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WWE has announced that Cedric Alexander will challenge AJ Styles for the United States Championship on the season premiere episode of RAW on September 30.
AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander: The story so far
AJ Styles followed up his United States Championship victory over Ricochet at Extreme Rules in July 2019 by defeating “The One and Only” in a rematch at the following month’s SummerSlam pay-per-view.
At the same time, Cedric Alexander began to establish himself as one of the most impressive up-and-comers on the RAW roster, picking up statement-making victories over Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn and Cesaro.
This led to a non-title match between Styles and Alexander on the September 9 episode of RAW, which the former 205 Live Superstar won via disqualification following interference from The O.C.
Six days later, Alexander received a United States Championship opportunity on the Clash of Champions kickoff show, but Styles retained his title in a match lasting just 4 minutes and 55 seconds after hitting a Phenomenal Forearm and a Styles Clash.
The rivalry continued following the PPV, largely due to the post-match attack that Alexander suffered at the hands of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, and the one-time Cruiserweight Champion teamed with The Viking Raiders the next night on RAW in a losing effort against all three members of The O.C. in a six-man tag team match.
What else is scheduled for RAW’s season premiere?
Next week represents a new era for WWE, with NXT becoming a two-hour weekly show on the USA Network – only the first hour currently airs on the channel – and with SmackDown moving to Fridays on FOX.
As for RAW, WWE is promoting the upcoming episode as a “season premiere”, with matches including Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio (Universal Championship), Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks, and now AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander (United States Championship).
It has also been announced that Brock Lesnar will make an appearance ahead of his WWE Championship match against Kofi Kingston on the first episode of SmackDown on FOX, while Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair will be The Miz’s guests on an edition of Miz TV.
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