Baron Corbin Set to Defend United States Championship Next Week
As was announced on tonight’s episode of Smackdown Live, it was announced that Baron Corbin will defend his United States Championship against Sin Cara. This is quite interesting news after ProWrestling.com’s Mike Killam reported that Sin Cara had suffered an injury that would be keeping him off a few shows from the European tour. The injury had been speculated after Sin Cara had tweeted out a photo of U.S. Champion Baron Corbin stepping on his ankle during a match.
Natalya To Defend Women’s Championship Next Week
In related news, Smackdown Live commissioner Shane McMahon announced in a backstage segment that Natalya would be defending her WWE Smackdown Live Women’s Championship next week against Charlotte. Shane said that due to the way that Natalya escaped with her championship at Hell In A Cell, he is forcing her to defend her title, and the winner of that match next week will be squaring off against Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series.
Per Commissioner @shanemcmahon, @NatbyNature will defend her #SDLive #WomensTitle NEXT WEEK against @MsCharlotteWWE! pic.twitter.com/fefskVm94R
— WWE (@WWE) November 8, 2017
Rusev Loses Opportunity to Join Men’s SmackdownLive Survivor Series Team
Last week, it was announced that Rusev would be facing off against AJ Styles for an opportunity to join the Smackdown Live team for the 5-on-5 match at Survivor Series.
As was reported, the match was changed when Shane McMahon announced via Twitter that Jinder Mahal would be defending his WWE Championship against AJ Styles on Smackdown Live, thus cancelling the planned match between Rusev and Styles.
It was originally thought that Rusev would automatically be included in the Survivor Series matchup as the fifth member of Team SmackdownLive, even with Rusev tweeting out what seemed to be a confirmation last week.
It seems that Rusev will NOT be part of the Smackdown Live team, as Rusev lost his qualifying match against Randy Orton as was seen on tonight’s episode. No word yet on plans for Rusev for Survivor Series, nor for who the planned 5th and final member of Team Smackdown is going to be.
It only takes one…@RusevBUL will NOT be joining the #SDLive Men’s #SurvivorSeries team. @RandyOrton pic.twitter.com/aW3s22LznR
— WWE (@WWE) November 8, 2017