SmackDown Live closed out this week with a dramatic backstage scene in which Roman Reigns managed to beat information out of Buddy Murphy regarding who attacked him last week by dropping a scaffolding set on top of him. Murphy was reluctant to talk at first, but once Reigns got a few good punches in and forced him up against a wall he finally blurted out a name — Rowan.
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Reigns followed up by asking if Daniel Bryan was involved as well, but Murphy said he only saw Rowan when the incident took place. This lined up with both the fan theory that Rowan was involved given his brief appearance in one of the security camera videos, as well as the report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter stating that this whole angle would lead to a match with Reigns and Bryan at SummerSlam.
The show went off the air before Bryan and Rowan had a chance to defend themselves, so WWE uploaded an interview with the pair to their YouTube channel.
“This is typical media spin,” Bryan said. “And I like how you guys don’t try to put any of the blame on Roman Reigns. What happened when Roman Reigns asked Buddy Murphy? What happened, what’d he say he saw? He said he saw no one. And only when he had his head forced against the wall by Roman Reigns did he say anything about Rowan. What would you do if I pinned your head to the wall and I said you couldn’t leave until you gave me a name. I guarantee you, you would give me a name.
“I don’t know about Buddy Murphy, I don’t care about Roman Reigns. All I know is Rowan has nothing to do with this,” Bryan continued.
Bryan and Rowan dropped the SmackDown Tag Team Championships to Xavier Woods and Big E back at Extreme Rules, which drove the former WWE Champion to give a crazed backstage promo afterwards.
“If I want to change the planet, if I want to save the planet, I have to aim higher,” Bryan said. “I have to aim higher. I have to go where Daniel Bryan has not gone before. I know exactly what I have to do.”
Since then he’s teased making a “major career announcement” on episodes of SmackDown, though as of this week fans are still waiting.
SummerSlam takes place this Sunday at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
