Santos Escobar wins United States Championship Invitational

Austin Theory needed a new challenger for his United States championship, so an Invitational was put together: two Fatal 4-Way matches, with the winners advancing to meet in a singles match to determine the next number one contender.

First, Santos Escobar defeated BUTCH, AJ Styles, and Grayson Waller. Then, Rey Mysterio took down LA Knight, Sheamus, and Cameron Grimes. That set up the two LWO members for a showdown on this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown in New Orleans.

They played it straight up, as two competitors who respect each other simply battling it out over a shared goal. Things got a bit heated during the match, as they got more and more physical and even, at one point, straight up slapping each other in the face.

Later in the match, Escobar did a dive to the outside and Mysterio appeared to hit his head hard on the floor on the outside. Doctors were shown checking on him, and they then announced that he wouldn’t be able to finish the match.

Escobar was declared the winner, and he will move on to wrestle Theory for the title. Mysterio still hugged and made good with Escobar, who took a knee and praised his LWO stablemate.

Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s show right here.