The US Championship has been around since 1975 and continues the lineage of Gym Crockett Promotion and World Championship Wrestling, but we intend to focus solely on that tenure. WWE. So far, since becoming the WWE US Championship in July 2003, there have been 86 rulers from greats such as Eddie Guerrero, Daniel Bryan and Jeff Hardy.
That being said, the WWE US Championships were not always treated as best, and there were many wrestlers who weren’t considered to have rulers of epic titles. Let’s take a look at the vast history of one of WWE’s mid-card championships and decide who can be considered less than a star when it comes to work in the ring.
10
Austin Theory
His time as a champion is not lovingly reflected on his
- Austin Theory won the US title twice.
- I defeated Finn Baror and Seth Rollins and captured them.
- A total of 333 days as a champion.
To get things started, let’s make it clear that the US championship had only a few wrestlers that fans thought weren’t great in the ring. Austin Theory does not immediately receive the title of “goat,” but he is far from being awful.
He looks good and can play solid enough games if needed, but he ranks a bit under many previous champions and subsequent champions. Bobby Rushley, Seth Rollins and his performances in the 2023 Elimination Chamber were the highlights of his run, but it’s hard to play a bad match against such a talented opponent.
9
Zack Rider
The peak of the rider revolution (and autumn)
- Zach Ryder once won the US title.
- Defeat Ilf Ziggler for that.
- It was kept for 29 days.
One of the best parts of WWE in 2011 was Zack Rider’s popularity and driving. December of that year gave the rider one of his biggest moments, winning the US Championship from Dolph Ziggler. Sadly, it wouldn’t last long, and the riders were back in a low central car park at best after a few months.
In the ring, the rider was OK and managed to do a decent job, but he couldn’t compare to many other US champions. What he lacked in the ring was made up of his character work, which later improved as Matt Cardona outside of WWE.
8
Lanite
Amazing character, decent wrestler
- Lanite won the US title twice.
- They defeated Logan Paul and Nakamura Niijima.
- There will be a total of 162 days as a champion.
Lanite is somewhat similar to Zack Rider in the sense that Knight is a very overkilled character and could be one of the more entertaining wrestlers in WWE now, but he’s fine in the ring. He is the perfect example of how someone can succeed in wrestling without becoming a technical wizard between the ropes.
The Knight is in a good place to hover around the US Championship. If you decide to move your brand to WWE, it’s perfect for the InterContinental Championship scene.
7
Logan Paul
WWE fans overrated poles by one ton
- Logan Paul once won the US title.
- He defeats Rey Mysterio for that.
- It was held for a total of 273 days.
While this may be controversial for some fans, it’s hard to argue that Logan Paul is a good wrestler if he only competes in a handful of matches a year. Paul is athletic and can make enough movements, but most athletic ability can play decent games if he gives him as much time to a certain match as he has.
It also shows he’s paired with great wrestlers like Seth Rollins, Ray Mysterio and AJ Style, and his match is good at best. To avoid entering the entire debate about whether he should be in WWE or how his US title rule was booked, he is given much time to practice for the match and puts him in a position to work with people of much more talent.
6
John Cena
Young Rookie was still green
- John Cena has held five US titles.
- He defeated Big Show, Booker T, and Carrito for his first three reigns.
- His first three ruled lasted 221 days.
If that last entry is uncontroversial, this would be. John Cena would be a good wrestler. His open challenges for the US Championship have produced some of the best matches in the title’s history. He was a bit green when he won it in the first three times of his career. His first US title victory came about four years after he began wrestling.
He continued to hold the title twice more in the same year, but none of these governances were special. He improved significantly around 2006/2007 and appears to have a great title reign with the US belt in the end, but these first ones were average at best.
5
Bret Heart
One of the greatest, far beyond his prime
- Bret Hart held one WWE version title.
- Defeat Miz for that.
- It only held it for a week.
Head to three or three with a controversial take and talk about the worst stints of Bret Hart’s career. Brett is one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, but when he won the US title from the Miz in 2010, he wasn’t the same Bret Hart. He hadn’t wrestled in the match in 2000, 10 years ago, and was much older and rusty.
The title victory was his second match when he returned after having one of the worst WrestleMania matches against Vince McMahon that year. His best match on this run was the Summerslam Multi-Man tag against Nexus.
4
Orlando Jordan
A semi-dicant wrestler pushed too quickly
- Orlando Jordan won one US title.
- That’s why he defeated John Cena.
- His rule lasted for 173 days.
Speaking of John Cena’s first three US title reigns, here is one of the names that beat him for that belt. Orlando Jordan, like the forgotten champion of WWE, has only been around for about five years and has managed to win one title during his tenure. He began his wrestling career in 2000 and then played only a handful of matches until 2003.
He was pushed pretty quickly and joined forces with JBL during the reign of the WWE Championship, thus becoming a prominent character very quickly. Looking back at his catalogue of WWE works, it would be hard to find an outstanding performance worth talking about.
3
Baron Corbin
It got better later in his career
- Baron Corbin once won the US title.
- Defeat the AJ style.
- He had a 70-day reign.
Baron Corbyn is still a bit green and is another example of someone who has stopped reigning the championship. He was at NXT just a year before he became the US champion, but he was still playing a somewhat poor match due to lack of experience.
He probably didn’t make this list, judging by the quality of the work he did with Bron Breakker in the NXT Tag Team category, as he won the singles title late in the WWE run. Corbin in 2017 wasn’t that great and needed a little more time before becoming an in-ring worker.
2
Jack Swagger
A little average, a little boring
- Jack Swagger had one ruler as the American champion.
- He won the title from Zack Ryder.
- His rule lasted for 49 days.
Currently, some wrestlers compete for the rest of their lives and are unable to improve dramatically. Sadly, this is the case with the next two wrestlers. I started with Jack Swagger, who was pushed very hard in the first few years on the main roster. He became ECW Champion, World Heavyweight Champion and US Champion, all of these governance are considered the worst in each of these titles.
Swagger was so experienced at the time he was winning the title that he never really reached the level of talent he needed to become a top star. WWE liked him, and that was all that needed, but to the eyes of fans it was difficult to enjoy his work.
1
Jinder Mahal
It looked good, but there wasn’t much in the ring.
- Jinder Mahal won the US title once.
- I pinned Rusev and won.
- It was kept for only 8 days.
Jinder Mahal has one of the most ridiculous WWE resumes of all time. His first title was the WWE Championship, and he won his WWE career for seven years. He then won the US title for his short reign and later won two 24/7 championships.
His tenure as a US champion is difficult to assess, as he only had two matches, but neither was a good thing. His WrestleMania 34 victory is one of the worst matches for most WrestleManias, but this has had a lot of terrible matches. The match that Jeff Hardy won the title from him on Raw was one of the most average TV matches imaginable.
