This week’s SmackDown featured a rare televised WWE championship defense, and Gunther’s latest shot at Cody Rhodes’ belt actually opened the Juneteenth show from Kansas City.
After being screwed by a missed call in his Clash of Italy title match with Rhodes, Gunther made the somewhat curious decision to insist that Sami Zayn referee the rematch. Zayn has had his issues with both men for months (and in Der Ring General’s case, years), but last week really seemed to be at odds with Cody.
The champ was
rolling, and had Gunther down for what seemed to be the count when Zayn noticed the challenger’s foot was under the ropes. He stopped his cadence, a call the American Nightmare questioned.
But it wasn’t like the ref and Rhodes’ opponent were in lockstep, either. Tension between Sami and Gunther built until Zayn forced the challenger to break a sleeper, and took a powerbomb for it.
The Last Real Good Guy didn’t call for a disqualification, but he did pull the replacement referee out of the ring after Gunther delivered a drop kick/powerbomb sequence to the champ to put him on the verge of winning the belt. Rhodes went for a sunset flip cover off the ropes, and Zayn provided the assist and a fast count.
SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis got involved on both sides of a commercial break after that, and things broke down in Gorilla as Gunther took out Zayn. Fighting champ Rhodes marched to the ring, Aldis called for a restart, and an exchange of sleeper holds ended when Sami returned and took out everybody. And we do mean everybody.
Seems like we’re headed to a Triple Threat, but maybe Gunther will insist another one-on-one with the champ, only this time with Brandi Rhodes as the ref.
In the comments below, tell us what you make of the WWE title scene heading into next week’s Night of Champions premium live event. And remember you can follow all the happenings on tonight’s SmackDown, as well as talk about them with your fellow pro wrestling fans, in our live blog here!
