Following his win at Clash of Champions, newly-crowned United States Champion Dolph Ziggler came out on Smackdown Live last week and appeared to relinquish his title, saying the fans “don’t deserve him.”
Ziggler hasn’t been seen on television since, and as a result Daniel Bryan vacated the championship at the start of this week’s show, announcing an eight-man tournament to crown a new champ.
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Half of the competitors were revealed throughout the night, with Bobby Roode pinning Baron Corbin via roll-up and Jinder Mahal defeating Tye Dillinger, but a full bracket was never shown.
WWE finally announced the full tournament via their YouTube channel on Thursday, revealing the final two matches to be Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley and Xavier Woods vs. Aiden English.
US Title tournament brackets revealed. pic.twitter.com/IuhkmNCaDV
โ Ryan Satin (@ryansatin) December 28, 2017
The tournament provides some interesting potential outcomes as only one of the six remaining wrestlers (Ryder) have ever held the title before.
Ryder and Rawley was also provide a rematch from Clash of Champions, where Rawley pinned his former Hype Bros. tag partner.
Woods versus English continues the growing feud between The New Day and the newest addition to the tag division in English and Rusev.
There’s no word yet on when the next matches in the tournament will take place, but it’s a safe bet we’ll see the last two first-round matches on next week’s episode of Smackdown Live.