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What’s the story?
The Post-Battleground edition of SmackDown kicked off with the return of a wrestling legend.
Chris Jericho returned to SmackDown and made his first appearance on WWE Television since losing the United States Championship to Kevin Owens back in May.
In case you didn’t know...
Jericho’s previous run began in January 2016 and lasted for more than a year. During his time as an active competitor, Jericho formed an alliance with Owens that came to an end after KO attacked him during the Festival of Friendship segment.
Owens went on to defeat Jericho at WrestleMania 33 for the United States Championship, but he later lost the title to Y2J at Payback. The Prizefighter regained the title on the subsequent episode of SmackDown, and Jericho left the company to go on tour.
The heart of the matter
SmackDown kicked off with Kevin Owens gloating about his third reign as United States Champion and his defeat of AJ Styles at Battleground. This prompted Styles to come out and Jericho soon followed suit.
Following a confrontation between all three wrestlers, Commissioner Shane McMahon booked a triple threat match for the United States Championship.
Towards the end of the match, Owens hit a Frog Splash and nearly pinned Jericho, but Styles threw Owens out of the ring and covered Y2J for the win.
What’s next?
At the time of this writing, there’s no information regarding the length of Jericho’s run or if he will have a run at all.
On the surface, it looks like this was just a one-off appearance to help further the Kevin Owens- AJ Styles feud.
Author’s Take
Jericho’s return to WWE programming could make for some interesting TV if he sticks around through SummerSlam.
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