Braun Strowman, Santos Escobar advance in SmackDown World Cup tournament

The SmackDown World Cup got underway on Friday Night SmackDown this week in Indianapolis, with two first round match-ups taking place. We can’t share a bracket with you to showcase potential bouts later on in the tournament because, well, WWE never got around to releasing one.

This week’s matches:

• Santos Escobar scored a pinfall win over Shinsuke Nakamura. Legado del Fantasma proved too much of an advantage, as THAT DAMN NUMBERS GAME created an obstacle too large for Nakamura to overcome
• Braun Strowman beat up Jinder Mahal. The latter cut a promo before the match claiming he’s back and his first step on the road to returning to former glory would be winning the World Cup. Cue Strowman’s music and commentary instantly making clear who was going to win this one.

It’s unclear who, exactly these two will be wrestling in the semifinals but they will be wrestling!

Next week, we’ll get the rest of the first round match-ups: Ricochet vs. Mustafa Ali and Sami Zayn vs. BUTCH.

Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s show right here.