Why was US Championship match removed from WWE Royal Rumble?

Bengaluru, January 26: There's no doubt that the Royal Rumble PPV will be one hell of an event with the card fully stacked. There will be not one but two 30 athletes battle royal from both the male and female division.

This will be for the first-time that a women's Royal Rumble match will take place with winner receiving a championship shot at Wrestlemania.

Apart from these two, a number of championship matches were also confirmed for the PPV. The prime championships from both Raw and Smackdown, and the tag team titles will be on the line this Sunday. Additionally, the United States Championship match was supposed to take place but was scrapped at the very last moment.

As announced earlier, the general manager of Smackdown Live, Daniel Bryan confirmed a tournament so that we get a new US champion after Dolph Ziggler vacated it in December. Once the semi-finals was over, the finale was scheduled to take place at the Royal Rumble event.

However, it was preponed suddenly on last week's episode of Smackdown Live. Not only the two semi-finals were conducted but also the final match happened where Bobby Roode was crowned the United States champion.

A recent report from cagesideseats.com revealed the reason the match was rushed two weeks earlier than the original schedule.

According to the source, timing was the main reason behind this decision made by the officials. With two Royal Rumble matches happening on the night, it was going to be a time-consuming affair. Plus, two prime championship matches from both the brands needed to get the spotlight, as well.

Till date, there are four championship matches confirmed for the first dual-brand PPV of the year which might exceed the announced 4-hour time span on the WWE Network.

Check out the title match card from the PPV,

Triple Threat for the WWE Universal Title

Kane vs. Braun Strowman vs. Brock Lesnar

2-on-1 Handicap Match for the WWE Title

Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles

RAW Tag Team Title Match

Sheamus and Cesaro vs. Seth Rollins and Jason Jordan

2 of 3 Falls for the SmackDown Tag Team Titles

Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin vs. The Usos

Another potential reason for preponing the match was that the other mid-card title from WWE Raw will also not be defended at Royal Rumble. The match for the Intercontinental Championship was rather scheduled for the 25th anniversary of the show where the Miz was crowned the new champion.