5 realistic contenders to defeat Jeff Hardy for the United States Championship
Jeff Hardy picked up a surprise victory over Jinder Mahal on the Superstar Shake-Up episode of Monday Night Raw in April to win the WWE United States Championship for the first time in his career.
Since then, he lost to The Miz in a Money In The Bank qualifier and defeated Shelton Benjamin in a non-title match on SmackDown Live, while he successfully defended his championship against Jinder at the Greatest Royal Rumble and against Randy Orton at Backlash.
However, if recent history surrounding the United States Championship tells us anything – it has averaged one title change per month over the last year – there’s a high chance that Jeff’s 36-day reign with the title could soon be over.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at five realistic contenders who could win SmackDown Live’s secondary title from “The Charismatic Enigma” in the near future.
#5 Rusev
If the WWE Universe had their way, Rusev would be headlining PPV after PPV and he’d probably have won the WWE Championship by now.
In reality, though, it feels like WWE hasn’t fully capitalised on the Bulgarian’s ‘Rusev Day’ phenomenon and he has mostly remained a mid-card performer during his time on SmackDown Live.
Granted, he was involved in a casket match against The Undertaker and he defeated Daniel Bryan clean in a Money In The Bank qualifier, but can anybody really see him claiming the MITB briefcase or winning the WWE title any time soon?
Barring the greatest Rusev Day in history, Rusev will need a new direction after Money In The Bank, and a third United States Championship reign certainly isn’t out of the question.