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WWE SmackDown Rankings: Who Will Face Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam?

By Warsame A

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Smackdown. Photo by WWE.com

The SmackDown Live Mid Card Division

Highlights of the Division

The hot potato of the US Championship between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles is horrible booking from the creative staff and delegitimizes the championship as a prop. It makes you question why Styles won in the first place weeks ago at a live event in MSG if he was going to lose the title at Battleground. Very silly on the WWE’s part but they made up for it with a fantastic triple threat match for the US Championship on Smackdown. With AJ holding the gold once more, will he be able to retain the championship next week or will Kevin Owens be a four-time US Champion?

The strange booking of Sami Zayn, Mike Kanellis, Tye Dillinger and Aiden English is mind-blowing in the mid-card division. All four men have been casualties of WWE’s 50/50 booking where each competitor trades wins and losses every week with no sustain momentum to latch on to. Sami Zayn and Tye Dillinger might have won their recent tag team match against English and Kanellis but they’ll need to maintain their trajectory for the next few weeks. These men are probably aren’t connected to the long-term plans of Summerslam but they shouldn’t be subjected to this type of booking either. 

Meanwhile, for the rest of the division.

Baron Corbin suffered two bad losses to Shinsuke Nakamura but many people are pointing that he still has the Money in the Bank briefcase. That’s a poor excuse to maintain for a guy who can potentially be the next WWE Champion by Summerslam if he cashes it in. The problem is that Corbin might suffer the same fate that plagued former MITB winner Damien Sandow years ago where he eventually lost when he cashed in the contract against John Cena. The Lone Wolf hasn’t maintained any type of push since winning the ladder match and hasn’t looked like the guy who destroyed the Smackdown roster last year. These next few weeks are crucial in foreshadowing what type of champion Corbin will be in the new future. Will he dominate his competition like he did last year or suffer huge defeats and be the next Damien Sandow?    

Let’s see the rankings for the division this week.

WWE United States Champion: AJ Styles (14 Wins – 12 Losses)

Contenders

  • No. 1 Contender: Kevin Owens (14 Wins – 14 Losses)
  • Contender No. 2: Sami Zayn (12 Wins – 16 Losses)
  • Contender No. 3: Baron Corbin (7 Wins – 16 Losses) (MITB Winner)
  • Contender No. 4: Chris Jericho (5 Wins – 9 Losses)
  • Contender No. 5: Rusev (3 Wins – 9 Losses)
  • Contender No. 6: Mike Kanellis (1 Win – 2 Losses)

Pretenders

  • Pretender No. 1: Tye Dillinger (5 Wins – 3 Losses) (Up 1 Spot)
  • Pretender No. 2: Dolph Ziggler (5 Wins – 15 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 3: Chad Gable (7 Wins – 8 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 4: Aiden English (3 Wins – 7 Losses) (Up 3 Spots)
  • Pretender No. 5: Sin Cara (2 Wins – 7 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 6: Luke Harper (2 Wins – 11 Losses)
  • Pretender No. 7: Erick Rowan (1 Win – 6 Losses)