AJ Styles From WWE Raw Announced For Intercontinental Title Tourney On Smackdown
May 16, 2020 at 1:39 PM
The brand invitation rule seems to be in full effect for the summer as WWE slowly makes the buildup for the next pay-per-view event, Backlash. AJ Styles from WWE Raw will make his presence felt on a Smackdown episode. As announced earlier, an Intercontinental Championship tournament began on Smackdown to crown a new holder of the prestigious mid-card belt on the show.
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The former champion Sami Zayn was declared to be incompetent on this week’s WWE Backstage, as well as the title, was declared vacant. As a result, we are getting this tournament that will have AJ Styles in action in a Wrestlemania rematch.
.@IAmEliasWWE and #King @BaronCorbinWWE kick off the action in the #ICTitle Tournament right now on #SmackDown! pic.twitter.com/C0Xg5SuI76
— WWE (@WWE) May 16, 2020
Thus, the Intercontinental Title tournament began during last night’s SmackDown on FOX. Two of the first round matches took place on the show where Daniel Bryan defeated Drew Gulak whereas Elias defeated King Baron Corbin to advance to the second round. The first round matches continue with AJ Styles as the headliner.
Two more first-round matches were declared for next week that will see Raw superstar AJ Styles making his return to the show that he helped to build back in the days.
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.@AJStylesOrg. @ShinsukeN. NEXT WEEK on #SmackDown! #ICTitle pic.twitter.com/fPwg6k2XVu
— WWE (@WWE) May 16, 2020
The two first-round matches announced in the Intercontinental Title tourney will have AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Sheamus vs. Jeff Hardy on next SmackDown.
For those who remember, AJ Styles and Nakamura colliding will actually be producing a Wrestlemania rematch. Back in 2018, these two legendary names from Japanese circuit locked horns over the WWE Championship with AJ Styles coming out as the winner.
As for the other matchup, the rivalry between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus has just started on Smackdown from last week onwards. Sheamus was not happy with how WWE was promoting Hardy’s comeback airing some vignettes and hence went on a rant to verbally attack the Charismatic Enigma. Hardy eventually stood tall hitting Sheamus with his pendant high-flying moves including the Swanton Bomb. Sheamus retreated leaving the fight for another day.
.@JEFFHARDYBRAND and @WWESheamus collide in the first round of the #ICTitle Tournament NEXT WEEK on #SmackDown! pic.twitter.com/JdLrQNII2z
— WWE (@WWE) May 16, 2020
With that being said, next week’s Smackdown already has four solid matches on the card making it a must-see show. The lineups are as follow that also has a Champion vs Champion and a mixed tag team match,
* WWE NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley
* Otis and Mandy Rose vs. Dolph Ziggler and Sonya Deville
* Intercontinental Title Tournament Match: AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
* Intercontinental Title Tournament Match: Sheamus vs. Jeff Hardy