Logan Paul was able to take down Rey Mysterio for the WWE United States Championship at Crown Jewel, though he did have some key assistance from some brass knuckles. Mysterio is currently recovering from surgery, so he can’t get his rematch. Paul isn’t waiting to defend his newly won prize, so tonight on WWE SmackDown Paul revealed a new tournament will be held to decide his next challenger, and he’s already revealed most of the lineup. The tournament will start next week and features 8 superstars, including Santos Escobar, Dragon Lee, Carrion Kross, an NXT Superstar, Bobby Lashley, Grayson Waller, Austin Theory, and Kevin Owens.
WWE later revealed the first round for the United States Championship Tournament, which will feature the match-ups of Dragon Lee vs Santos Escobar and Bobby Lashley vs Karrion Kross. This all started when Paul came out with his Title and announced the big news, which then led to Kevin Owens coming out to the ring.
Sorry, @_Theory1, @FightOwensFight‘s days of punching people in the face are NOT over. ?#SmackDown @LoganPaul @GraysonWWE pic.twitter.com/I1feGnPIyi
— WWE (@WWE) December 2, 2023
Owens told Paul, “You want to talk about a nightmare. You, this, in my ring, is a nightmare. I saw you like 10 years ago on that app Vine, and back then it only took me six seconds to discover you were an unbearable nightmare. You talk about junk, the only junk around here is that crap drink you peddle.”
After some additional back and forth between Paul and Owens, Grayson Waller and Austin Theory came out to disrupt things. They tried to get on Paul’s good sign by talking him up, but that didn’t work out that well, as Owens then punched Theory in the face and knocked him out of the ring.
It’s an interesting group assembled for the tournament, with the heels outnumbering the faces. That suggests the mystery NXT superstar will be a face to even things out, but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. A few names do come to mind though, but we’ll have to wait and see. Speaking of NXT, you can find the full card for NXT Deadline below.
WWE NXT Deadline:
WWE NXT Championship Match: Ilja Dragunov (C) vs Baron Corbin
Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge Match: Dijak vs Trick Williams vs Josh Briggs vs Bron Breuker vs TBD
Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge Match: Tiffany Stratton vs Lash Legend vs Blair Davenport vs Kelani Jordan vs TBD
North American Championship Match: Dominik Mysterio (C) vs Wes Lee
NXT Deadline takes place on Saturday, December 9th.
Who do you want to see win the tournament? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!