WWE News: Chris Jericho to defend the United States title at SmackDown Live
What’s the story?
Reigning WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho is scheduled to defend his title against Kevin Owens at this week’s SmackDown Live.
In case you didn’t know...
Chris Jericho became the United States champion at Payback when he defeated Kevin Owens. This, in turn, moved Jericho to the SmackDown roster. According to WWE’s new schedule for Backlash, Jericho is expected to defend the US title against AJ Styles at the pay-per-view.
There is, however, confusion regarding this match as Jericho’s band Fozzy is performing on the same night. Such a situation kick started the rumours about Jericho dropping the US title soon.
The heart of the matter
The rematch between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens for the United States Championship will take place this week on SmackDown live.
Your BRAND NEW #USChampion @IAmJericho brings his title to #SDLive for a rematch against @FightOwensFight TOMORROW, LIVE on @USA_Network! pic.twitter.com/KDF0w1Bocz
— WWE (@WWE) May 2, 2017
WWE released a promo for the match on their Twitter handle and you can watch it above.
What’s next?
If we go by rumours, Jericho is likely to drop the title to Owens. Jericho is bound to be busy with the tour schedule of Fozzy until the end of June. He could miss a lot of shows due to this and WWE wouldn’t want their United States champion to be absent for a long time.
But we cannot rule out the possibility of Jericho retaining the title, meaning that this match could go either way.
Author’s take
WWE might have plans to let Owens regain the title. In this case, a clean win for Owens is unlikely. WWE could bring up a twist and protect Jericho even if he loses. But letting the title change hands once again in such a short span would be bad for everyone.
The only positive from the whole angle would probably be Jericho’s move to the SmackDown roster.
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