Smackdown Preview: New Face of America

Smackdown Live! will air from the AT&T Centre in San Antonio tonight. No matches have been announced for the show (Edit: Tye Dillinger vs. Jinder Mahal, and Xavier Woods vs. Jey Uso have now been made official), but several storylines should continue to develop.

Tonight’s show will be the first televised event for the brand since AJ Styles won the US championship in Madison Square Garden on July 7th.

Smackdown Preview

WWE posted the following regarding a future rematch between Styles and Owens:

“There is no doubt that Owens will return to Team Blue thirsty for retribution, but will we see a rematch between Styles and The New Face of America this week on the blue brand? Or will we have to wait until the July 23 pay-per-view? ”

It seems likely we get an answer to that question tonight.

Other storylines likely to be followed up on tonight:

• Baron Corbin attacked Shinsuke Nakamura in the back last week. Perhaps this will set up a match between the two at Battleground.
• Last week Daniel Bryan fined James Ellsworth $10,000 and suspended him 30 days. Now Carmella must go it alone without Ellsworth’s help.
• Last week Tamina came out to help Lana, after the Ravishing Russian lost yet another title match to Naomi. What could be building there? There have been no women’s matches announced for Battleground yet.
• New Day won a Rap battle with the Usos last week. It is now official the two teams will meet again for the titles at Battleground. New Day defeated the Usos at MITB via count-out.
• Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton meet in a Punjabi Prison match in 2 weeks for the WWE championship. Last week Jinder attacked Orton after his match with Aiden English (which Aiden won via DQ).
• In 2 weeks Rusev will meet John Cena in a flag match at Battleground. Cena’s return spiked a big rating for Smackdown last week.

Matches Announced for Battleground So Far:

• John Cena vs. Rusev – Flag Match
• Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton – Punjabi Prison Match for the WWE Championship
• The Usos (c) vs. New Day – Smackdown Tag Team Championship Match