10 Worst WWE United States Champions Ever

9. Matt Hardy (2008)

Wwe Matt Hardy US champion
WWE

In 2008, WWE had long-since given up on the ailing ECW brand. When it was launched in 2006, the new show promised to be something truly different on the WWE landscape. As it turned out, it simply became another show akin to Sunday Night Heat, Velocity or other time-filling programming that wasn't really treated with any importance by management.

For a brief period in '08, Matt Hardy brought the United States Title to the brand. During the opening bout of the April pay-per-view, Backlash, Hardy defeated MVP to bag the belt. The following month, he wasn't even on Judgment Day, meaning the title wasn't featured either.

In late-June, Matt was drafted to ECW, mainly to give the show at least some star power. The United States Title went with him, which didn't turn out to be a positive for the belt whatsoever. The whole point of giving a wrestler any title should be because those behind the scenes think the title can either help them or they can help it. Neither happened with Hardy, and after a pretty anonymous run with the US gold, he dropped it to Shelton Benjamin at The Great American Bash. Benjamin would be a much better champion, which admittedly wasn't too difficult after Matt's run.

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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.