WWE Smackdown: Championship Invitational begins for possible Summerslam matchup

Heading into this week’s Smackdown, one of the biggest news was the announcement of the United States Championship Invitational. WWE started advertising a fatal-4-way match to kick things off in this three-match tournament.

In the opening match on Smackdown, Santos Escobar defeated Butch, AJ Styles, and Grayson Waller in a Fatal-4-Way Match to advance to the next round of the United States Championship Invitational which continues next week.

Another Fatal-4-Way is scheduled to go down on the July 21 episode of WWE Smackdown and the confirmed participants for this match are LA Knight, Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, and Cameron Grimes in a No-DQ capacity.

As Escobar has won the first Fatal-4-Way, he’s scheduled to face the winner of the next Fatal-4-Way on the July 28 episode of Smackdown. Originally, AJ Styles was in the driver’s seat to win the bout until an interference happened.

A video played on the tron showing Karrion Kross’ attack on Styles’ OC tag team partners – Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows in the backstage area. This certainly indicated that the Kross vs. Styles feud is to continue in the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, the distraction allowed Escobar to drop Styles, head to the top rope, and land a splash from up there on Waller to secure one of the biggest wins of his main roster career. Now, he waits for his opponent in the invitation, the winner of the next Fatal-4-Way.

The two winners from these two Fatal-4-Way bouts will battle it out on the July 28 episode of WWE Smackdown to secure a United States Championship match against the champion Austin Theory.

No confirmation is there on when Theory will eventually be defending his belt but given that Summerslam is happening within three weeks, we guess the title match will go down at the Biggest Event of the Summer.

LA Knight is one of the hot babyface figures among the fans on the current Smackdown roster and he’s the predicted favorite to win the Championship Invitational and eventually the United States Title.

Austin Theory is in possession of the mid-card title belt prior to the Wrestlemania 39 season. He’s already defeated Legends like John Cena and Edge in this title run to solidify his status as the top-brass heel of the WWE.