What an odd thing to happen...
This past Sunday it was announced over social media by SmackDown Live GM Paige that there was going to be a WWE United States Championship match during last night's SmackDown Live which would feature the champion Jeff Hardy putting his title on the line against Shinsuke Nakamura.
A few hours before SmackDown went live on the USA Network it was revealed by WWE that Shinsuke had not been medically cleared to compete and instead of the one-on-one bout, Jeff was going to be issuing an open challenge to any competitor in the back who wanted a shot at his United States Title. Jeff's challenge was eventually answered by former NXT Tag Team Champion and SAnitY leader Eric Young.
Yesterday evening, following the news from WWE a report surfaced by way of Dave Meltzer which noted that Shinsuke Nakamura was bitten by a police dog at the 'Rabobank Arena' before a SmackDown house show in Bakersfield, CA. PWInsider followed up on the report and noted that the dog was brought to the backstage area as a part of a security check and as the dog began to sniff Nakamura, it bit him on the leg. The site added that the dog was not provoked either and as a medical precaution, Nakamura was pulled from his live event match and the decision was made to pull him from the U.S. Title match with Jeff Hardy as well.
You can check out Fightful's coverage of SmackDown Live by clicking here. Also, take a listen to the Fightful post-SmackDown podcast by heading over to our YouTube channel.
