Santos Escobar Is The New Number One Contender For The United States Championship

Santos Escobar is Austin Theory’s next challenger. On last night’s episode of SmackDown, Latino World Order members Escobar and Rey Mysterio met in the finals of a mini tournament to determine the new number one contender for the United States Championship, and Escobar emerged victorious. 

His win came under peculiar circumstances though. Escobar hit a suicide dive onto Mysterio on the outside, though Mysterio’s head seemingly bounced off the ground as he fell, leading the match to get called off after medical staff assessed Mysterio within a commercial break. The legend and leader of the LWO was well enough to congratulate Escobar on his victory afterwards though, giving him some love and momentum ahead of his upcoming title match. 

The United States Championship match between Theory and Escobar is set to take place in two weeks time on the August 11 edition of SmackDown on the post-SummerSlam edition of the blue brand. Theory has been champion since all the way back in November of 2022 when he won the belt at Survivor Series, with his reign now surpassing 245 days.