10 Worst WWE United States Champions Ever

9. Zack Ryder (2011)

Zack Ryder Us Champion Fans
WWE.com

Only a fool would claim that 'Long Island Iced-Z' Zack Ryder wasn't over in 2011. Back then, he who likes to sing to the radio was name dropped by everyone from John Cena to The Rock. Get this: they did it so they'd look cool. That's how much fans were digging Ryder at the time.

WWE refused to play ball at first, and they blatantly didn't view Zack as anything more than a background figure.

At TLC 2011, they relented somewhat and put Ryder over Dolph Ziggler for the US gold. It was a quite stunning beginning to the pay-per-view, had fans pumping their fists with a hearty, "Woo! Woo! Woo!" over and over again and seemed to be the start of something special for Zack.

It wasn't though. 29 days later on the 16 January 2012 episode of Raw, Ryder was staring at the arena lights for Jack Swagger. Rather conveniently, he's the next entry.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.