WWE Confirms Bracket For SmackDown Tournament
The bracket was revealed for WWE SmackDown’s US Title Contenders Tournament.
Logan Paul is the WWE United States Champion who appeared on the December 1st episode of Smackdown to announce an eight-man tournament to determine his next challenger.
Since Paul is not a full-time WWE superstar who only wrestles on a part-time basis, it was WWE’s way of featuring the US Title without actually having the champion on the show.
On WWE Smackdown from Providence, the company revealed the bracket of the eight-man tournament with these matchups:
* Santos Escobar vs. Dragon Lee
* Bobby Lashley vs. Karrion Kross
* Grayson Waller vs. NXT superstar yet to be named
* Austin Theory vs. Kevin Owens
The NXT superstar that has yet to be named has yet to be announced. During the SmackDown broadcast, the announcers said that it would be up to NXT’s boss Shawn Michaels to determine who would face Grayson Waller in that match.
It’s not yet known if the NXT competitor will have to win a match to get into the tournament or if the two-time WWE Hall of Famer Michaels will pick somebody to be in the spot.
Who Won The First Two Tournament Matches On WWE SmackDown?
The first two tournament matches took place on the December 8th edition of SmackDown.
In the first match, Santos Escobar defeated Dragon Lee by pinfall in the first tournament match. Lee was looking at his NXT Deadline opponent Dominik Mysterio on the floor, then he went up top and Escobar stopped him there. Escobar hit the Phantom Driver for the win.
The second tournament match saw Bobby Lashley defeat Karrion Kross by pinfall. Lashley won with a Spear and celebrated with The Street Profits after the match.
The wins by Lashley and Escobar mean that they will meet in the tournament semifinals.
On the December 15th edition of Smackdown, Kevin Owens will face Austin Theory while Grayson Waller will face the unnamed NXT superstar.
It’s not known when Logan Paul will face the winner of the contender’s tournament because WWE has yet to announce that.