Although the final match of the United States title tournament was supposed to take place during the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, WWE pulled the trigger early and crowned a new champion during last night’s Smackdown.
Three tournament matches took place on Smackdown, including Jinder Mahal winning against Xavier Woods to advance to the final and Bobby Roode defeating Mojo Rawley to also move to the final match.
Smackdown GM Daniel Bryan decided to make the match for the night after Roode called out Mahal to wrestle later in the evening instead of waiting. Earlier, Mahal’s sidekicks The Singh Brothers attacked Roode after he won the semi-final match and they were both banned from ringside for the final.
Roode vs Mahal closed the show and after a Glorious DDT, Roode was crowned the new United States champion.
There are still no signs of Dolph Ziggler, who surrendered the title two nights after winning it at Clash of Champions in December.
