In one of the most anticipated matches from this week’s WWE Raw, Finn Balor defeated Damian Priest to become the new United States Champion. Just a few weeks ahead of Wrestlemania 38, the championship change probably hints at bigger planning for the new champion in the coming weeks.
The February 28 episode of WWE Raw had the main event match where the US Title was hanging in the balance in a singles contest. Balor captured the strap by defeating Damian Priest by a pinfall win. Balor gained the win via a clean pinfall as he hit the Coup de Grace off the top rope.
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Once the match was over, Priest cut a heel promo and attacked Balor with a cheap shot which was likely his heel-turn on WWE Raw. Priest also launched Balor onto the announce table and left him laying amid loud boos from the audience present at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
With this win on WWE Raw, Balor has started his first reign with the WWE United States Title. Priest won the title back at SummerSlam on August 21 by defeating Sheamus and held the gold for 191 recognized days.
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Priest received new challenger on last week’s WWE Raw
Last week on WWE Raw, Damian Priest officially became the longest-reigning United States Champion of the brand-split era following his win over Shelton Benjamin. But unfortunately, he had to drop the title just a week after setting the record.
Priest had the longest reign since Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley’s 351-day title run from May 2013 to April 2014. Ambrose, with the owest-rate title defense during that run, had broken MVP’s previous 343-day reign that lasted through May 2007 – April 2008. Ambrose featured on WWE Raw/Smackdown programming during his title run while Priest was on the red brand, only.
During his reign, Priest has successfully defended against some veteran names like Superstars such as AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, The Miz, Kevin Owens, Robert Roode, Sami Zayn, Jinder Mahal, Jeff Hardy, and Apollo Crews.
Priest defeated Sheamus at last year’s SummerSlam to begin his historic title reign while Balor confronted him on last week’s WWE Raw to accept an Open Challenge for this week to set up the match. Following the title change, it seems like Balor vs. Priest over the US title could be planned for a Wrestlemania match.
