SmackDown 06/12: Jey Uso Pins LA Knight to Advance in the KOTR Tournament

Jey Uso advanced to the semifinals of the King of the Ring tournament by pinning LA Knight in a Fatal-4-Way match on SmackDown.

SmackDown 06/12: Jey Uso Pins LA Knight to Advance in the KOTR Tournament

Jey Uso celebrating with Jimmy Uso on SmackDown [via- WrestlingNews.co]

The main event of this week’s SmackDown featured the final first-round King of the Ring qualifying match. It involved the likes of LA Knight, Jey Uso, Finn Balor, and Royce Keys. And speaking of who advanced to the semifinals, Uso did by pinning Knight.

While Balor and Keys were also in contention, it was expected to come down to Uso and Knight only given their heated interactions of late. ‘The Megastar’ had been talking trash about Roman Reigns and his Bloodline for weeks. This past Monday on Raw, Knight even uttered “screw your family” to rile up Jey.

‘The Master of Yeet’ was eventually held back by Jimmy Uso, but it had been made pretty much clear that the younger Uso and Knight were bound to be on a collision course. In their KOTR qualifier on SmackDown, the former Eli Drake was dealing with Keys in the closing moments.

Knight planted a boot to Keys’ face only to be hit by a Samoan Spike from Solo Sikoa, who was ringside to keep an eye on the erstwhile Powerhouse Hobbs. The latter hadn’t realized that Sikoa had clobbered Knight, and he further planted ‘The Defiant One’ with The Ultimate Spinebuster.

Jey Uso, however, was ready to pounce on Knight and Keys. The former right-hand man of Roman Reigns hit the Uso Splash on Keys, with Knight bearing the brunt of it as he was underneath the former AEW star. Uso then covered Knight to get the pinfall victory, and he’ll now face Je’Von Evans in the semifinals of the KOTR tournament.

The outcome of Uso advancing over Knight hasn’t sat well with the majority of the fans. The enraged fans have flooded the social media with posts slamming the WWE CCO Triple H for dropping the ball with LA Knight yet again. It has become a recurring theme in the latter’s haphazard booking on the main roster.

The fans are now hoping for Evans to defeat Uso in their upcoming meeting to keep Jey from challenging Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE title at SummerSlam. The Usos notably confronted Rhodes during the initial moments of the show. ‘The QB1’ shook hands with both Jimmy and Jey, with the latter telling his former tag team partner that he would be coming after him.

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How do the KOTR brackets look after Jey Uso’s SmackDown shocker?

The ongoing King of the Ring tournament has now had two surprising results in the form of Seth Rollins and LA Knight losing their respective matches, as the two of them were believed to be potential challengers for Roman Reigns’ world title at SummerSlam. After Jey Uso’s latest exploits on SmackDown, he’s set to take on a man almost half his age—Je’Von Evans.

Jey Uso
Jey Uso pulled off a big win on SmackDown [via- WWE]

In the other semifinal match, Oba Femi will look to make light work of Dominik Mysterio on Raw this coming Monday. But before jumping the gun, it must be noted that there have been some strong rumors of Brock Lesnar pulling up to Baltimore and cost Femi the match against Mysterio.

‘The Ruler’ has dumped on ‘The Beast Incarnate’ twice since losing to him at Clash in Italy. Femi has made it abundantly clear that he’s not done with Lesnar. They are believed to collide at SummerSlam, the setup for which could likely be Lesnar screwing Femi’s chances of becoming the 2026 King of the Ring.

Should it happen, ‘Dirty Dom’ will get an easy pass to the finals of the KOTR tournament, where he will have to fend off the winner of Je’Von Evans vs. Jey Uso at Night of Champions. One might think that Uso would definitely fancy his chances against Evans.

However, it must be noted that LA Knight could poke his nose in Jey’s business after having his chances sabotaged by Jey’s younger brother Solo Sikoa. That’s exactly what Knight had already predicted in his promo on last week’s Raw that Uso wouldn’t be able to put him down without having any of his family members helping him win.

Knight now has the opportunity to return the favor to Uso in his upcoming showdown with ‘The Young OG’. It would be interesting to see if that’s actually in the cards or if Jey Uso ultimately goes on to claim that KOTR crown and face Rhodes for the title at SummerSlam, which would be just what Reigns had asked of his cousin.

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