On this week’s WWE Monday Night Raw, United States Champion Damian Priest opened the show and issued the open challenge for his title. He was quickly interrupted by Drew McIntyre, Shemaus, Bobby Lashley, Riddle and Randy Orton.
It was later turned into Triple Threat Match between Damian Priest, Shemaus and Drew McIntyre for US Title, in which Priest successfully retained his US Title. However, it was not the original plans for the US Open Challenge by the Damian Priest.
WHAT. A. WIN.@ArcherofInfamy pins former 2-time #WWEChampion @DMcIntyreWWE following The Reckoning in an incredible #USTitle Triple Threat Match! pic.twitter.com/uH5oYO9oXh
— WWE (@WWE) August 31, 2021
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported that there were lot of changes made to this week’s Raw match card. It was noted that initial idea was Priest to defend his US Title against Drew McIntyre in singles match. But WWE wanted program between Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley, so they decided to cancel the Shemaus match and added him to US Title picture.
“It appears the decision was that they’re gonna go with Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley, so therefore they wanted Randy Orton in there with Bobby Lashley, which took Sheamus out of that match. And I did hear that Drew and Priest at one point was going to be a singles match, but when they took Sheamus out (of the Lashley match), Sheamus was moved, and they made it into a three-way match. There were a million changes during the day, and at the end of the day, every match advertised didn’t happen.” (H/T: Wrestletalk)
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