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Ricochet Comments On Earning Braun Strowman’s Respect After Smackdown World Cup Match

By John Canton • Published 26th November 2022
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Ricochet pulled off the upset win over Braun Strowman in the Smackdown World Cup and after the match, he spoke about earning respect.

The Smackdown World Cup started to help promote the soccer/football World Cup that started in Qatar this month. In WWE’s World Cup, it was an eight-man tournament with wrestlers representing different countries in the tournament. The winner of the tournament will get an Intercontinental Title match against the dominant champion, GUNTHER.

Ricochet started the Smackdown World Cup tournament with a victory over Mustafa Ali in the quarterfinals on the November 18th episode of Smackdown. That victory meant that Ricochet had a tough test in the next round because Braun Strowman was waiting for him after the “Monster Of All Monsters” destroyed Jinder Mahal in the quarterfinals.

While many fans likely considered Strowman the considerate favorite against Ricochet on the November 25th Smackdown, Ricochet managed to get the win. It wasn’t a clean victory because GUNTHER showed up with his Imperium allies Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci to distract Strowman. That led to Ricochet doing a crucifix pin on Strowman for the win.

After the match, Imperium attacked Strowman, Ricochet tried to help and eventually, Imperium ran away when Strowman was ready to fight again. Strowman ended up helping Ricochet to his feet as a sign of respect.

In a WWE Digital Exclusive, Ricochet talked about wanting Strowman to respect him.

“I was going to go into this match no matter what to make sure that Braun Strowman respected me at least. He can think what he wants, he has his own opinions, but I was going to come in tonight, knowing very well that as soon as we leave this match he is going to respect me. Of course, it wasn’t my idea to have Imperium come out, and obviously, it wasn’t because they beat me up.”

Now that Ricochet is in the Smackdown World Cup Finals, he’ll face Santos Escobar next week to determine who gets that coveted shot at the Intercontinental Title in the future. For Ricochet, it’s a chance to win back the IC Title that he lost back in June.

H/T SEScoops