One of the main events of the August 25 episode of WWE Smackdown was announced during this week’s blue brand episode. The reigning WWE United States Champion Rey Mysterio will compete against Austin Theory in his first title defense just a week after winning the belt. The former champion Theory earned his right to compete in the title match.
As seen on the August 18 episode of WWE Smackdown, United States Champion Rey Mysterio and Santos Escobar of The LWO appeared on The Grayson Waller Effect talk show. On the show, Waller accused Rey of stealing the spotlight from an emerging star like Escobar who was originally scheduled to compete for the US Title.
Waller also mentioned how the 2023 WWE Hall of Famer doesn’t want to pass the torch to his successors. Escobar said that he gave Mysterio his blessing to compete in his place and Austin Theory is the only man that he wants to come after. Theory came out and he also called Adam Pearce to the ring and demanded to overrule Mysterio’s win from last week and give back the United States Title to him.
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WWE Smackdown: Theory secured challenger’s spot for US Title
LA Knight interrupted and challenged Theory to a match on the spot. Pearce made it official and announced that the winner of the match will face Rey for the US Title on WWE Smackdown. Austin Theory then managed to defeat LA Knight to become the Number-One Contender for the United States Championship after The Miz provided LA with a distraction.
Knight was on the verge of winning the match after planting Theory with the BFT but Miz’s distraction didn’t allow him to get the pinfall win. Rather Theory rolled him from behind to secure the victory and also the championship shot set for next week’s WWE Smackdown.
Speaking of the next episode of the blue brand, Jimmy Uso is set to return to WWE SmackDown on August 25. His return was announced by Paul Heyman this week by “The Wise Man” of The Bloodline as he was being interviewed by Kayla Braxton. Heyman was initially unable to provide an update on The Bloodline but then he got a phone call and dropped the big news for the fans.