Tag: united states title

R-Truth wins United States title on WWE SmackDown

Posted on by Joseph Currier

This week’s SmackDown saw the United States Championship change hands for the second time in three days.

R-Truth defeated Shinsuke Nakamura on SmackDown to win the United States title. The finish of the match was R-Truth reversing the landslide into a small package, with the referee counting to three as Nakamura was kicking out.

Nakamura had won the US title from Rusev on the Royal Rumble pre-show. Rusev came out after R-Truth won the title. He challenged R-Truth to a match, and R-Truth accepted and retained the championship.

Rusev and Nakamura both attacked R-Truth and laid him out after Rusev lost the match. A backstage segment later in the show set up a match where Rusev & Nakamura will face Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson. Rusev said he’d team with Nakamura one time and told Nakamura not to screw him over.

R-Truth had been announced as the 30th entrant in Sunday’s men’s Royal Rumble match as a stipulation of winning Mixed Match Challenge with Carmella, but there was an angle where Nia Jax attacked him as he was making his entrance and took his spot.

WWE SmackDown TV taping spoilers: United States title match

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Here are next week’s SmackDown spoilers from Fresno, California. WWE is taping tonight as they’re now off the road until 12/26.

– Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows and The Usos defeated Sanity and The Bar

The New Day were on commentary wearing Santa outfits during the bout. Anderson and Gallows got the win after hitting the Magic Killer on Cesaro.

R-Truth and Carmella came out. Truth was dressed up like Santa Claus. They are interrupted by Daniel Bryan, who calls the crowd “fickle” for buying into the comedy act and calls Truth’s career a joke. This eventually led to a dance break where Bryan jumped Truth before it could conclude.

– Mustafa Ali defeated Andrade Cien Almas

Ali defeated Almas after hitting the 054.

Shane McMahon was on Miz TV. After asking the WWE Universe (which was said to have gotten a mixed reaction), it appears that they are now a tag team.

– Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe by count out

The finish had Joe escape the Whisper in the Wind by rolling out to the floor. Hardy then attacked him on the outside which eventually led to the cout out. Hardy went for a twist of fate on the announce table after the match but Joe countered with the coquina clutch and choked him out.

– Rusev defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the WWE United States title

Rusev won the title after hitting the machka kick. He and Lana celebrated in the ring to close out the show.

United States title match advertised for WWE SummerSlam

Posted on by Bryan Rose

A United States championship match has been announced for SummerSlam later this month.

It was announced this afternoon that Shinsuke Nakamura will defend the title against Jeff Hardy. This stems from what happened last month at Extreme Rules, where Jeff Hardy lost the title to Nakamura after a low blow before the bell rang. Once the bell sounded, Nakamura immediately hit his finish and pinned him to win the title.

It seems likely that Randy Orton will be a part of this match in some fashion. He made his return to WWE at Extreme Rules, attacking Hardy when he was still down. Since then, he has continued to assault Hardy, at one point using a water bottle to wipe out Hardy’s signature facepaint on a recent episode of SmackDown. While Nakamura was nearby, and Orton had an opportunity to lay out the United States champion, he ignored him instead.

SummerSlam will be held on August 19 at the Barclays Center in New York City.

Two more title matches set for WWE Greatest Royal Rumble

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Two more title matches have been set for the Greatest Royal Rumble later this month.

Jinder Mahal will get a rematch for the United States title at the event. Having just won it at WrestleMania a couple of weeks ago, he lost the championship tonight on Raw to Jeff Hardy after switching to Raw. Following the loss, he immediately invoked his rematch clause.

Meanwhile, the new team of Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt defeated the Revival tonight, effectively putting them in the Raw tag team title match against former champions The Bar. The titles were vacated after Braun Strowman and Nicholas, who beat The Bar at WrestleMania, gave the titles to Kurt Angle saying that due to other commitments Nicholas couldn’t defend the titles.

Other title matches announced for the show include Brock Lesnar defending the Universal title against Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins facing Finn Balor, The Miz and Samoa Joe in a ladder match for the Intercontinental title and The Bludgeon Brothers defending the Smackdown tag team titles against The Usos.

Beyond the 50 man Royal Rumble match, additional matches that have been announced include John Cena taking on Triple H and The Undertaker squaring off against Rusev in a casket match.

The event will take place April 27 at King Abdullah International Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It will air live on the WWE Network.

Jinder Mahal vs. Randy Orton confirmed for WWE Backlash

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Randy Orton will get another shot at the United States Championship.

Orton defeated Bobby Roode and Rusev in a triple threat match to become the new number one contender for the United States Championship tonight on SmackDown. He pinned Roode after hitting an RKO. This will pit him in a singles match with new United States Champion Jinder Mahal, who won the United States championship a few days ago at WrestleMania in a fatal four-way match featuring the participants in tonight’s triple threat.

It’s interesting to note that it was nearly one year ago at Backlash that Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton to win his first WWE Championship.

Backlash will be the first co-branded pay-per-view event after the single-brand events were dropped earlier this year. Already set for the event is The Miz vs. Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental title and Samoa Joe vs. Roman Reigns in a singles bout. It will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on May 6.

Rusev added to United States title match at WWE WrestleMania 34

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The triple threat match for the United States title at WrestleMania has now been turned into a fatal four way.

Rusev was added to the United States title match tonight on SmackDown after he pinned champion Randy Orton during a tag team match pitting Rusev (who subbed for a apparently injured Sunil Singh) and Jinder Mahal against Bobby Roode and Orton.  After the match, Mahal met Rusev backstage and thanked him for picking up the win. Rusev mentioned since that he just pinned the United States champion, he should be in the title match at WrestleMania. Jinder Mahal said he’d get him tickets instead. 

Announcers later said that SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan added Rusev to the match at WrestleMania.

Roode, Mahal and Orton have been feuding with one another for the last couple of months, with Roode pinning Mahal in the finals of a tournament to win the title. Orton defeated Roode last month at Fastlane to win the championship for the first time.

Three title matches set up for WWE Fastlane

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Three title matches for Fastlane were set up on tonight’s edition of SmackDown.

Shane McMahon announced that Bobby Roode will defend the United States Championship against Randy Orton. The two were involved in a confrontation earlier in the show, with Roode initially being the last man standing. Jinder Mahal, however, laid out Roode with the Khallas from behind.

Daniel Bryan wanted to make the match Roode vs. Mahal, but Shane overrode him and went with Orton. We’ll see if Mahal gets added between now and Fastlane.

The SmackDown Tag Team Championship match was decided as The New Day defeated Shelton Benjamin & Chad Gable to become the new number one contenders. Benjamin & Gable appeared to have the match won at one point, but the referee was distracted by Kofi Kingston.

The Bludgeon Brothers came out soon after The New Day won, and the two teams had a staredown before Harper & Rowan went on to destroy a pair of enhancement wrestlers.

It was also determined tonight that SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair will defend her title against Ruby Riott at the pay-per-view. Riott and the rest of The Riott Squad have been feuding with Charlotte for the last few weeks, with Riott picking up a win over Becky Lynch in a six-woman tag team match on tonight’s show that also featured Charlotte. Later, Charlotte and Riott went back and forth in video promos and Charlotte accepted Riott’s challenge.

Fastlane, the final SmackDown-only PPV, will take place on March 11th at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

WWE announces tournament to crown new United States Champion

Posted on by Joseph Currier

After the angle where Dolph Ziggler left the title in the ring last week, WWE has announced a tournament to crown a new United States Champion.

Tonight’s opening segment on SmackDown featured Daniel Bryan revealing the news. He said he’s been trying to reach Ziggler all week, but he hasn’t responded to Bryan’s phone calls or text messages. Bryan said it appears that Ziggler has voluntarily relinquished the title. He wished Ziggler the best of luck, called him an all-time great, and announced the tournament to determine a new champion.

Bobby Roode vs. Baron Corbin was the first tournament match, with Roode advancing by pinning him with a roll-up. Jinder Mahal later advanced over Tye Dillinger by hitting the Khallas.

WWE.com lists that there will be eight wrestlers in the tournament, though it isn’t clear when it will be coming to an end. It also remains to be seen if Ziggler will return before a new champion is decided.

Bryan’s decision to hold a tournament was used to further the storyline of dissension between him and Shane McMahon. In a backstage segment, McMahon said that it was unfair to Corbin and Roode. Bryan responded by calling SmackDown a land of opportunity and saying he wanted more wrestlers to get a shot.