10 Things WWE Got Horribly Wrong In 2016

4. The United States Championship

Rusev Titus O'Neil Kids
WWE.com

2015 was a true banner year for the US Championship, something that not many expected when it became clear John Cena was going to be winning the belt. Cena defended it week after week in a series of matches that soon became the highlight of Raw, and his pride in being champion elevated the title to heights not seen in a long time.

2016 saw all of that work undone, as the title returned to a position of irrelevancy. Alberto Del Rio and Kalisto traded it early in the year, before Kalisto settled into an underwhelming reign that ended at the hands of Rusev in May, in what could easily be interpreted as a hard reset for Rusev and the belt.

Rusev defended it against a variety of non-challengers in the shape of Titus O’Neil and Zack Ryder, before losing it to Roman Reigns in a hugely one-sided feud. The belt has since become a part of Reigns’ attire, a glorified prop. Some say that Reigns challenging for the Universal Championship whilst carrying the US belt elevates it, something that would be true if anyone other than Reigns was holding it.

2015 was great for the US Championship but poor for the Intercontinental equivalent, with the roles reversed in 2016. Is WWE only capable of booking one strong secondary title per year?

Advertisement
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.