Backstage details have emerged revealing “heavy changes” made to the match line-up for the August 16 edition of WWE SmackDown.
This past week’s SmackDown was held at Orlando, Florida’s KIA Forum, and was headlined by a second-straight week of Roman Reigns following his big return at WWE SummerSlam on August 3.
The night’s action closed on a sour note for fans as Reigns was beaten down by The Bloodline as the show went off the air.
Thankfully for the fans in Orlando, they were treated to more action after cameras stopped rolling – with two dark matches originally planned to take place.
The first of which was a match between Sami Zayn and Ludwig Kaiser, followed by a three-way World Heavyweight Championship match between GUNTHER, Damian Priest and Jey Uso.
However, while all these names would end up competing for the fans in Orlando, there were significant changes made to the matches they featured in according to Fightful Select – with one SmackDown star being drafted in to also take part in the action.
That star would be United States Championship number one contender Santos Escobar, who ended up taking Ludwig Kaiser’s place in his planned match with Sami Zayn – with Legado Del Fantasma accompanying Escobar for the match.
More substantial changes would be made to the advertised three-way match for the World Heavyweight Championship, as GUNTHER instead ended up defending his title in a singles match with Jey Uso.
Ludwig Kaiser and Damian Priest would get involved in this match however, leading to a tag team match between Imperium and Priest and Uso being booked.
Priest and Uso would ultimately win this bonus match, and according to Fightful’s WWE sources these changes were made in order to send the fans in Orlando home happy.
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