Bobby Roode Is The New WWE United States Champion
A surprise tournament final was held on SmackDown Live.
Jan 17, 2018
Bobby Roode has emerged the new WWE United States Champion, after a surprise decision to hold the tournament final on tonight's show.
Semi-finals were held earlier in the night as expected, which saw Jinder Mahal defeat Xavier Woods, and Roode get the better of Mojo Rawley. After a beatdown by the Singh Brothers, Roode challenged Mahal to the final round immediately.
Jinder disagreed, but SmackDown Live GM Daniel Bryan was on hand to make the match official. After around 15 minutes of action, Roode was able to emerge victorious as the new WWE United States Champion.
The tournament was devised when Dolph Ziggler wilfully vacated the title, supposedly walking out of the company and leaving it behind in the ring. He had won the championship at Clash of Champions, surprisingly defeating Roode and Baron Corbin in triple threat action - despite being the least-fancied of the three participants.
Roode's victory is his first taste of WWE gold on the main roster. He is, of course, a former NXT Champion, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura at TakeOver: San Antonio at the beginning of 2017. Earlier in his career, he held the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on two separate occasions - and is also a six-time TNA World Tag Team Champion (five with James Storm, one alongside Austin Aries).
There is no word yet on the possibility of Roode defending the title at the Royal Rumble pay per view, nor the identity of a potential challenger. Indeed, with both a men's and women's Rumble on the show, as well as various other title matches (including AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, and Brock Lesnar vs. Braun Strowman vs. Kane), it could perhaps be left off the card.
Roode is the 88th unique person to hold the US Championship, the inaugural champion being Harley Race in NWA-affiliated Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling.