 Cena successfully defended the title at The Great American Bash in a four-way elimination match against Booker, René Duprée, and Rob Van Dam.After Cena was stripped of his title by Angle for "laying a hand" on the GM, Booker took advantage of the situation and won an eight-man elimination match to win the vacant United States Championship, thus becoming the one-hundredth United States Champion in history, in a match that also featured Cena, Dupree, Billy Gunn, Charlie Haas, Luther Reigns, Kenzo Suzuki and Van Dam.Booker won by last eliminating both Cena and Van Dam in the course of less than 10 seconds After Angle was fired by Mr. McMahon for embellishing his injuries, Theodore Long began his first tenure as SmackDown!