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What’s the story?
With SummerSlam 2017 just a couple of weeks away, WWE has confirmed another championship match for the August 20 show.
In their obligatory rematch from last month’s Battleground show, The Usos will challenge The New Day for the SmackDown Tag Team Championships.
In case you didn’t know…
This will actually be the third time in less than two months that The New Day and The Usos have squared off on pay-per-view. Their first meeting took place at Money in the Bank in June, with The New Day winning via count-out, before they followed that up with a pinfall win at Battleground to capture those SmackDown tag titles.
And, of course, somewhere in between all that in-ring action, we saw them go at it in a Wale-officiated rap battle, which actually proved to be far better than it had any right to be.
The heart of the matter
The news was confirmed by Cathy Kelly on WWE’s Twitter page but no official word was given as to which combination of the New Day will actually take to the ring, but it’s interesting to note that Money in the Bank saw Big E and Kofi Kingston represent the group before it was Kingston and Xavier Woods that did the honors in that title win at Battleground.
Continuity might suggest that it should be Kingston and Woods teaming at SummerSlam once more. But then again, when did continuity have anything to do with it?
What's next?
There’s still time ahead of SummerSlam to further build this feud, but truth be told there isn’t a great deal more that needs to be done. After the Usos jumped the New Day in their post-Battleground celebration, it was always clear that there was plenty of life left in this rivalry.
Looking beyond SummerSlam, though, you’ve got to think that after three successive PPV meetings, it’ll be high time for a fresh feud at the top of the SmackDown tag division.
Author’s take
Given recent developments on SmackDown, this announcement was little more than dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s.
The only question revolves around why they chose to let the cat out of the bag on social media, rather than during the two hours of live television they have to fill each week.
