Top WWE stars revealed for major championship tournament
WWE is moving forward with what looks to be its most successful summer season ever. The company has announced another major happening as SummerSlam week is now scheduled to kick off with a tournament that will feature superstars from all three brands.
Andrade has retained the WWE Speed Championship once again. He defeated inaugural champion Ricochet last month, then retained over Xavier Woods on July 5. The last tournament kicked off on July 10 with Baron Corbin defeating Angelo Dawkins. Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov fought to a three-minute time-limit draw on July 17, which forced an automatic win for Corbin. The Lone Wolf was defeated by El Idolo on today's episode with 48 seconds left on the five-minute clock.
The next #1 contender to Andrade's Speed Championship will be decided with an eight-man tournament featuring RAW, SmackDown, and NXT Superstars. The first round will kick off on July 31 with Joaquin Wilde vs. NXT Tag Team Champion Axiom.
The other Speed first-round bouts scheduled are Pete Dunne vs. Julius Creed, Austin Theory vs. Montez Ford, and Je'Von Evans vs. Ashante "Thee" Adonis. Wilde or Axiom will face Dunne or Creed in the quarterfinals, along with Theory or Ford vs. Evans or Adonis.
The semifinals will then feature the winner between Wilde and Axiom vs. Dunne and Creed and Theory and Ford vs. Evans and Adonis to crown the new #1 contender to Andrade. His third title defense will likely air in mid-September.
WWE Speed's new producers and viewership revealed
Pete Dunne began producing WWE Speed matches earlier this year before the series premiered on X. Shawn Daivari produced a few matches in April and May, while Fightful Select reported that Nick Aldis joined the crew in May.
Dunne resumed behind-the-scenes work on Speed in late May. As of June 1, officials have The BruiserWeight, the SmackDown General Manager, and The Mid-Eastern Nightmare producing Speed matches. Kenn Doane produced the recent Ilja Dragunov vs. Carmelo Hayes match for Speed, his first on the show.
Triple H took to X earlier this month and revealed that WWE Speed was averaging 1.5 million views per episode on X.
"#WWESpeed is averaging an astounding 1.5 million views per episode on @X. 20 episodes in, and we’re just getting started. Stay tuned..." Triple H wrote.
World Wrestling Entertainment and X signed an exclusive two-year contract to air Speed on their platform earlier this year. The matches will not be repurposed for other company programming or platforms, and a new weekly episode will air over 52 weeks per year.