10 Wrestling Facts We Didn't Know Last Week (July 5)
Kofi Kingston's middle finger, Shawn Michaels dissing Crown Jewel and more...
As far as stopgap opponents in between major pay-per-views go, Samoa Joe is one of the best. He's certainly a more convincing challenger to Kofi Kingston's WWE Title crown than Dolph Ziggler or Kevin Owens have been since WrestleMania, and he'll bridge the gap to SummerSlam nicely for Kofi.
On this week's SmackDown, the pair ramped up the drama of their feud by using old Attitude era tropes to sell it. First, Joe tried to play devil's advocate by getting Kingston to shake his hand "like the man you say you are". Instead of doing that, Kofi flipped him off like it was 1998, he was on Raw Is War and his name happened to be 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin.
Edgy stuff, and it came completely out of left field from a company more concerned with appeasing shareholders and maintaining a child-friendly profile over the past decade. Here's the hitch: not everyone worldwide got to see Kingston's show of defiance. Find out why in this week's article.
There are also facts on a cast as varied as Kurt Angle, The Patriot, Earl Hebner, Booker T and Shawn Michaels. Let's get stuck in, otherwise we'll flip you the bird...