10 WWE US Title Matches You Should Try To Forget
And you think the Intercontinental Championship has been disrespected...
I recently wrote about 10 great matches for the United States Championship that you may very well have forgotten about. It made me think about some of the great performers to have held this prestigious title over the years, whether that was Daniel Bryan, Cesaro, Chris Benoit or anyone else.
The research part of it also made something abundantly clear to me, and that was that the United States Championship hasn't exactly received the best treatment since being reactivated in World Wrestling Entertainment in June 2003.
The tournament to crown a new champion featured some top tier talent, with Eddie Guerrero beating Benoit in the final for the title live on pay-per-view, but a year later John Cena, Carlito and Jesus were feuding over the strap. The match quality, so high to begin with, dropped quickly.
It isn't just the fault of the individual performers, however. The belt was treated with such disrespect by WWE that for long periods of time it wasn't even defended on PPV, and if it was it was in a throwaway five or six minute match that meant nothing. With no reason to care, matches came and went without stirring interest.
As a result, WWE PPVs have featured many a dire United States Championship match in the last 13 years. Here are 10 of the most forgettable.
10. Dean Ambrose Vs. Kane - Payback 2013
Dean Ambrose holds the record for the longest United States Championship reign since the belt was reactivated in WWE, but I'd wager that his reign was also one of the least interesting in the 13 years since the belt returned. Ambrose held the strap for 351 days, and you can count the number of memorable title defences on one hand.
His first pay-per-view defence came against none other than the Demon Kane, who was fresh off losing the tag titles to Ambrose's Shield buddies Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. Throughout the match the commentary team play the bout up as being chaotic, all over the place and frankly the work of lunatics.
In reality this was a pedestrian, plodding affair, and should have acted as the end of Kane's big time singles matches in WWE. Far from being a big time title defence on PPV, this felt more like a top of the hour SmackDown match, all the way down to the finish which saw Dean Ambrose beat Kane by count-out.
The protection of Kane in singles competition in 2013 was baffling, especially against a guy who was clearly going to break out as a singles star eventually.