WWE's Logan Paul Ambushes LA Knight Ahead of SummerSlam Battle on SmackDown

WWE's Logan Paul takes out LA Knight ahead of their United States Title match at SummerSlam

By Matthew Aguilar

LA Knight is closer than ever to Championship Gold, as he will face Logan Paul for the United States Championship at SummerSlam. The back and forth between Paul and Knight has certainly been entertaining, but now the time for talk has just about commenced as they head to SummerSlam next week to finally battle in the ring. Tonight's SmackDown featured another step in their feud ahead of the big event, as after Knight was able to defeat Santos Escobar he was ambushed by Paul and hit with a frog splash before Paul stood tall over his opponent.

Knight and Escobar would have an entertaining match before all of that went down, and Knight would end up getting the win. That's when Paul came out of nowhere and attacked Knight, but he found an unexpected ally in Escobar, who helped Paul set up Knight for the frog splash in the corner. Regardless of whatever happens at SummerSlam, it's likely that Knight will look for some payback on Escobar sooner than later for his role in that attack.

After the match, Paul teased some SummerSlam plans, saying that he had spoken to Mr. Cleaveland himself, and he said he wanted to have a surprise homecoming for him. He wouldn't reveal anymore, but he did take a second to taunt Knight by lifting a microphone and yelling his catchphrase. We'll have to see if Knight has a response for what happened later in the show, but the ultimate revenge would be to walk away with the Title at SummerSlam.

A New Name

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(Photo: WWE)

Speaking of LA Knight, it's difficult to think of him by any other name now, but he has gone by other names in other companies, including Eli Drake. In a previous interview with ComicBook, Knight was asked if there were other names in the mix before the LA Knight name came about, and it seems that was always the choice they were rolling with.

"There weren't a lot pretty much [of names other than LA Knight], we went straight to LA Knight. It was always gonna be LA something. So the Eli Drake thing happened by accident," Knight said. "It was just that I hadn't been talking for months basically, Drew was talking for me, and at some point I was like, 'well, I got to tell these people my name.' And so I started just kind of spelling it out and I was like, 'well, hell, I'll keep that.' But for me, it was also just simplicity. If I got a mouthful of the name, how do people remember that? How do people chant that? How do people just keep that fresh on their minds? So if you got some garbled up mess of a name, sorry, no offense, but it's going to be tough to latch on to that. So simplicity is key."

WWE SummerSlam Updated Card

World Heavyweight Championship Match: Damian Priest (C) vs. Gunther
WWE Women's Championship Match: Bayley (C) vs. Nia Jax
Women's World Championship Match: Liv Morgan (C) vs. Rhea Ripley
Undisputed WWE Championship Match: Cody Rhodes (C) vs. Solo Sikoa
United States Championship Match: Logan Paul (C) vs. LA Knight

SummerSlam takes place on Saturday, August 3rd.

Are you excited for SummerSlam? You can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads and Twitter @mattaguilarcb!

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