The United States Title is a very prestigious title, first held by Harley Race in 1975, and has been held by some of the most decorated superstars in professional wrestling. So why does it feel like it doesn’t matter anymore?
Over the past 10 years the longest reigning champions have been Cesaro (239 days), Shelton Benjamin (240 days) and of course Dean Ambrose (351 days).
Now I’m all for lengthy title reigns, but the problem with the Ambrose reign was that he never defended it. He carried the title around like a prop during his Shield days and it was very easy to forget the title was even active, which wasted it.
Since that awful Ambrose reign, it’s been passed around the likes of John Cena, Alberto Del Rio, Rusev and Sheamus. My argument is that the U.S title shouldn’t be for those guys, it should be turned into a midcard title for cruiserweights that are unlikely to reach the Intercontinental Title or WWE World Heavyweight Title stage.
I think the title has worked wonders for Kalisto, the current holder, who was somewhat unimportant to the WWE Universe before he dethroned Alberto Del Rio.
Fast forward 4 months and his popularity has risen and he’s been allowed to gain a lot of exposure, albeit at the expense of the Lucha Dragons tag team (poor Sin Cara).
I don’t think WWE show as much respect to the United States title as they should do either. I feel that having any title match on the pre show of a PPV is a ridiculous decision, and this seems to be an all too familiar stage for the U.S title match to be decided. It should be one of the highlights of the show, yet it doesn’t even get the full pay per view coverage it deserves.
Fans should be able to see it on the main show, not just see clips of it with a dull Michael Cole summary over the top.
The reason for there being so many jobbers on the WWE roster at the moment is because there is no title for them, which means there are no programmes to be put in.
The talent is there, but the end product isn’t.
Imagine a United States Title picture with the likes of Kalisto, Tyler Breeze, Bo Dallas, Stardust, Neville, Sin Cara, and even to an extent, people like Darren Young.
It’d have shades of what used to be the Cruiserweight Title, which was the ground for creating stars such as Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero, all of which went on to hold World titles.
It has created a platform for superstars such as Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and mostly famously The Miz. Having impressed so much during his United States Title reign, WWE awarded The Miz with victory in the Money In The Bank ladder match, which he would then go on to cash in and become one of the most unexpected WWE Champions in history.
It would be a fantastic opportunity for those wrestlers that creative don’t have enough faith in to hold the Intercontinental title, but still see potential in them. Once they’re United States Champion, they have a chance to prove they have the ability to be at a higher level, make themselves a star and prove people wrong.
Kalisto has been excellent in his role, facing a number of different opposition such as Del Rio, Ryback and now Rusev. I feel Kalisto would benefit from matches against fellow cruiserweights such as Tyler Breeze, and there’s no doubt Breeze himself would be able to give his career the jump start it desperately needs.
The same applies to Stardust, who’s never really been given an opportunity to be a part of anything meaningful since he took on the dedicated new gimmick.
Why not give these talents the ball and let them run with it?
What do YOU think of the United States title?
Is it worthless? Who would be a good champion?
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