Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn arrive on WWE SmackDown
The United States Championship is officially on SmackDown.
Kevin Owens became the first wrestler to move from Raw to SmackDown in WWE’s “Superstar Shakeup.” The swap figured to be certain once Dean Ambrose brought the Intercontinental title to Raw last night, with Owens dropping a non-title champion vs. champion main event against Ambrose on his way out.
After Baron Corbin had come out with his sights set on Owens’ US title, Sami Zayn made his way to the ring as SmackDown’s second addition of the night. AJ Styles joined them, and Daniel Bryan announced a triple threat number one contender’s match for later in the show, though the winner won’t get their shot until after Raw’s Payback pay-per-view on April 30th.
The third SmackDown addition was announced in a video that WWE posted, where Jinder Mahal came over from Raw looking for revenge on Mojo Rawley for the way that the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 ended.
As was revealed on Monday, Byron Saxton joined the SmackDown commentary team tonight and will be on the show going forward as David Otunga moves to Raw.
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.