10 Great WWE United States Championship Matches You Completely Forgot About

5. Finlay Vs. William Regal - The Great American Bash 2006

Regal Finlay Great American Bash 2006
WWE.com

Here's my theory; people often wax lyrical about how the Intercontinental Championship was the title for the 'workers'. The wrestler's championship, where those who propped up the middle of the card were rewarded with gold and would defend that gold frequently in secretly barnstorming matches.

That may have been true in the early 90s, but since the brand split came into effect in WWE I'd wager that the United States Championship trumps it. It hasn't always been gravy, but looking at the list of champions from the moment Eddie Guerrero won it in 2003 to the present day gives a hugely impressive list; Chris Benoit, Finlay, Shelton Benjamin, Kofi Kingston, Cesaro, Daniel Bryan and more. These guys were total wrestlers.

As mentioned, Finlay had a short run with the title in 2006 at the expense of Bobby Lashley, and at The Great American Bash in 2006 he defended the strap against then-stablemate William Regal. The match starts with the longest collar-and-elbow tie-up in history, by my reckoning and it improves from there.

Hornswoggle, then called Little Bastard, gets involved early, but it soon breaks down into stiff shots and violent uppercuts. Finlay works on Regal's hand for a good part of the match, something that will never stop being unique. The heel vs. heel dynamic hurts it somewhat but come on, it's Regal vs. Finaly. Of course it's great.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.