New Title Match Announced for “Wrestlemania”

It worked once. Earlier this week at “Fastlane 2018”, Randy Orton won the United States Title for the first time in his career. Orton defeated Bobby Roode to win the title in a long match, but it was pretty clear that the feud wasn’t over quite yet. Now, we know where things are going next, or at least have a good idea of where they’re starting.

Orton was back on “Smackdown Live” after winning the title.

Bobby Roode vs. Jinder Mahal: SmackDown LIVE, March 13, 2018

This week on “Smackdown Live”, Roode announced that he would be cashing in his rematch clause to face Orton again at “Wrestlemania XXXIV”. Orton didn’t have a problem with this, but Jinder Mahal interrupted and defeated Roode in a singles match. After the match, Orton laid Mahal out with an RKO.

You can read this week’s “Smackdown” results here.

Opinion: I don’t think a triple threat match would be a big surprise at this point but at least there is now a storyline reason to put Mahal in the match. This has been the pretty clear end goal since the story started, though I’m not sure who is going to leave New Orleans with the title. Roode and Orton showed good chemistry on Sunday, but Mahal and Orton have yet to have a good match. I’m not exactly thrilled with this but it’s likely where things are going.

Here’s what Roode was thinking after losing the title.

Bobby Roode offers an explanation for losing the U.S. Title to The Viper: Exclusive, March 11, 2018

Who do you think leaves “Wrestlemania” as champion? Will Mahal be added to the match? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the History of the WWE Championship.

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