New United States Champion Crowned On WWE Raw
Finn Balor captures main roster gold for the first time since July 2019.
Finn Balor won the WWE United States Championship on Raw last night, defeating Damian Priest to capture the title for the first time in his career.
Balor won the title after a 10-minute back-and-forth match that saw him counter a Priest attempt at the Reckoning with an inverted elbow drop, followed by a shotgun dropkick and Coup de Grace. The win marked Finn's first main roster title since he held the Intercontinental Championship during the spring and summer of 2019. He also held the NXT Championship for seven months in 2020-21.
It's been a rocky road for Balor, who returned to the main roster last year and was injected into a main event feud against Roman Reigns, which ended when the Demon character suffered his first loss when the top rope broke. After that, Finn meandered about until he was drafted to Raw last fall. We later learned that WWE higher-ups don't view him as someone to really push and is more there to get other guys over, which makes this title win part confusing, part suspect that this might be a pretty short reign.
As for Priest, his six-month reign came to an abrupt end and then was punctuated with a heel turn, as he laid out Balor after chastising the fans for not rallying behind him more. Damian promised to try to win the title back soon, so perhaps we'll see him recapture his championship in short order, making Balor's win just the catalyst for the heel turn.