Who Won An Impromptu WWE United States Championship Match On Raw?

Backstage confrontation leads to someone getting a title shot. How'd they fare?

by Scott Carlson
Austin Theory
WWE.com

Seemingly booked on the fly on Monday night - at least in terms of how it appeared while watching the show - Raw was the site of an impromptu WWE United States Championship match when Austin Theory put the title up for grabs.

Theory conducted a backstage interview about the two men vying next week to become #1 contender for his title when Mustafa Ali sidled up next to him and needled him until Austin decided to give him an opportunity at the US title.

The match didn't quite go as either man expected, with Ali losing via DQ when Dolph Ziggler rushed the ring and attacked Theory. This led to a shoving match between Mustafa and Dolph, only for Theory to knock both men out before leaving with his title.

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For Ali, this is yet another week where he gets "featured" but doesn't really get a chance to connect. He cut an excellent promo on Twitter earlier that beautifully explained what the US title meant to him, but rather than playing that, Kevin Patrick read excerpts, completely negating the impact it could have had.

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Why not hand him the mic on his way to the ring and let him cut the same promo again rather than an announcer robotically reciting the lines? It might have rallied fans to his side more. It certainly wouldn't have hurt.

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.