Rey Mysterio Advances In United States Title Contender's Tournament On WWE SmackDown

It's going to be a battle of Latino World Order members next Friday on "WWE SmackDown" in the final of the United States Championship Invitational, as Rey Mysterio defeated LA Knight, Cameron Grimes, and Sheamus in the tournament semifinal. He will face fellow LWO member Santos Escober to earn a shot at Austin Theory's title.

The fatal four-way match kicked off Friday's episode of "SmackDown" with a slew of signs in the crowd supporting Knight and Theory at ringside (but not on commentary). All competitors seemed evenly matched at the beginning of the bout. Sheamus hit an impressive suplex-like turnbuckle spot mid-match, taking all men out before the show went to commercial. After Mysterio had broke up multiple pin attempts by Knight on Sheamus, the Hall of Famer got both Sheamus and Grimes on the bottom rope to hit them with a double 619. Mysterio then hit Grimes with a splash from the top rope and attempted a pin, but Theory got up from his spot by the announce table to pull Mysterio out of the ring.

After Escobar came down the ramp to attack Theory, taking the fight into the crowd, Sheamus hit a big Brogue Kick on Grimes, which was followed by a flurry of offense from all competitors before Mysterio was able to get the 3-count on Knight for the victory. Escobar returned to the ring to raise Mysterio's hand and even went on to defeat Theory in a non-title match later in the evening.