10 Worst WWE United States Champions Ever
10. Orlando Jordan (2005)
Think of this as a throwback to a time when WWE really didn't have a star-making blueprint.
To that point, Orlando Jordan supplanted John Cena as United States Champ in early-March 2005. That's the same Cena who had held the belt for the majority of '04 with distinction and wasn't yet a maligned force in the eyes of fans. No, he was a popular babyface who (in some respects) looked like the next coming of Steve Austin.
Then, along came Orlando, a guy who never seemed to fully grasp what it meant to be a wrestler. In fact, he played wrestler rather than actually being one, and it came across to the fans. Thus, his 170+ day reign as US Champ came and went without much excitement. By the time Chris Benoit beat him at SummerSlam, there was a sigh of relief.
Jordan is only guilty of doing his best, to be fair. Unfortunately for him and WWE, his best wasn't quite up to scratch, and he was a poor successor to the likes of Cena and Booker.