As was seen on this week's edition of WWE SmackDown Live, the finals of the U.S. Championship Tournament took place on SmackDown instead of Royal Rumble, and Bobby Roode defeated former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal in the finals to become the new WWE United States Champion.

Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter notes that this was probably done to due timing issues for the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Between the Men and Women's Royal Rumble Matches, those will likely take up about half of the four-hour show.

Meltzer also noted that an injury might have contributed to the change in plans as well, though he didn't say who exactly it was that may have been injured.