WWE announced earlier today that Damian Priest would open this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw with an open challenger for his United States championship. Instead of actually wrestling in that opening segment, we got pretty much all the champions on the brand, at least on the men’s side, jockeying for position.
We ended up with a match booked for later — Priest vs. Sheamus vs. Drew McIntyre.
We have ourselves an all-out FIGHT for the #USTitle.
— WWE (@WWE) August 31, 2021
Who is leaving as champion: @ArcherOfInfamy @WWESheamus or @DMcIntyreWWE?! #WWERaw pic.twitter.com/aCOjVOogtV
The ensuing match was a great deal of fun, considering all three work fairly physical styles and were just fine with throwing themselves at each other. This was an absolute slugfest, with plenty of near falls broken up by the third man eager to ensure they were the man walking out with the title. Even when that wasn’t the case, we were getting close calls with big spots that surely looked like the end, only to get two-and-a-half from the referee.
In the end, McIntyre hit Sheamus with a Claymore to send him out of the ring, giving Priest time to hit The Reckoning to score the three count.
This was very good.
After, McIntyre begrudgingly extended his hand to Priest in a show of respect for the champion who had just retained his title in a hard fought match. Perhaps this is just the first of many battles between the two.
Get complete Raw results and coverage of this week’s show right here.