Professional wrestling rhymes. Over the near century that the scripted sport has existed within pop culture, promotions from across the industry have found themselves mirroring each others’ storylines. Decades after the New World Order ran roughshod on WCW, New Japan Pro Wrestling introduced its own group of black-and-white clad outsiders called Bullet Club. AJ Lee’s romantic interests on WWE TV were once called out by AJ Styles on a TNA iMPACT! broadcast, as he was involved in a similar angle at the time. Speaking of Styles, he channeled his inner Mark Henry with a fake-out retirement on a recent WWE SmackDown in an effort to gain a WWE Championship match.
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Warning – The rest of this article contains spoilers from the pre-taped August 30th edition of WWE SmackDown.
WWE’s Ludwig Kaiser Teased Mirroring AEW Storyline
The Ring General’s right hand man has ambitions to mirror an AEW angle, just in the opposite direction.
During Friday’s taped broadcast of WWE SmackDown, Imperium’s Ludwig Kaiser answered WWE United States Champion LA Knight’s open challenge. Kaiser was greeted to a massive ovation from his home countrymen, as the German crowd came to its feet for the Schleswig-Holstein native. Before the bell officially rang, Kaiser addressed Knight by declaring himself Germany’s best wrestler and revealed that should he win, he will rebrand the star-spangled gold into the WWE European Championship. Kaiser ultimately came up short.
Kaiser’s ambition to replace the WWE United States Title with the WWE European Championship, a prize that was retired in 2002, reflect a recent AEW storyline. Earlier this summer, MJF won the AEW International Championship and rebranded it as the AEW American Title. Going into his defense at AEW ALL IN: London against hometown hero Will Ospreay, MJF played himself up as the foreign heel, as he would be such in front of a UK crowd. Kaiser seeks to go in the other direction, trading in the US-based title for his home continent.
WWE SmackDown goes down tonight at 8 PM ET on FOX. WWE Bash in Berlin is scheduled for Saturday, August 31st and streams live on Peacock at 1 PM ET.
WWE Bash in Berlin 2024 Card
- WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther (c) vs. Randy Orton
- WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Kevin Owens
- Strap Match: Drew McIntyre vs. CM Punk
- Mixed Tag Team Match: WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio vs. Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest
- WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn (c) vs. Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill
