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WWE

In a little over three weeks' time, WWE's SmackDown brand will be making a monumental move to a primetime slot on the FOX Network beginning Friday night, Oct. 4 to kickstart a multi-year, billion-dollar partnership between the two sides. The debut episode is being billed as a 20th anniversary celebration that will see a plethora of legends returning, but the presumed main event of the show will have major implications on the present as Brock Lesnar will challenge Kofi Kingston for the WWE championship. 

On Tuesday night's edition of SmackDown Live, all three members of The New Day were victorious in a six-man tag match opposite Randy Orton & the SmackDown tag team champions The Revival in the opening segment. As New Day celebrated, Lesnar's music surprisingly blared over the loud speakers in Atlanta as the former universal champion and his advocate, Paul Heyman, made their way towards the ring and the reigning champion. Heyman laid down the challenge for the Oct. 4 debut, and after Kingston reiterated his intentions to be nothing short of a fighting champion, he accepted the responsibility of taking on the daunting task. 

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Lesnar, complete with facial hair, eased in for a handshake with Kingston before revealing his obvious intentions of delivering an F5 to send a brutal message to the WWE champion. 

It's long been speculated that Lesnar would be transitioning to SmackDown given the new partnership with FOX coupled with the network's familiarity with the "Beast Incarnate" from his full-time UFC days. Lesnar dropped the universal championship clean to Seth Rollins at SummerSlam and was denied an immediate rematch for the top title on the Raw brand, further fueling the SmackDown whispers. Tuesday night, the speculation and rumors were confirmed as they seem to have Lesnar in position to become the face of SmackDown and the partnership with FOX for the foreseeable future. 

Lesnar and Kingston have met one another in singles competition once previously, with Lesnar defeating Kingston in a virtual squash match at the Beast in the East WWE Network special back on July 4, 2015. This match will also mark Lesnar's first televised match on SmackDown since a March 2, 2004 victory over Hardcore Holly.