The Royal Rumble Pre-Show Kickoff saw Andrade put his United States Championship on the line against Humberto Carrillo. Andrade came out on top and defended his title, but it seems that was not the original plan for the match.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer talked about the United States Championship match during the Royal Rumble Kickoff. Meltzer says that the original plan was for Carrilo to become the US Champion, but events kept “getting in the way”.
He was originally supposed to win it from AJ, but then things changed and they did not want to change the title early into what was planned to be a long program. Meltzer thinks that WWE assumed that the reaction to doing it at a preshow, even if it would have been the Royal Rumble, would be poor and therefore preferred to do it on TV.
Andrade also recently violated the WWE Wellness Policy, so we might see Carrillo getting the title soon.
