Jeff Hardy Beats Jinder Mahal to Retain U.S. Title at Greatest Royal Rumble

In his first title defense since winning the United States Championship, Jeff Hardy beat Jinder Mahal on Friday at the Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to retain the title.

Hardy dropped Mahal late in the bout and took to the skies en route to hitting the former WWE and United States champion with a Swanton Bomb to pick up the victory.

WWE tweeted a GIF of Hardy using his high-flying ability to neutralize the powerful Mahal:

Friday's bout was the rematch of a meeting between Hardy and Mahal on the Superstar Shake-up edition of Raw.

The Modern Day Maharaja revealed himself as the first Superstar to make the jump from SmackDown Live to Raw, and Raw general manager Kurt Angle immediately threw him into the fire with a title match against The Charismatic Enigma.

Hardy won that match to become United States champion for the first time in his career, and the victory also made him a Grand Slam champion in WWE since he previously held the world, tag team and intercontinental titles.

One night after Hardy beat Mahal, he appeared on SmackDown Live, meaning that the United States Championship had moved back to the blue brand after just one night on Raw.

With Hardy and Mahal scheduled to meet at the Greatest Royal Rumble, however, the possibility of Mahal winning the title and bringing it back to Raw remained.

Few expected that to be the case, though, since Seth Rollins entered the event as intercontinental champion and did not move from Raw to SmackDown.

On the heels of a disappointing run as WWE champion, Mahal picked up one of the biggest wins of his career at WrestleMania 34 when he beat Randy Orton, Bobby Roode and Rusev in a Fatal 4-Way to become United States champion.

The victory made sense because of the fact that Mahal is an anti-American heel capable of generating some interest in a midcard title that has lost some shine in recent years.

A lengthy reign culminating in a beloved babyface taking the championship off Mahal could have gone a long way toward re-establishing some prestige, but the creative team went for a quick switch instead.

Hardy has a long history of putting on great matches, though, and Friday's win could be a positive for the title moving forward.

With Superstars such as Orton, Rusev, The Miz and the recently promoted Andrade "Cien" Almas populating the SmackDown Live midcard, Hardy has a chance to take the U.S. title to the next level in the near future.  

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