10 Worst WWE United States Champions Ever
5. Matt Hardy (2008)
Sorry, hardcore fans, but the once-proud ECW name was mud by 2008. WWE had relegated Paul Heyman's vision to a watered-down version of Sunday Night Heat that blended a bizarre mix of stalwarts like Mark Henry and Matt Hardy with up-and-comers like Sheamus, Evan Bourne and more.
Somehow, someone thought it'd be a smashing idea to put the United States Title in the middle of all this.
Matt won the belt from former partner MVP at Backlash in April, and things initially looked good. Hardy's win got a nice response from fans in Baltimore, and it was a cool way to give him some revenge for Porter's treachery. Then, they moved Hardy to 'C' show ECW and sent the US Title along for the ride with him.
WWE corrected their mistake by putting SmackDown star Shelton Benjamin over Hardy at the Great American Bash. Think about all that for a second: a title with NWA/WCW lineage was promoted as an ECW championship on a WWE pay-per-view once promoted by the NWA and WCW.