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What’s the story?
Following a controversial ending to the United States Championship match between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles on this week's episode of Smackdown, a rematch has been made official for SummerSlam.
Daniel Bryan announced that Shane McMahon will be the special guest referee for the SummerSlam match between Styles and Owens.
In case you didn’t know...
The feud between Styles and Owens began back in May when Styles challenged Owens for the United States Championship. The match took place at Backlash and ended with Owens retaining the title via countout.
The next encounter took place at a Madison Square Garden Live Event and saw Styles defeat Owens to become the United States Champion. Owen regained the title at Battleground following a disoriented referee’s pinfall, but lost the title to Styles in a triple threat match two days later on SmackDown Live.
The heart of the matter
During the championship match scheduled for this week, referee Mike Chioda got knocked down and seemingly had an eye issue. Owens tried to use a rollup pin to beat Styles, but Styles reversed it. Still disoriented from getting hit, Chioda counted the pinfall and declared Styles the victor despite Owens’ shoulder being up.
Owens confronted Bryan and McMahon backstage and demanded a rematch as well as a better referee for his next encounter with Styles. Bryan then made the decision that McMahon would serve as the special guest referee for their match at SummerSlam.
This match will mark their fifth televised encounter for the title as well as their first match with a change in stipulation.
What’s next?
There were rumours that Owens was scheduled to face McMahon at SummerSlam, but that program seems to have been pushed back for now.
If Owens vs. McMahon is still the endgame at some point, then the United States Championship match at SummerSlam will more than likely result in another dusty finish.
Author’s Take
Special Guest Referees tend to bring the controversy, but hopefully, there isn’t too much for their SummerSlam match.
