Ali replaces Finn Balor at WWE Smackville
Finn Balor was supposed to face Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura at Smackville tonight, but that match didn’t end up happening.
WWE announced shortly before Smackville started that Balor wouldn’t be able to wrestle tonight: “During the week, @FinnBalor suffered an undisclosed injury. @WWE Medical has unfortunately not cleared him for competition tonight at #SMACKVILLE. It is unknown who or if @ShinsukeN defends his title tonight. Stay tuned as we learn more.”
Nakamura instead retained his title against Ali at tonight’s special. Nakamura entered at the start of the show and wanted to win by forfeit. As the referee was about to count Balor out, Ali came down and cut a promo setting up that Nakamura would be defending the Intercontinental title against him immediately.
Ali hit a satellite DDT for a near fall and went to the top rope near the end of the match, but the finish was Nakamura avoiding the 054, sending Ali face-first into the middle turnbuckle, and retaining with the Kinshasa.
Post Wrestling’s John Pollock tweeted that he was told Balor is dealing with a “24-hour bug type situation” and WWE is hoping he’ll be ready for Tuesday’s SmackDown. Balor vs. Dolph Ziggler has been announced for the episode.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.