Smackdown Superstar and United States Champion Jinder Mahal was the first face to show up on Raw during night one of the Superstar Shake-up. His first act as a Raw Superstar? Losing the United States Championship to Jeff Hardy in the show’s opening match.
That caused speculation that Seth Rollins and the Intercontinental Championship could be headed to Smackdown on night two, but hey, we took a more direct path: Jeff Hardy was the first Raw Superstar sent to Smackdown in the Superstar Shake-up, and he took the United States Championship back with him. Okay, sure!
Shelton Benjamin — who also lost a tag team partner in the roster jumble — cut a promo announcing that he never needed Chad Gable and was ready to take on “big competition” and get title opportunities as a singles star. That challenge was answered by Randy Orton, and was then extra answered (?) by Hardy, who took the match. Hardy won with the Swanton Bomb, avoiding Jinder’s blunder.
Not only does the move give Smackdown another big name and their secondary men’s championship back, it allows Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt to continue to be supernatural backyard wrestling weirdos without having to worry about Hardy Boyz Classic Jeff Hardy wandering around transforming into and out of Brother Nero.
