Kevin Owens Beats Chris Jericho to Regain WWE United States Title on SmackDown

Just two days after dropping the United States Championship to Chris Jericho at Payback, Kevin Owens regained it by defeating Jericho on Tuesday's episode of SmackDown Live.

WWE captured an image of the pin after an Owens pop-up powerbomb:

After the match ended, Owens continued his assault of Jericho, who ended up needing to be helped off, per WWE:

Bleacher Report's Kevin Berge had mixed feelings about the title-flipping decision, while B/R's Ryan Dilbert thought it was a great way to wrap up the feud:

Jericho and Owens met Sunday at Payback in what was Y2J's automatic U.S. title rematch after dropping it to KO at WrestleMania.

Owens was viewed as a significant favorite at Payback with Jericho set to go on tour with his band Fozzy soon, but Jericho pulled off the upset by forcing his former best friend to tap out to the Walls of Jericho.

After the loss, Owens took to Twitter to complain and accuse Jericho of cheating:

"

What happened last night is disgusting and unfair. Jericho let his inner U.S. citizen side take over and cheated to steal my title. @WWE

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 1, 2017"

The feud between Jericho and Owens has been months in the making, as they went from being partners in crime to hated rivals.

Despite Jericho helping him retain the Universal Championship on numerous occasions, Owens turned on him a few months ago during the Festival of Friendship.

That prompted Jericho to seek revenge in the form of distracting the Prizefighter during his title match against Goldberg. Owens dropped the Universal Championship to Goldberg before going on to face Jericho at WrestleMania with the U.S. title on the line.

While Jericho seemed well on his way to winning on The Grandest Stage of Them All, Owens broke up a pinfall by placing his finger on the ropes and went on to prevail in one of the biggest matches of his career.

The Superstar Shake-up resulted in Owens moving from Raw to SmackDown, but his program with Jericho was kept alive based on the fact that Y2J was due a rematch.

Jericho was successful in that rematch, which resulted in Jericho being moved from Raw to SmackDown as well since the blue brand had gained ownership of the U.S. title.

Owens was already scheduled to defend the United States Championship against AJ Styles at Backlash, but Jericho's victory threw a potential wrench into the works.

KO was given an opportunity to preserve that match against Styles with a win over Jericho on SmackDown, and he managed to make good on his second chance.

By virtue of Tuesday's result, Jericho seems likely to leave and fulfill his Fozzy commitments soon, while Owens and Styles will engage in what figures to be SmackDown Live's premier feud.

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