last week’s main event before Corbin hit the End of Days on both of them.
Styles will defend his WWE Championship against Owens, Zayn, Corbin, and Dolph Ziggler in a fatal five-way match at Fastlane on March 11th.
A face-to-face segment with The Usos and The New Day is also scheduled for SmackDown. New Day won a number one contender’s match against Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin last Tuesday (with Gable & Benjamin complaining that they had the match won at one point while the referee was distracted by Kofi Kingston) to become The Usos’ Tag Team title challengers at Fastlane.
As was revealed yesterday, John Cena will appear on SmackDown tonight as his build to WrestleMania continues. The storyline is that Cena is heading to the brand to find a path to WrestleMania after failing at the Royal Rumble and the Elimination Chamber and being told that a match with The Undertaker is impossible.
Ruby Riott vs. Naomi, which was announced last week, is also set for tonight.
A match to decide The Usos’ next challengers is scheduled for tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
It will be The New Day facing Chad Gable & Shelton Benjamin to determine who will be facing The Usos at Fastlane. WWE had Daniel Bryan announce the match on Twitter last night: “I’ve heard enough insults and pancakes being thrown around. So I’m making it official. #TheNewDay will take on @wwegable and @sheltyb803 on #SDLive… and the winner will face @WWEUsos at #WWEFastlane!”
The New Day defeated Gable & Benjamin last week after the heels interrupted Big E while he was trying to break a pancake-eating record. WWE has also been indicating that The Usos vs. The Bludgeon Brothers may be the direction for the SmackDown Tag Team titles, so we’ll see if Harper & Rowan factor into the equation for Fastlane.
Charlotte Flair, Naomi & Becky Lynch vs. The Riott Squad is set for tonight as well, along with WWE following up on last week’s additions to the Fastlane main event. It will be AJ Styles defending his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, and Baron Corbin in a fatal five-way match at the March 11th pay-per-view.
WWE made changes to two already announced title matches for Clash of Champions on tonight’s episode of SmackDown.
After Rusev & Aiden English defeated The New Day earlier in the night, it was announced that Rusev & English had been added to the tag title match for the pay-per-view. It will be The Usos defending against New Day, Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable, and Rusev & English in a fatal four-way match. The rules for the fatal four-way are that a member from each team will be in the ring at the same time and they can only tag their partner in.
Charlotte Flair vs. Natalya for the SmackDown Women’s Championship is still scheduled, but it will now be a lumberjack match. That was set up in a backstage segment where Carmella, Lana, and Tamina were complaining about Charlotte vs. Natalya until they ended up arguing with The Riott Squad when Ruby Riott said she should be in the Women’s title picture.
Randy Orton will be facing Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn in a tag team match at the PPV, with the storyline being that Orton will be teaming with a partner of his choosing.
Baron Corbin defending his United States Championship against Bobby Roode and Dolph Ziggler in a triple threat match and Jinder Mahal challenging for AJ Styles’ WWE title are also set for Clash of Champions, which will take place in Boston on December 17th.
