Daniel Bryan opened Smackdown Live on Tuesday with the announcement of a tournament that would crown a new United States Champion. Strangely, fans had to wait a couple more days to find out the full field of who is actually in that tournament
Former United States Champion Dolph Ziggler abandoned the title just a few days after he won it from Baron Corbin and Bobby Roode in an entertaining triple threat match at Clash of Champions. The storyline here is a little disjointed, but Roode and Corbin have been feuding with each other over the United States Championship for several weeks, only to have Ziggler shoehorned into the feud for no discernable reason before suddenly winning the title at Clash of Champions.
Ziggler left the title in the middle of the ring last week, after telling WWE fans that they don’t deserve him as their champion. Ziggler teased his WWE exit, as he’s been known to do, and in an effort to “give the fans something to remember me by,” Ziggler walked out, leaving the title behind. Before announcing the tournament on Tuesday, Bryan revealed that he “couldn’t get ahold of Ziggler all week,” so they are moving forward without him.
In two first-round matchups Tuesday, Roode defeated Corbin, and Jinder Mahal defeated Tye Dillinger, but Smackdown went off the air without sharing any other information regarding the tournament. After a couple of days of speculation, WWE finally released the full bracket on Thursday, along with the news that the winner will be crowned at the Royal Rumble.
While the tournament will only include a seemingly random array of eight Smackdown Superstars, some of the options here are pretty exciting. We’ve yet to see a singles championship run for any of Bobby Roode, Mojo Rawley, Xavier Woods, or Aiden English. Despite our excitement for newer talent receiving fresh opportunities, Jinder Mahal fits WWE’s stereotypical heel United States Champion mold, and he’s probably the tournament favorite right now.
Of course, it’s highly unlikely that we’ve seen the last of Dolph Ziggler in this storyline, so while we finally have the full bracket, there are still a lot of moving parts at play.
