10 Worst WWE United States Champions Ever

10. Santino Marella (2012)

Santino US
WWE

Santino Marella deserves some credit, because he's one of the only men to make comedy work properly in the modern era. It's been said that laughs have no place at the top of the card, which is exactly why Marella occupied the mid card region for most of his career. By 2012, fans had grown to adore his comedic timing and legendary mispronunciations of other star's names.

As a mid level comedy act, Santino was golden. As anything else, he just didn't really work.

In 2008, his Intercontinental Title reign had been entertaining, but the same cannot be claimed of his tenure as WWE United States Champ in 2012. On a non-descript episode of Monday Night Raw in March of that year, Marella defeated Jack Swagger to win the gold. Fans expecting a reprise of his comedy promo work and general fun factor from 2008 would end up disappointed. The US Title reign lasted 167 days, but it was far from memorable. That's a problem with many reigns featured on this list; there was nothing to really distinguish them from others. Marella would suffer from that fate, and he dropped the belt to Cesaro during the pre-show at SummerSlam.

Contributor

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.