Mojo Rawley Is Best Choice to Win WWE United States Championship Tournament

It's rare that a crown fits a king as well as the WWE United States Championship would fit Mojo Rawley. 

The seething SmackDown star has caught fire since turning heel last November. He's a fresh face on the midcard title scene, a powerhouse tapping into his potential. A victory in the U.S. title tournament would capitalize on all that. 

That possibility is closer to becoming a reality. Rawley is now just two wins away from his first title reign in WWE. 

The former Hype Bros member spanked his old tag team partner Zack Ryder on Tuesday's SmackDown in their first-round matchup.

Rawley did not look like the second coming of Shawn Michaels here, but he brimmed with energy. He trash-talked Ryder while he slapped him around. He continued his rise up the blue brand ranks by showing off an increasingly interesting character.

After the bell, he and Bobby Roode stared each other down. These men will next face off with a spot in the tournament finals at stake.

Credit: WWE.com

None of the Superstars left in the single-elimination event is a better candidate for becoming the next U.S. champ than Rawley. Not Roode. Not Xavier Woods. Not Jinder Mahal.

Roode's act isn't clicking as well as Rawley's right now. He's treading water as a babyface. He's a guy with a fun entrance and dependable ring skills, but nothing to sink one's teeth into. 

Woods is mighty fun, an energetic loudmouth with springs in his legs. But he doesn't need to wear gold right now. He and The New Day have been tag team champs off and on for much of the past three years. 

And we've already seen Mahal as a titleholder recently. It wasn't exactly pretty, either. 

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful commented on how much better Rawley has been than Mahal of late:

There's no comparison verbally between the two. Mahal delivers stock, paint-by-numbers promos. He's average on the mic at best. 

Rawley, on the other hand, has been the biggest surprise of 2018 so far thanks to his transformation into a heel. He's suddenly been more magnetic, leaping into his new persona with gusto.

His series of home-run interviews have been one of the early highlights for WWE this year. The former football player has taken to dismantling Ryder's soul via harsh words on self-produced videos. In these, Rawley is a believable villain whose anger is hard to look away from.

Cultaholic's Adam Pacitti was among those saluting Rawley for his recent work:

That's the kind of performance Rawley can deliver en route to and after winning the U.S. title.

Being champ would prove him right. He's been griping that Ryder held him back, that he didn't have enough killer instinct for the two to ever capture gold. And feeding an egotist a reason to gloat generally makes for good TV.

WWE should recognize the amount of momentum Rawley has created for himself and pounce. It should let him go the distance with Roode in a match that tests him before wiping out Woods in a dominant performance in the final. It should give Rawley the U.S. title and stand back to see what he does with it.

Any other option would underwhelm in comparison. 

Rawley is a stack of dynamite. It's time to light the fuse.