WWE surprised fans with the news that Roman Reigns will defend the Universal Championship against Rey Mysterio during tonight's episode of SmackDown, especially as the match is still set to take place inside a Hell in a Cell (even though the Hell in a Cell PPV takes place on Sunday).
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that there's no real reason for the change, but adds that "there were just a bunch of discussions on Thursday" which concluded with "let’s do it on SmackDown." In other words, this is happening just for the hell of it, and Reigns is still expected to wrestle on Sunday, so a swerve of some sort could be planned.
Needless to say, SmackDown is expected to do a big rating tonight but Andrew Zarian from the Mat Men podcast says the USA Network - which airs RAW - is unhappy with these plans.
"I can tell you for a fact that USA Network is very unhappy that the Hell in a Cell match is happening on SmackDown. I’m not gonna say they are fuming but they are very unhappy about it."
Remember, USA is owned by NBCUniversal. The company also owns Peacock, the new home of the WWE Network, so they've lost out on a major PPV match and have the embarrassment of seeing a major match take place on FOX as SmackDown continues to be cemented as WWE's "A" show instead of RAW (which continues to struggle in terms of ratings each week).
Check back here later for updates on Roman Reigns vs. Rey Mysterio.