Match official for WWE Wrestlepalooza, new SmackDown segment added
The WWE Championship match for Wrestlepalooza is official.
During Raw, it was confirmed that Cody Rhodes would defend the WWE Championship against Drew McIntyre this Saturday at WWE’s first-ever PLE on the ESPN app. This follows Rhodes’ return on SmackDown, where he not only took out Drew McIntyre but officially threw down the challenge for their upcoming WWE Championship match.
Additionally, it was announced that Rhodes would appear on Friday’s SmackDown, just one day prior to Wrestlepalooza.
Prior to Friday, Rhodes hadn’t been seen on television for over a month. Back in early August, McIntyre laid out Rhodes following a match and gave him a running dropkick on the outside, with Rhodes’ head crashing through the bottom of the announce table. The storyline injury took place so Rhodes could film his part for the upcoming ‘Street Fighter’ movie out next year.
On SmackDown, McIntyre continued to assault Randy Orton after their match when Rhodes made his return, laying out McIntyre with a Cody cutter.
Here are the updated lineups for this Friday’s SmackDown and the following day’s Wrestlepalooza PLE:
WWE SmackDown (September 19)
- United States Champion Sami Zayn defends against Carmelo Hayes
- Cody Rhodes will appear
WWE Wrestlepalooza (September 20)
- John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
- WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Drew McIntyre
- Women’s World Championship: IYO SKY vs. Stephanie Vaquer
- CM Punk & AJ Lee vs. Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch
- Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker vs. The Usos