WWE Adds Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens vs. Dolph Ziggler to Extreme Rules Card

WWE was able to sneak in one more title match onto the Extreme Rules card before Sunday night's [...]

By Connor Casey

WWE was able to sneak in one more title match onto the Extreme Rules card before Sunday night's show in Philadelphia kicked off — Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor vs. Shinsuke Nakamura.

After successfully defending his championship as "The Demon" against Andrade at the Super ShowDown event back in early June, Balor was inexplicably absent from competing on WWE television for nearly a month. That finally changed on the July 9 episode of SmackDown Live when he lost a non-title match to Nakamura, who had also been absent for quite some time.

The bout was first announced via WWE's online pre-show WWE Now.

But WWE wasn't finished quite yet. Minutes later the company announced yet another bout for the show as Kevin Owens will take on Dolph Ziggler.

Over the past two weeks Owens has shifted from being a hated heel to a wildly over babyface, as his weariness over Ziggler's repeating "It should have been me!" promos drove to turn on Ziggler after a main event tag match. The following week Owens was sent home by Shane McMahon for brawling with Ziggler in the parking lot, which led to the former world champion storming the ring and cutting a promo about how sick he is of McMahon constantly being on WWE television.

In a recent interview on the Chasing Glory With Lilian Garcia podcast, Owens teased the idea of having a long run as a babyface.

"Only because I've been a heel for so long now, I personally am ready for something different," Owens said. "And I also would love to see how successful I can be as a babyface. My ego tells me I'd be great. But I got a tiny taste of it and then for reasons beyond my control for what the show needed, I had to go back the other way. And I'm trying to make it as good as I can. But I still have this need to find out if I'm right."

Other major bouts announced for Extreme Rules include Roman Reigns & Undertaker vs. McMahon and Drew McIntyre, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe, Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans, United States Champion Ricochet vs. AJ Styles and Aleister Black vs. Cesaro.

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