New WWE U.S. Champion Crowned on SmackDown

Well, that was one that we didn’t see coming this week.

WWE SmackDown was supposed to feature two semifinal matches in the U.S. title tournament this week, with the finals to take place on next week’s show prior to the Royal Rumble. However, Daniel Bryan changed things on the fly.

In the opening match of the night, Xavier Woods lost to Jinder Mahal. That was a bit surprising, as Woods had been rumored for a championship run and Mahal has lost quite a bit of steam since dropping the WWE title to AJ Styles.

Later in the show, Bobby Roode defeated Mojo Rawley in the other semifinal match. This immediately brought about a post match attack by the Singh Brothers. Mahal came out and got on the microphone to declare he would put a glorious end to Roode on his way to the U.S. championship.

Bobby got on the microphone and challenged Mahal to do the match this week, but Jinder denied and said they would do the match when he decides and on his time.

This brought out Daniel Bryan, who declared that indeed, the match would be held this week.

Roode and Mahal ended up main eventing the show, and Mahal was on offense for most of the match. He stuck to the plan of working over Roode’s injured ribs from the attack earlier in the show as the announcers wondered if it was a good idea for Roode to advocate for the match to be held this week.

Then, out of nowhere, Roode was about to receive the Khallas, but he reversed it into the Glorious DDT for the pinfall and the championship victory.

Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan watched the match from ringside and presented Roode with the belt following the match. In case you’re wondering, there was no animosity shown between Shane and Bryan on the show this week.