New Champion Crowned On WWE Raw

And new... WWE goes all-in on pushing young superstar with first title win.

by Scott Carlson
Austin Theory
WWE.com

Theory is your new WWE United States Champion after defeating Finn Balor on Raw Monday night.

The young superstar battled Balor in what was their fifth televised singles match since December, but the first with a title on the line. Despite losing at WrestleMania 38 to Pat McAfee, Theory has been a pet project of Vince McMahon, both in storyline and apparently in real life, as the chairman certainly hasn't gotten involved in a ton of angles in recent years.

McMahon has served as an on-screen mentor to Theory, setting him up with the US title bout last week against Balor, who won the title from Damian Priest in February.

Advertisement

Although he was the accomplished champ heading into the match, Balor losing the title was a pretty obvious decision, as he really hadn't defended the title on TV since winning it and didn't even have a match at Mania (instead competing in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale).

Theory saw his name shortened last week, losing Austin from his name. In storyline, they tied that to Vince's hatred of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, but in reality it's part of WWE's effort to "own" wrestlers' names and not let them keep their real names or monikers they used on the independent scene.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.