Best Theories: Why Jeff Hardy Won The U.S. Title From Jinder Mahal

Monday night was a series of shocking moves over and over. Throughout the three-hour broadcast, WWE brought in new name after new name and by the time all was said and done, over 20 wrestlers were labeled as moving to a different show. Nineteen of them were announced for Raw and one (The Miz) announced for SmackDown Live.

No moves were quite as shocking as the first move of the night. Jinder Mahal and his U.S. Championship were acquired by Raw and within minutes, he'd lost his title to Jeff Hardy who became the new United States Champion to open the show.

In an effort to understand why WWE went with this move, we're looking at the Best Theories: Why Jeff Hardy Won The U.S. Title From Mahal.

Kickoff Superstar Shake-up With a Bang

Our first guess here is that this has as much to do with Jeff Hardy as it does WWE wanting to kick off the Superstar Shake-up with something newsworthy. It could have been one of many choices here and Hardy made as much sense as anyone.

WWE wanted fans to know this could be a night of surprises. By starting the show with a title moving over and then having that title change hands, fans knew they could be in for anything and it wouldn't be wise to change the channel.

Mahal Was Not The Man

When Mahal won the title at WrestleMania 34, there were a lot of unhappy fans. WWE could have made an argument that he is a worthy champion and that holding the U.S. Title was a natural idea for an "international" wrestler as hated as he is. The problem is, he's hated by the fans because they haven't bought into him, not because he's a bad character.

His title reign could have been deemed as short-term and perhaps Vince and company knew they were going to bring him to Raw where he would lose the title right away. If they were always going to take the belt off Mahal, it was simply a matter of deciding who to give it to. Since Mahal was almost immediately moved into a program with No Way Jose after the match, it looks like he won't be in the U.S. Title picture.

Jeff Hardy Needed A Boost

WWE may want to make Jeff Hardy a legitimate singles guy again. After runs with the World Title and other championships in previous stints with WWE, he hasn't really been taken seriously upon his return and with Matt Hardy now fully engrossed in his "Broken" storyline and teaming with Bray Wyatt, Jeff was the odd man out.

WWE may have figured this was the wrong time to create the Brother Nero persona and in the meantime, wanted fans to see him as a real threat in the singles division. Giving him a title upon his first attempt to get one proves he's still a worthy competitor. He'll now move on to face other challenges.

Hardy Is The First And Only...

One of the recurring themes this year in WWE is going to be the idea of crowning GrandSlam Champions. WWE just loves to label their guys with these kinds of titles. In this particular case, Hardy is the only WWE performer to ever hold the WWE, World Heavyweight, Intercontinental, United States, World Tag Team, RAW Tag Team, European, Hardcore and Light Heavyweight championships in his career.

That's a huge accomplishment and Hardy does deserve the accolades. This is a guy who was a wrestling fan as a kid and helped contributed to wrestling long before he was ever made into a star on WWE programming.

Hardy Moving to SmackDown Live?

The longshot here is that U.S. Title will be headed back to SmackDown Live, only not around the waist of the champion who left with it. Everyone is assuming Seth Rollins will go to the blue brand with the Intercontinental Title. What if WWE threw a curveball?

If the objective was to get Mahal to Raw and not the U.S. Title, it could be written that SmackDown Live already had Jeff Hardy in their sites before he won the belt. His winning was just icing on the cake of an astute acquisition.