“The Beast” Brock Lesnar will face-off against Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship next month during the first episode of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX.
Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman made their presence felt during tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live after a six-man tag match in which Kofi and New Day were victorious.
Brock and Heyman then walked to the ring and challenged Kofi to a title match on October 4.
Kofi said he made a promise to be a fighting champion after winning the title, therefore he was accepting Lesnar’s challenge. His acceptance was met with a swift F5 before Brock left the ring.
Lesnar vs. Kingston for the WWE Title is the only match announced for the big SmackDown Fox premiere as of this writing. This will be Lesnar’s first SmackDown match in over 15 years, since 2004. Lesnar has not worked a match on weekly WWE television since returning to the company in 2012.
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live and WWE 205 Live episodes will take place from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia as the fallout from Clash of Champions continues.
Last night’s WWE RAW featured a new vignette with The Authors of Pain, Akam and Rezar, re-introducing themselves as they prepare to return to the storylines.
“My name is Rezar,” the promo began.
“My name is Akam,” he continued.
“Together we’re known as AOP, The Authors of Pain.”
“No one has seen us in a match since before WrestleMania.”
“There’s a very good reason for that. We haven’t had one match since before WrestleMania.”
“We’re fighters. We’ve been fighting our whole lives. We earn money by fighting.”
“That’s the problem. We come here to fight and everyone complains we’re hurting them in the ring.”
“Neither one of us could make a living in mixed martial arts because no one wanted to fight us and now we come to WWE and no one wants to fight us.”
“Every tag team in WWE is soft. None of you are men. None of you are hard enough to fight us.”
“None of you have the heart to fight us.”
“None of you have the manhood to step up to us.”
“This is a warning. You give us the opportunity we earned. Or we’ll take the opportunity we earned.”
“We are the future of the WWE tag team division.”
“And that future will be written in pain.”
AOP returned to live event action at a SmackDown show in early July, losing to the team of Ali and Matt Hardy. They had been away for several months while Akam recovered from a knee injury, but they returned to the ring at WWE Super ShowDown in June, to compete in the 50-Man Battle Royal. Rezar did work some WWE Main Event matches while Akam was out. It looks like AOP will no longer be working with 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick. It was reported in late August that WWE almost brought AOP back for a Tag Team Turmoil match, but it looks like they delayed the return for a slower build. There’s no word yet on when they will return to the RAW ring.
Following a brief hiatus from WWE TV, Rusev returned on Raw this week and got involved in the baby drama between Mike and Maria Kanellis.
Last night’s edition of RAW featured a gender reveal party that ended with an angry Maria telling Mike that Ricochet was the father of her baby. Frustrated over the revelation, Mike challenged Ricochet to a match … even though the former United States champ denied the accusation.
Ricochet picked up the win with ease and Maria scolded her husband for it afterward. She then said Ricochet obviously wasn’t the father, but teased revealing the father in that moment.
That’s when Rusev’s music hit and he made his way to the ring in tremendous shape with a new look. After a brief interaction in the ring, Rusev demolished Mike Kanellis.
Rusev’s last match in WWE took place back in June at Super ShowDown.
According to sources, Rusev was kept hidden backstage before and during RAW to keep the surprise return a secret. It’s unclear if he’ll eventually be re-paired with Lana, and her status in all of this was also questioned during RAW.
Below are the videos of what happened from last night’s RAW:
Baron Corbin won the ’19 King of the Ring tournament last night on RAW
Corbin faced off against Chad Gable in the tournament finals Monday evening and picked up the victory after a hard-fought battle by hitting the End of Days.
Corbin’s King of the Ring coronation will be tonight on SmackDown Live.
Baron recently spoke about runner-up Chad Gable during an interview and said he’d try to make the wrestler his jester should he be victorious in the tournament.
Luke Harper made his long-awaited WWE return last night at Clash of Champions at the end of the No DQ match between Erick Rowan and Roman Reigns, helping Rowan get the win.
Reigns attempted to hit a massive spear on Rowan while running down the ramp, but it was stopped out of nowhere with a massive big boot by the returning Harper.
The former Bludgeon Brothers then brought Reigns into the ring and hit some tandem offense that included Harper’s signature clothesline. Rowan then hit the Iron Claw slam to pickup the win.
As you may recall, Luke Harper publicly opened up about being unhappy with his place in the company back in March. The next month he made it known that he had requested his release from WWE, but as time passed it was reported he was having trouble getting the request approved.
Demus & Dave The Clown vs. Chris Dickinson & Mascarita Sagrada
Winners: Mascarita Sagrada & Chris Dickinson
Team Impact: Josh Alexander, Michael Elgin, and Sami Callihan vs. Team AAA: Murder Clown, Drago, and Faby Apache
Winners: Team Impact (Josh Alexander, Michael Elgin, and Sami Callihan)
Flamita vs. Puma King vs. Daga vs. Aerostar in a Fatal-4 Way to determine the number one contender for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship
Winner: Daga
AAA Reina de Reinas Championship: Tessa Blanchard (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie
Winner and New AAA Reina de Reinas Champion: Taya Valkyrie
Post-Match: Blanchard attacks Valkyrie. She gives the audience the finger and leaves the ring.
AAA Tag Team Championships: The Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix) (c) vs. LAX (Santana & Ortiz) for the AAA Tag Team Championships
Winners and Still AAA Tag Team Champions: The Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix)
Los Mercenarios (Texano Jr., Taurus, and Scorpion King) vs. Brian Cage, Psycho Clown, and Cain Velasquez
Winners: Cain Velasquez, Psycho Clown, and Brian Cage
No Disqualification Match: Blue Demon Jr. vs. Dr. Wagner Jr.
Winner: Dr. Wagner Jr.
Post-Match: Demon is furious for losing the match and starts attacking Wagner. The Impact Wrestling locker room comes out and attacks Wagner. The AAA locker room comes down to the ring to aide Wagner and take out those who are attacking him. A riot has broken out! AAA cleans house and they all stand in the ring together to celebrate not only taking out all of the Impact wrestlers, but for also having such a successful event!
Reports began surfacing earlier this month of a WWE Draft taking place in October as SmackDown makes its way to FOX on Friday, October 4.
Earlier today, during the 1 pm ET NFL game on FOX it was announced the WWE Draft will begin on the October 11 episode of SmackDown and will then continue the following Monday (October 14) on RAW on the USA Network.
The 2019 WWE Draft has been confirmed to begin on the October 11 SmackDown episode, then wrap on the October 14 RAW episode.
WWE has announced that Superstars will be appearing on RAW and SmackDown along with personalities from Fox and NBCUniversal programming, who will announce the picks.
WWE issued the following press release to us this afternoon to confirm the Draft:
WWE® DRAFT SET FOR FOX AND USA NETWORK ON OCTOBER 11 AND 14
STAMFORD, Conn. – September 15, 2019 – The destiny of WWE’s Superstars will be determined during a two-night draft taking place live on Friday Night SmackDown® on October 11 at 8 pm ET on the FOX broadcast network and Monday Night Raw® on October 14 at 8 pm ET on USA Network.
On both nights of the draft, Superstars from Raw and SmackDown will appear along with personalities from FOX and NBCUniversal programming who will announce select picks from each brand. The draft will determine the Superstars that compete for Raw and SmackDown, which feature distinct casts, unique storylines and dedicated writing teams.
Friday Night SmackDown on October 11 will emanate from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas while Monday Night Raw on October 14 will take place at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Raw and SmackDown are the #1 and #2 longest-running weekly episodic television shows in U.S. primetime history. The programs have aired more original episodes than The Simpsons, Gunsmoke, Lassie and Monday Night Football.
Raw will continue airing on USA Network while SmackDown moves to FOX beginning Friday, October 4.
