United States Title Match Set For Backlash

The pile just keeps getting bigger. We’re less than five days away from Backlash 2018 and that means we need to start cranking up the card. There’s only so much you can do with so much of the recent focus being put on the Greatest Royal Rumble but now it’s time to really start hammering things home. One of the best ways to do this is to set up some extra matches and if we can make it a title match, that might be even better.

The people involved were in action this week on SmackDown Live.

Randy Orton & Jeff Hardy vs. The Miz & Shelton Benjamin: SmackDown LIVE, May 1, 2018

As confirmed this week on SmackDown Live, United States Champion Jeff Hardy will be defending his title against Randy Orton at Backlash. Hardy won the title in April on Monday Night Raw by defeating Jinder Mahal. Orton had won a title shot the week before by winning a triple threat match. The title match was to be against Jinder Mahal, who defeated Orton for the title at WrestleMania 34 but Mahal lost the title to Hardy the next week. The two have a long history together as Hardy challenged then WWE Champion Orton for the title at Royal Rumble 2008 in a losing effort.

You can read this week’s SmackDown Live results, with Hardy and Orton getting physical, right here.

Opinion: Works for me. It’s pretty clear that WWE is pushing the heck out of Hardy at least for the time being and a win over Orton would do him a lot of good. Orton isn’t going to lose anything by being defeated as he’s been a made man for the better part of ten years now. Let Hardy get something out of it and potentially move even higher up the card. There’s money to be made with Hardy as a singles star so let’s see how far he can go.

What do you think of this match? Who do you think leaves as champion? 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 WWE Grab Bag.

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