Zack Ryder Vs Rusev For WWE US Title At Battleground
Could Ryder's time have finally arrived?
Following the events of Monday's episode of Raw, WWE.com has announced that Zack Ryder will challenge Rusev for the United States Championship at Battleground.
"Long Island Iced Z" has had a recent run of good luck. On the July 4 edition of Raw, Ryder pinned Sheamus in order to give Team U.S.A. a victory over an eight-man international squad. Off the back of that win, he challenged U.S. Champion Rusev to a title match on the July 11 Raw, which "The Bulgarian Brute" accepted.
The match never got underway. A vengeance-seeking Sheamus ended up attacking Ryder backstage, hurting his arm. That changed the scheduled bout to Ryder versus Sheamus, and while a fired-up Ryder was able to take the fight to the former WWE Champion, Sheamus ended up pinning him with a Brogue Kick. After that, Rusev came out and applied the Accolade to his would-be challenger.
Ryder already has one run as United States Champion to his credit. In late 2011, Ryder - while riding a wave of fan support - earned a shot at then-champ Dolph Ziggler, defeating him at the TLC Pay-Per-View. Sadly, his reign would come to an end at the hands of Jack Swagger less than a month later.