Bobby Lashley, Santos Escobar advance in WWE US title contender’s tournament

Santos Escobar and Bobby Lashley have advanced in the WWE United States title tournament.

Escobar defeated Dragon Lee in the first match on Friday’s SmackDown, cutting off Lee and pinning him with the phantom driver. Later in the show, Bobby Lashley defeated Karrion Kross with a spear. According to the brackets released on Friday’s SmackDown, they will meet each other in the semifinals.

The other side of the bracket has Grayson Waller facing an unnamed NXT star and Austin Theory facing off against Kevin Owens.

Logan Paul announced the tournament to set his next contender for the United States title on last week’s SmackDown. Kevin Owens came out in response and the two had a confrontation, with Paul telling Owens that he’s faced the best boxer in the world, and six seconds is more than he needs to KO Kevin Owens.

During his match against Waller that went down immediately after the confrontation, Kevin Owens broke his hand in storyline. Announcers on SmackDown Friday continued to pushed Owens’ injury.