Every United States Champion Ranked From WORST To BEST (WWE/WCW/NWA)

[Music] of all the active titles in wwe today you could say that none has a more interesting history than the united states championship the lineage of the title weaves its way through the nwa wcw and eventually wwe featuring some of the most legendary names in the history of north american wrestling and some not so legendary names as well you'll be relieved to hear that the us title was not born in a fictional tournament in rio de janeiro but an actual real life tournament in tallahassee florida its beginnings were relatively humble ones being one of just several us titles under the nwa banner but it's this one that lives on today like the one surviving soldier of a depressing war epic the longest surviving and most prestigious of all the u.s titles began life in 1975. it was then known as the nwa united states heavyweight championship and was based in the mid-atlantic territory ran by jim crockett as the supposed title of the entire united states it would soon go on to eclipse the mid-atlantic heavyweight championship as the top title in the promotion which does make sense in fairness the national championship should obviously be bigger than the regional one no offence to the carolinas or virginia or whatever else is in the mid-atlantic territory the lost city of atlantis as mentioned it was only one of many u.s titles around the various territories of the nwa as the years went on however all the other territories recognizing their own u.s champions faded away leaving it the nwa's undisputed us title in 1981. it remained the top title in mid-atlantic until 1986 when crockett gained control of the nwa world's heavyweight championship that's when the u.s title became a second tier prize the position we traditionally know it as these days when ted turner bought jim crockett promotions and turned it into wcw the title was renamed the wcw united states heavyweight championship then in 2001 when pesky old vince bought out wcw the title was sadly deactivated at the end of the invasion angle this could well have been the end of the line for one of wrestling's most historic titles fortunately though it was brought back in 2003 and remains a part of wwe's landscape to this day now that the history lesson's out the way it's time to take a look at the many wrestlers that have held the united states championship since its creation over 45 years ago we've seen great champions rubbish champions and everything in between so now it's time to rank them all i'm adam pachetti from cultaholic.com and this is every us champion ranked from worst to best join us number 97 david flair sorry david but you were just awarded the belt by your dad weren't you yes when ric flair was on-screen wcw president in 1999 he stripped the title from scott steiner and simply gave it to his son we all love a wacky authority figure but when they start breaking the rules and doing whatever they want all the time that's when wrestling stops being fun really shane david actually retained the belt successfully on pay-per-view against dean bloody malenco no less we should mention however that he was helped out a lot by interference from the nature boy and arn anderson in other words his dad and his dad's mate helped him out a few weeks after winning the title dave lost it to chris benoir on nitro in perhaps the least inspiring of squash matches so what was the point of any of this oh right vince russo was in charge that makes a lot of sense you might be wondering if he was always making such silly booking decisions why didn't russo just award himself the belt that would have been a step too far even for him he only booked himself to win the world title naturally number 96 one man gang yes that's right the mid-card staple of wwe's golden age and almost winner of the 1988 royal rumble has a u.s title reign to his name in wcw no less in 1995 one man gang won the title from new japan star kenski sasaki in strange circumstances remember when big show challenged drew mcintyre supposedly right after wrestlemania had gone off the air that's sort of what happened here except wrestlemania was stark 895 drew was sasaki and big show was our boy the one man gang after the main event of flair vs savage one man gang pins sasaki for the us title in a tapes dark segment the only problem sasaki kicked out the match was restarted and the new japan import got his wing back but the title was never awarded back to him great job one man gang we think one man gang's defenses were less than spectacular it's fair to say he faced the likes of super giant ninja and disco inferno before being pinned by conan after falling over in the middle of his own power slam attempt still better than david flair though so every cloud hey number 95 edge edge is great and we love him and his rumble return was incredible and so on but he almost wrecked this entire list when he held the us title in 2001 and for that we can never forgive you adam edge won the belt from kurt angle on an episode of raw and got a big pop for doing so largely because angle had defected over to the alliance so far so good but just six days later edge took the belt into survivor series for a unification match against intercontinental champion test you know the rest edge won the match wwf won the war and the us title was no more luckily it was reactivated a couple of years later but for a while it looked as though we'd seen an end to one of the best and most prestigious ranking videos on this channel think of all that ad revenue number 94 jinder mahal jinder doesn't care that he's low on this list let's face it he's already a former wwe champion and a member of the greatest stable in wwe history the three-man band so it's probably fair to say that not even jinder cared about winning the u.s title at wrestlemania 34 but win it he did pinning rusev the guy who everyone actually wanted to win and we mean everyone apart from vince mcmahon obviously a week later jinder was drafted to raw beaten by jeff hardy that same night and the belt was whisked back to smackdown thanks for coming gender number 93 rey mysterio it may be a surprise to hear that the legendary rey mysterio won the u.s title very recently in his career despite being around the belt in his wcw days and a lot of the 2000s as well and not only that but he probably shouldn't have won it at all rey took the belt from samoa joe at money in the bank 2019 despite joe shoulder being very clearly off the canvas it was one of many weird moments on the night including shane mcmahon beating the miz by being too sweaty and slipping out of his shirt and brock lesnar winning money in the bank despite not actually being in the match but back to rey who unfortunately got injured and surrendered the title straight back to samoa joe that's just not how it works is it those aren't the rules a few months later rey won a fatal four-way match on raw to get an instant shot at champion aj styles and not just that but rey beat him to become a two-time holder of the belt with more than a little help from a certain viper sadly rey's misfortune with the belt continued as he lost it to andrade at a madison square garden house show so in summary he won even though joe's shoulder was up lost it due to injury won it back thanks to a huge assist from randy orton and lost it off tv yikes number 92 chris canyon canyon should honestly have been treated better by wwe although you could say that for almost every member of the alliance around this time but still he was a charismatic performer and at least find himself in the lineage of u.s champions canyon was gifted the belt by boogaty during the invasion angle because he already held the world title so why would he want the smelly mid-card one as well although not the strongest title holder canyon did become a double champ after winning tag gold alongside ddp before being absolutely destroyed by kanan undertaker in a cage at summerslam but hey it still counts unfortunately canyon lost the us title shortly afterwards as well dropping it to tajiri on raw but hey at least we've all got his big defense against scotty too hottie on heat to look fondly back on and speaking of the japanese buzzsaw number 91 tajiri so we already know that tajiri won the title by beating chris canyon on raw but we also have to mention that he did so thanks to the help of tory wilson at ringside the very unique help it has to be said tori went to hit canyon with the belt but hit to jiri by accident and he kicked out at two we forgot to jiri was being booked like drew mcintyre back in 2001 canyon then tried a heelish rope assisted pin and tori pointed out that his feet were on the ropes before they even were incredible foresight what a manager a quick green mist and a buzzsaw kick later and tajiri was champion before losing to rhino a couple of weeks later at unforgiven number 90 raven many of you may have clicked on this video expecting raven to be bottom of the pile but honestly he had about as good a one-day reign as you can get raven won the belt from ddp at spring stampede in a ravens rules match he did so with lots of help from the flock which included van hammer billy kidman and most importantly of all the yeti sorry no by this stage he was called reese just reese it was a frustrating match for fans of ddp but an entertaining one nonetheless and raven would get his comeuppance just one night later on nitro raven lost the belt to goldberg who decimated not only his opponent but the entire flock as well at one point raven tried to escape through the crowd and was thrown back by plants that's the sort of thing you want to see in pro wrestling so despite raven only enjoying a one day reign we can't bring ourselves to put him at the bottom of our list number 89 shane douglas shane douglas took part in one of the most influential title changes of the 90s throwing down the nwa world's heavyweight championship and helping to establish extreme championship wrestling fast forward six or seven years and douglas was now u.s champion winning the belt at wcw sin pay-per-view in 2001. would this be just as influential and shocking a rain i think you already know the answer douglas won a first blood chain match against general rex what a stipulation he cheated to win waiting until the referee was down and then using a different chain from inside of his boots of all the screwy latter-day wcw finishes this may be the most typical of all douglas's reign only lasted a few weeks before losing to rick steiner on nitro and i for one cannot believe that rick kicked out of the franchisor a finisher which looked like a slightly enthusiastic kneeling hug number 88 jack swagger the all-american american won the u.s title after beating zack ryder on a 2012 episode of raw admittedly it was a pretty easy task after ryder had been viciously attacked by kane what a fantastic time that was in the career of long island's finest swagger successfully defended the title against justin gabriel at elimination chamber it was a last minute match set up in a backstage segment on the night which featured natalya farting hornswoggle filling himself full of cheese and teddy long doing what he does best booking impromptu matches all of this hopefully illustrates why swagger features pretty low down in our ranking but you could argue that he was robbed in his loss of the title he dropped the goal to santino marella despite making him tap out earlier in the match the referee didn't see the submission but we can't really blame him because there was an almighty commotion going on outside the ring featuring let's count them teddy long john laurenitis vickie guerrero oxana kofi kingston dolph ziggler and david otunga a quick reminder this was in 2012 not the dying days of wcw but we would forgive you for thinking that number 87 zack ryder we really wish we could have placed ryder higher on this list because his title win was a great one the underdog beat dolph ziggler at tlc 2011 a big happy babyface victory and a win that secured his place in us title history and also in that backstage photo it was the culmination of a hugely successful year for ryder but 2012 saw his dream become a nightmare very quickly he seemed to be constantly getting beaten up by kane who was feuding with ryder's sudden best friend john cena could wwe have paired them because zach was organically popular and they wanted some of that cool factor to rub off on jon not a chance probably yes but if that is indeed why wwe threw cena and ryder together they went about achieving it in a very weird way a rib injury at the hands of kane led to zach helplessly dropping the belt to jack swagger before long cena was stealing his girlfriend right in front of him and he was getting pushed off the stage in a wheelchair still the win over ziegler was good right guys we gave you what you wanted yeah number 86 scott hall on paper scott hall is the most accomplished u.s champion in this video so far with two reigns and a total of 66 days as champ that doesn't sound too bad but let's take a look at what actually happened he beat roddy piper for the title at super brawl 9 and despite hot rod being way past his prime hall needed help from kevin nash disco inferno and a dirty rope-assisted pinfall he then vacated the belt a couple of weeks later due to injury so not a great start but hall's second reign is where the silliness really began he got the title back later the same year winning a four-way ladder match on nitro against bret hart goldberg and sid the hitman should have actually won but hall was helped out by you guessed it special guest referee kevin nash he didn't even fully climb the ladder to retrieve the belt kev simply held it aloft as scott crawled up a couple of rungs to grab it the click is so cool and funny aren't they hall then became a double champion at mayhem 99 where he was awarded the tv title because his opponent rick steiner was injured that is quite a dubious decision but it was only the beginning of a period of questionable treatment towards the tv championship hall would later throw it in the trash where it was found by jim duggan who became the last ever tv champion a horrendous end for a once respected title so let's look at it as a cautionary tale who knows what would have happened to the us belt had hall kept it much longer unfortunately for him he was injured and stripped of it prior to starcade where it was awarded to his intended opponent chris benoir why did they keep doing that what a weird rule number 85 sid vicious there's not much to say about sid's time as u.s champion it wasn't so much a catastrophic period as a depressing one with sid little more than a needless transitional champ he beats a young popular chris memoir with ease at 4 brawl 99 picked up a few quick wins on tv and got absolutely mauled by goldberg at halloween havoc a month later that's pretty much the story of sid's only reign a very frustrating one because benoit was seen as a great choice for us champion at the time then again it was 1999 so let's change those champions every few weeks guys come on number 84 our truth okay so you know how our truth is john cena's biggest fan it's quite weird isn't it although in the context of our truth doing weird things it probably ranks quite low anyway rewind a bit and part of ron's tribute act was mimicking cena's u.s open challenge once he'd rolled up new japan legend shinsuke nakamura for the title to make matters worse truth was then immediately challenged by fan favorite rusev and beat him as well after a short burst of open challenge buffoonery truth did lose the title in a four-way match a few weeks later bringing an end to a very silly second reign oh yeah we forgot to mention he'd already won the title once before back in 2010 truth was a brief transitional champion between bret hart and the miz and no we've not made that up we'll explain later anyway both reigns were certainly unique and served as great examples of wwe's hilarious comedy booking in the modern era well they do if you enjoy fun which we absolutely do not number 83 general erection first of all no giggling at the back it was a rubbish ring name and we're really annoyed that there's genuinely a u.s champion named after willie's so anyway general wretch i can do this build a mop beat lance storm and jim duggan at halloween havoc 2000 winning the title and freeing major guns from the clutches of team canada he lost it back to lance in london but beat him again at mayhem 2000 despite attempted interference from major guns who surprise was evil all along and by evil we mean a canadian sympathizer wrecks demarc retained the title against shane douglas at starrcade thanks to some classic lying cheating and stealing from stablemate charvoka sorry lieutenant loco finally he lost the belt to douglas in a rematch and we never have to talk about the misfits in action ever again few number 82 big van vader vader is great and ranked highly in our wcw world title list but as us champion it was a different story he beat jim duggan at stark 894 and from that moment on was clearly above the title and wcw never even pretended otherwise there were only a handful of televised matches in his near three-month reign the win over duggan being one of them as well as defenses against casey thompson and the patriots tricky challenges to overcome there we're sure you'll agree but why was there such little action in the u.s title scene around this time well vader was busy feuding with wcw champion hulk hogan and despite failing to take the title from him was clearly more at home in the main event picture after all he'd already been wcw champion several times by this stage he was eventually stripped of the us title for attacking dave sullivan a hugely redundant gimmick even by the standards of the time you see he was a massive hulk hogan fan but get this also the kafei brother of kevin sullivan hilarious number 81 jeff hardy we've already mentioned how jeff hardy won the u.s title beating jinder mahal on the maharaja's first night on raw jeff was then immediately traded to smackdown but jinder got another crack at the charismatic enigma the rematch came at the greatest royal rumble about we could call the greatest u.s title defense but we won't because it wasn't very good jeff won and went on to backlash where he secured a big win over randall keith however he then suffered a crushing loss to shinsuke nakamura at extreme rules it was only a few seconds long and so ended jeff hardy's only u.s title reign to date right then moving on number 80 samoa joe when r truth was doing his john cena open challenge thing it's fair to say he got a little more than he bargained for his call was answered by rey mysterio andrade and samoa joe joe won the match and the title and it looked as though a promising reign was in store the samoan submission machine won another four-way at fast lane and defended the belt in dominant fashion at wrestlemania 35 beating mysterio in just one minute unfortunately he lost the rematch at money in the bank despite his shoulder being off the canvas and no we're still not letting that go as we've discussed rey then got injured and voluntarily forfeited the title back to joe making him a two-time champion but then he got destroyed by ricochet in seconds this entry is a truly frustrating one because you can just tell that joe would make a fantastic u.s champion if they gave him the time better than general willie shaft at the very least number 79 shinsuke nakamura shinsuke nakamura is something of a specialist when it comes to elevating a secondary title he is unquestionably the greatest icy champion in new japan history so when wwe put the us title on him it seemed like a good move or it would have been had they not booked shinsuke like that cousin you see once a year and don't have much in common with i don't know anything about magic the gathering greg what i mean by that is nakamura was very much not the spotlight of smackdown during his time as us champion he even came across as lucky nakamura won the title by flagrantly attacking jeff hardy directly in the balls before their match at extreme rules 2018 and somehow it was just allowed to go ahead one kinshasa later and nakamura held the gold he also won the rematch at summerslam but then faded into the background despite being one of the most charismatic and distinctive wrestlers of the decade okay so he did wrestle some matches there was the two minute tv defense against ty dillinger and the match against rusev on the crown jewel kickoff show whoa wwe don't push him too hard nakamura lost the title to rusev on december 25th 2018 but this may have just been an excuse to give the kids something to feel festive and jolly about especially if they're from the sort of family that forces you to watch smackdown on christmas day nakamura won the belt back shortly afterwards on the royal rumble pre-show surely this time wwe would get it right oh no he lost it two days later to our truth number 78 rhino rhino seems like the perfect candidate for a u.s champion in the early 2000s he was a mid-card member of the invading alliance had a very popular finisher and could have steamrolled lower-tier wwe guys until a hero came along to stop him but that's not quite what happened and in reality rhino only held the gold for a few weeks he beat nigeria unforgiven 2001 in the penultimate match of the night unfortunately rhino's win was somewhat overshadowed by the other title change that happened immediately afterwards it was no big deal really just kurt angle winning the wwe title in his hometown from a treacherous steve austin hey we all know that everyone was really there for the rhino show baby he went on to have a handful of title defenses before dropping it to kurt who suddenly wasn't wwe champion anymore poor kurt but more importantly poor rhino the alliance suspended rhino for losing the belt but really he took time off to have surgery and presumably to get away from the invasion angle in general number 77 kurt angle yes as we've just seen angle won the us title from the alliance's rhino the sort of rubbish consolation for losing the wwe championship straight back to steve austin but things only got more convoluted from there angle turned heel in the middle of his reign and defected to the alliance interfering in a match between vince and shane to help shane win cur no you were our olympic hero he dropped the gold shortly afterwards on an episode of raw losing to edge after being distracted by kane's music which is pretty bloody distracting in fairness there's explosions and fire and all sorts and just in case you were worried angle of course rejoined team wwf at survivor series he's still our beautiful blue eyed boy number 76 randy orton cheap night vision goggles dressing like a janitor beating up the elderly wrestler [Music] [Laughter] randall randall keith randall keith randall randall keith no no no no no no no no no randall randall keith randall keith randall randall key despite having won lots of things lots of times in wwe young randall didn't get his sweaty little hands on the us championship until fast lane 2018. there he beat robert rood or was he still called bobby roode at the time i genuinely can't remember and more importantly who cares orton won the belt from him at fastlane and lost it to jinder at wrestlemania that's it thanks for coming randy at least his performance is in those matches were decent ones eh number 75 ricochet like orton ricochets one u.s title reign was short and sweet he got off to a good start beating samoa joe at stomping grounds thereby becoming the first person to have won the us and nxt north american titles the real question is does vince know the latter exists in fact does he even know ricochet exists we're saying this because ricochet seemed totally ready for stardom but then vince got bored of him or saw him sneeze or whatever and he lost the belt three weeks later to aj styles good matches sad rain number 74 rick steiner back to wcw now because it's time to talk about the dog-faced gremlin seriously is that the least flattering nickname in all of wrestling ever a babyface rick beat shane douglas on nitro to win the us title and wasted no time getting all wcw about the whole thing by that we mean he turned heel later that same night joining brother scott's magnificent 7 stable rick enjoyed a successful defense against dustin rhodes at super brawl revenge before losing to booker t at greed wcw's last ever pay-per-view shane douglas interfered possibly to gain revenge for that earlier title switch but honestly we don't know it was wcw in 2001 who knows what anybody's character motivations actually were number 73 bobby roode roode gets a higher placing on this list than we first assumed because he actually won a 2018 tournament for the vacant title remember when he was allowed to win matches crazy times yes bobby beat baron corbin in round one and jinder in the final to become champ there was a semi-final match in the middle as well but i don't want to talk about it but what do you never do shortly after you've won a title agree to wrestle randy orton isn't that right christian unfortunately rude did agree to wrestle randy and lost to him of fast lane at least he won the 24 7 title the following year which we're sure makes up for it number 72 michael hayes despite being known as the leader of the free birds and an incredibly successful tag team competitor hayes won singles gold in 1989 defeating of all people the massive and patriotic lex luger just look at how huge and american he is however he didn't do it on his own haze won thanks to shock interference from fellow free bird terry gordy making his return to jim crockett promotions he lost it back to luger a couple of weeks later but that's okay because it was a nice little reign with a decent angle around it and of course despite having only a minor impact on u.s title history he's still the same michael hayes we know and love today singing big shows theme music looking confused next to steve austin at the king of the ring performing for way too long at the hall of fame and all those other classic michael hayes moments number 71 bobo brazil now we're getting our first classic champion from way back in 1977. bobo brazil is an important figure in wrestling history but a lesser known fact is that he was a bit of a collector of us titles remember at this time the u.s championship was just one of several regional belts and bobo had his eye on them all he held versions of the us title in san francisco detroit and of course the subject of this video in the mid-atlantic territory he was also the most prolific holder of the wwf united states championship with seven reigns across its short history five more than anybody else but despite all of these successes he only held this version of the u.s title for 22 days defeating blackjack mulligan before losing to ric flair a few weeks later although a great and important figure when it came to breaking down racial barriers bobo's most significant days were not with this belt i mean he was in his 50s at the time winning the damn thing was impressive enough number 70 mr wrestling another classic champion now george wooden otherwise known as the original mr wrestling fun fact he's also one of two misters on this list we'll keep the other one a sneaky little secret for now how fun for all of you mr wrestling was a popular fan favorite but something of a transitional champion in the us titles lineage beating blackjack mulligan in 1978 before facing flair a few weeks later the latter match was hair vs title but unfortunately for those who wanted to see the nature boy's golden locks chopped off he won the bout and the belt this came just a few years after both wooden and flair were in the infamous plane crash of wilmington north carolina at the hospital it's said that george told staff that his real name was tim woods one of his ring names at the time and also claimed to be a promoter rather than a wrestler but why did he lie well as the only babyface on the plane he did so to protect kayfabe which was serious business at the time in fact in his autobiography flair called george the man who saved wrestling number 69 apollo crews the story of apollo crews as u.s champions started off surprisingly well despite apollo himself never being given much of a push on the main roster cruz qualified for the super special lockdown edition of money in the bank but injured his knee in a u.s title match against andrade and was pulled from the pay-per-view but do not worry apollo fans all two of you because there was a silver lining on the horizon crews recovered and beat andrade for the belt it was oddly straightforward and wholesome almost like wwe have conditioned us to see our babyface heroes screwed at every opportunity apollo then had a short friendly rivalry with kevin owens before a much longer and not so friendly rivalry with bobby lashley after several brave attempts at turning the bigger man away apollo eventually had his reign ended at payback and then his mate cedric left to join the hurt business as well appalling behaviour mr alexander number 68 baron corbin here he is the people's champion big bad baron in the wise words of michael cole corbin stole a victory at hell in a cell 2017 pinning ty dillinger in a triple threat to win aj's title outright thievery but funnily enough despite not being the most glorious reign corbyn's time with the belt was better than many would have expected he beat miz the icy champion at the time to secure smackdown a point at survivor series it's official baron corbin loves the blue brand but mr smackdown would eventually lose the belt dropping it to dolph ziggler a clash of champions still when you imagine a baron corbin title reign you would think it would be a worse book to fare than it actually was and despite winning king of the ring money in the bank and the andre the giant memorial battle royal it remains his only wwe title win at the time of recording number 67 steve mcmichael even the mere mention of the four horsemen conjures up some of the greatest names in wrestling history ric flair anne anderson tully blanchard and of course steve [ __ ] mcmichael although never the most accomplished in-ring technician [ __ ] certainly brought energy and passion to his matches and storylines which is why he ranked surprisingly high here good for him [ __ ] won the title after a bit of an emotional roller coaster first he kicked phony horseman jeff jarrett out of the stable get out of here jeff you're not a real horseman like steve is jarrett then got revenge by seducing mongo's wife deborah but [ __ ] took something even better from double j a mid-level championship fought for in a fake sport who needs true love and happiness when you've got that that's right michael beat jarrett for the u.s title at wcw's last ever clash of the champions but deborah tried to reconcile with him after the match steve said no because he's a real man and god damn it he's a real horseman mcmichael was still us champion by the time fall brawl rolled around which meant war games between the horsemen and the nwo and honestly steve did not have a good time in this match kurt hennig betrayed his stable and joined the new world order giving them a huge advantage in the match and forcing [ __ ] to surrender for his team and then the nwo bashed ric flair's head in with the cage door so a bad night at the office all round to rub salt in the wound hennig beat mcmichael for his title the next night on nitro bringing an end to a reign that although short was surprisingly packed full of drama number 66 bobby lashley now we move on to the current u.s champion at the time of recording big bad bobby lashley his only other reign happened back in 2006 and began when lashley battered jbl in under two minutes that is a decent way to start things but unfortunately it didn't result in the longest or most eventful title reign at the time lashley was tangled up in a feud with booker t's court and lost the belt to finley a couple of months after winning it never mind he's since won it again as part of mvp's stable the hurt business and with shelton benjamin and cedric alexander watching his back he could easily be holding it for quite some time number 65 seth rollins some time before he was too extreme for helen a cell it seemed like there was no stopping seth rollins and until it was cut short by injury the best year of his career was unquestionably 2015. after cashing in his money in the bank contract in the main event of wrestlemania rollins was on a tear as the top heal in the company but that run looks like it could come to an end when he staked his wwe title against john cena's u.s championship at summerslam the pair had a great back and forth match until the finish which saw real world tv man jon stewart screw cena and help rollins become a double champion still the architect had done it and held both belts until the rematch at night of champions there in a unique sequence of events seth lost the u.s title to cena but was forced to immediately recover and defend his wwe championship against sting which he did perhaps a little too effectively number 64 terry funk after a rocky start to the u.s title's existence in 1975 it was up to terry funk to try to stabilize things winning a tournament for the vacant belt it didn't quite work however as he lost it just a couple of weeks later to paul jones the man he'd beaten in the tournament final in the first place there was a valid reason for this quick change though two weeks later funk would defeat jack briscoe in florida to become the new nwa world's heavyweight champion despite not holding the us title for long funk's reign helped validate its existence as a crucial stepping stone to greater things but that's not all because he won it again 24 years and 10 months later funk defeated lance storm a wcw house show in his hometown of amarillo texas to what we imagine was a huge pop but i suppose we'll never know let's just picture it for a second shall we lovely stuff he dropped it back to storm the next night and although the rain wasn't officially recognized by wcw it's recognized by wwe today and by god it's recognized by us as well well done terry number 63 jim duggan who better to hold the us title than the american hero himself hacks or jim duggan well maybe somebody a little bit better at wrestling but we're not here to judge duggan won the belt in very impressive fashion absolutely squashing steve austin at fall brawl 94 and yes this wasn't the beer drinking hell raising mega star we'd come to know but austin was still a younger hungrier and more relevant competitor actually when you put it like that we're not sure we're a fan of this booking decision the pair had a rematch which dug and won by dq after austin backdropped him out of the ring what a terrible rule hacksaw would hold the gold for an impressive 100 days until he ran into vader at starrcade 94 and unlike in the feud with austin here duggan actually had to try sadly for big jim it wasn't enough as he lost thanks to interference from vader's manager harley race why is it that duggan can never ever lose clean even against vader number 62 jeff jarrett jarrett should be higher on this list but unfortunately he mostly held the belt during the latter days of wcw the booking was not top notch double j first won the u.s title as an awkward member of the four horsemen beating dean milenko on nitro as we know he was kicked out of the stable shortly afterwards feuded with steve mcmichael stole his wife and ultimately lost the belt to him so far so pro wrestling but perhaps sad at not being a proper horseman for reals jarrett went back to wwe despite them losing the war at the time he endured a pretty torrid time up north before coming back to wcw in 1999 despite them losing the war by this point say what you want about jeff jarrett he didn't half enjoy a challenge you know now known as the chosen one jarrett won his second us title by beating chris benoit in a ladder match on nitro he did this in such an impact wrestling way despite impact not existing yet by pre-gimmicking a ladder so benoit couldn't climb the rungs i'm surprised the match wasn't sponsored by panda energy later that same night he formed nwo 2000 with fellow champions bret hart kevin nash and scott hall remember it's got 2 000 on the end so that means it's better jarrod was briefly stripped of the belt due to injury but had it awarded back to him by now commissioner nash it helps to have friends in high places and it also helps to have bloody massive friends eg the harris brothers they helped jarrod retain the title until wcw's infamous reboot in which all champions were stripped of their belts that's right jeff lost the title one final time because russo got bored questionable number 61 bret hart okay so remember what we just said about jeff jarrett he should be higher on this list but his reigns were booked badly for the most part well bret hart fans out there look away now fresh off the montreal screwjob brett was the hottest acquisition they could have possibly made moxley to aw times a thousand but instead of you know booking him appropriately wcw decided to turn brett heal a load of times despite nobody in their right mind wanting to boo the hitman let's look at brett's five u.s title reigns to get a sense of what happened here reign number one a fresh prep beats a tired ddp for the vacant title with ease he loses it to luga a few weeks later it's not the strongest start but let's see what happened next rain number two still a heal brett beats luger a few days after losing it to him then at full brawl 98 brett loses the war games match as part of team nwo hollywood humbled he asks the fans for forgiveness and turns babyface only to almost immediately turn heel again and lose the belt to ddp rain number three are we still having fun brett lures ddp into a no dq match by faking a groin injury only for the giant to ambush paige and help brett easily win a little while later he loses it to roddy piper on a random nitro in 1999 reign number four which begins in a tournament for the vacant wcw world title goldberg faces brett in the first round which is also a u.s title defense for big bill brett wins when sid interferes because apparently one of the greatest wrestlers ever can't win without help anymore he loses it just a couple of weeks later in a ladder match involving goldberg scott hall and sid vicious it's worth pointing out at this stage that all of brett's us title wins and losses in wcw happened on thunder or nitro not a single one on pay-per-view rain number five oh and by the way the year is now 2010. u.s champion the miz gets to choose any hart family member to defend the title against and thinks he's being clever by choosing brett you should have gone for bruce michael brett obviously wins with the help of tyson kidd and davey boyd jr he vacates it the following week finally taking a leaf out of sean michael's big book of politics and so ends the tale of bret hart's time as united states champion we're not here to suggest that brett worsened the belt's reputation because he surely improved its image by name value alone but it's hard to argue that a single one of his reigns were booked well despite this he's sometimes mentioned online as one of the greatest us champions of all time and to that we say you're not fooling us that easily internet number 60 kensuke sazaki in his heyday sazaki was a true new japan powerhouse and one of the most successful stars in the promotion's history he also occupies an important place in the lineage of the us title being the first wrestler to win outside of north america beating sting in tokyo after a brief pay-per-view defense against chris benoir at world war three everything seemed to be going well for the japanese bruiser then at starcade 95 in nashville tennessee things got weird zazaki took part in the event losing to sting but the title wasn't on the line however it was on the line in that post-show dark match against one man gang which we mentioned a little earlier zazaki lost wcw restarted the match and he got his win back but not the us title wcw never corrected this weird off-air switcheroo leading us to think that it may have been a big old nashville screwjob or just a way of keeping sazaki vaguely strong to appease new japan while getting the title back in the hands of a regular roster member maybe that's a little more likely number 59 finley although a former tv champion and a wcw roster member for six years finley had to wait until his wwe run to get his hands on us gold he did so as a member of booker t's court stepping in as a hard irish meat shield to defend his leader from bobby lashley it actually worked as well as finley shockingly beat lashley in mid-2006 to win the title he had a little help from hornswoggle as well naturally finley went on to beat fellow court member william regal at the 2006 great american bash before dropping it to number 58 mr kennedy we did say there was another mister on this list a phrase we now realize sounds quite saucy the mystery in question is none other than it still sounds weird doesn't it it's mr kennedy alright we're talking about mr kennedy in august 2006 kennedy was originally scheduled to face finley one-on-one for the title but teddy long just couldn't resist getting involved could he teddy made it a triple threat match adding the undertaker player no way bobby lashley it was lashley kennedy won the match and the belt not even pinning the reigning champ but rolling up lashley and grabbing the tights what a wily little boy kennedy then started lobbying to go to raw saying he'd already beaten everyone on smackdown and he sort of had he'd even beaten taker the biggest name on the blue brand on pay-per-view admittedly it was a non-title match and he only won via dq but it still counts alright teddy long wasn't having it though and threw chris benoit into the mix kennedy lost and to this day it remains his only wwe title reign ever number 57 carlito carlito's one of those classic wwe cases of what could have been he got off to a good start though beating john cena on his smackdown debut for the us title knocking cena out with his own steel chain the indignity carlito was set to be pushed hard and there were various reasons for this he was charismatic good in the ring and as a cologne had wrestling royalty in his veins unfortunately though carlito's us title reign was cut short after just one month due to injury he still dropped the belt on camera though a 25 second loss to big match jon ouch number 56 scott steiner we've already mentioned the dog-faced gremlin now it's time to talk about the big bad booty daddy i know which nickname i prefer and in fact everyone at cultaholic is contractually obliged to refer to me as the big bad booty daddy when addressing me in an official capacity scott steiner first won the u.s title at spring stampede 99 using a foreign object to beat booker t in a tournament final he retained the gold at slamberry against former ally buff bagwell with help from an even older ally and you know his actual brother rick unfortunately the title had to be vacated when big poppa pump picked up an injury but he won it back at spring stampede 2000 again in the final of a tournament let's go through his tournament journey since it all took place in one night fair warning it's a bit weird first he beat the wall by raking his eyes which caused the blinded wall to choke slam the ref and earn himself a dq then he beat mike awesome with help from kevin nash and in the final he toppled sting with help from vampiro lots of help there scott must be a popular guy things only got weirder from there at the great american bash steiner won a handicap match against tank abba and brother rick in what can only be described as a teeny tiny cage look at the state of that steiner's second reign came to an end against mike awesome a bash at the beach where he was warned that he would be stripped of the belt if he used the steiner recliner he used it anyway for some reason and although it made no sense as a tactical decision it is sort of in line with his character isn't it number 55 stan hansen a fairly short entry this one as the infamous stan hansen only held the belt for 50 days however his reign goes down in history as a very significant one when hanson beat lex luger at halloween havoc 1990 it ended the longest u.s title reign of all time at an eye-watering 523 days luger would ultimately prevail beating stan at starrcade in a stiff bullrope match but his earlier victory means that hanson still goes down as one of the u.s title's greatest party poopers bop indeed number 54 jbl jbl's one reign started off strong as he won the u.s title on the grandest stage of them all wrestlemania that's the good news out of the way now to the bad the big texan did indeed beat chris benoir at wrestlemania 22 but he did so with a roll up and a handful of the ropes for leverage boo oh and also the storyline involved him mocking the late eddie guerrero for heat that's quite a bit worse than the dirty pinfall to be honest at least it's a tactic that randy orton would have approved of jbl was lucky to win a steel cage rematch on smackdown kicking benoit right in the balls and scurrying out of the door and you can't really argue with the effectiveness of those tactics however like quite a few we've mentioned on this list already the us title wasn't jon's only focus he was in the process of feuding with rey mysterio over the world heavyweight title a storyline in which both men were picking each other's opponents week by week jbl pitted rey against the likes of mark henry and the great carly whom he lost to because they're really big and he's not this tarnished mysterio's time as champion and is still regarded as a weak world title reign to this day however rey would get a measure of revenge booking jbl against bobby lashley who would easily defeat him for the u.s title everyone looks weak hooray number 53 big show at the time of recording big show has only enjoyed one u.s title reign but if you're watching this video even slightly in the future who knows how many he's accrued that man will not stop big show won the belt and a brief but heated feud with eddie guerrero one which centered around eddie's spraying show with human sewage one of our favorite michael colisms big show gained a measure of revenge by slamming eddie several times onto his own low rider before taking his belt at no mercy 2003 even despite eddie furiously spamming the cheat button unfortunately just like jbl the belt wasn't totally the focus of big show's title reign as he instead formed a strangely ineffective tag team with brock lesnar you would think that they would win every match they ever competed in but weirdly they didn't in fairness around this time show also beat funaki in a royal rumble qualifier well done mate he carried the belt all the way to mania with relatively few defenses before losing it to a young john cena and the rest as they say is history number 52 matt hardy you know that feeling when you want to achieve something so badly but in the end it's not as good as you thought it would be like owning a car or losing your virginity i assume that's sort of similar to when matt hardy finally got his hands on the u.s championship matt was embroiled in a long and unique feud with then champion mvp and there were a lot of hoops matt had to jump through in pursuit of the gold including basketball arm wrestling and chess the rivalry was cut short due to injury but matt returned at wrestlemania 24 to cost mvp the money in the bank ladder match before beating him for the title at backlash but after finally winning the title he'd fought so hard for matt's reign wasn't perhaps as glorious as he'd hoped it was still decent as he picked up wins over a few of smackdown's mid-card heals at the time including mr kennedy shelton benjamin and charvo guerrero before being drafted to ecw shortly thereafter he lost the belt to shelton sending it back to smackdown and ending his reign just a few months in still at least he got to show off his chess skills in front of an international audience eh number 51 dean milenko malenco's us title win actually came about as a result of losing another belt to the wcw cruiserweight championship he lost that to six at super brawl 7 thanks to botched interference from eddie guerrero so dean decided to go after eddie's belt instead fair enough and beat him at uncensored 97 in a great contest even if six got involved in the ending you are dealing with the x factor after all malenco is renowned as one of the all-time technical greats so his title defense against chris benoir at spring stampede should have been easy to book just let both guys go out there and tie each other in knots instead the match featured interference from here we go jacqueline jimmy hart eddie guerrero ann anderson and the taskmaster himself kevin sullivan each of these figures had slightly different motivations and loyalties making everything a bit of an incoherent mess and ending the match in a double dq malenko's reign was ended by jeff jarrett on a june edition of nitro after you guessed it interference from eddie guerrero eddie mate what was your problem with poor little dean number 50 andrade on the surface andrade seems like he's been dealt a pretty good hand in life he's talented successful and won a truckload of accolades in cmll before even setting foot in wwe good job he's an ugly bastard then isn't it but despite seeming like a lucky so-and-so you could argue that andrade has the worst timing of any united states champion in history first let's talk about the start of his reign andrade beat rey mysterio at a boxing day house show in madison square garden and his reign slowly began to gather steam he beat rey in a quite terrifying ladder match on raw and overcame umberto carrillo on the royal rumble kickoff show and then again a elimination chamber it all seemed to be going fairly well then well we all know what happened don't we lockdown ground everybody's momentum to a halt including andrades with wwe shuffling everything around in a desperate attempt to keep their product moving he was left off the wrestlemania card it should have been a landmark moment for on friday defending his title in a packed stadium full of fans but that's what you get for becoming a champion in 2020 i guess after mania things slowed down further for andrade's reign he feuded with new wwe champion drew mcintyre and by feuded with we mean got his ass kicked by a lot having lost his winning ways and distracted by the presence of new stablemate angel gaza it wasn't long before he dropped the belt to apollo cruise number 49 santino marella in a weird way wwe put the u.s title on santino at the perfect time despite largely being a comedic buffoon early 2012 was the peak of marella's wwe run he'd just come within a whisker of winning the elimination chamber and had a whole lot of momentum behind him santino won the belt from jack swagger in that very cluttered raw segment we mentioned ages ago the one with teddy long and laurenitis and kofi and the gobbledygooka and headbanger mosh honestly we can't remember who was involved this is a very long video anyway the point is that santino won and went on to captain team teddy at wrestlemania 28. they unfortunately lost to team johnny but santino successfully defended his title one night later on raw seeing off swagger and dolph ziggler he also beat david otunga in london and the miz on the pre-show of extreme rules miz cut a promo before the match complaining about being on the pre-show when he'd main evented one year earlier and even though he was the heel he sort of had a point despite a surprisingly strong start to the reign santino then decided to just forget about defending the belt instead he busied himself by trying to become mr money in the bank entering the tag division with zack ryder and having a non-title tuxedo match against ricardo rodriguez all equally worthwhile pursuits i'm sure you'll agree he eventually lost the belt to cesaro on the summerslam pre-show rounding off a reign which started off fairly well before slowly grinding to a halt number 48 dustin rhodes we all love dustin rhodes well apart from jake hager lance archer and just about every other heel on the aw roster but most of us love him whether covering himself in gold paint and inappropriately touching his opponents or simply lurking outside a child's bedroom window he's certain to go down as one of the most beloved figures in wrestling history but unfortunately a young dustin wasn't the strongest book wcw champion ever when he won the belt in 1993 not the worst but it certainly could have been better rhodes beat ricky steamboat in a tournament final to claim rickrood's vacated belt but it wasn't a glorious slaying of the dragon he actually won by count out when steamboat spilled to the outside and was attacked by barry windham dustin defended the title against max payne who was subbing in for the injured ron simmons and beat him via dq and you know what i don't think it's too controversial to say they could have maybe had dustin rhodes get a decisive win over max payne brood came back looking for the belt he never lost and the title was vacated after the pair pinned each other simultaneously but dustin won it again beating rude in a best of three series and never looked back by never looks back we mean he beat paul londorf with a roll up and then lost to steve austin 2 nil in a two out of three fours match a decent amount of time with the belt for dustin but hardly a glorious couple of reigns number 47 orlando jordan once upon a time orlando jordan beats john cena for a professional wrestling championship just sounds weird doesn't it yes on a march 2005 episode of smackdown jordan beats a young cena during his feud with jbl and of course jbl himself was on hand to help his cabinet stablemate beat cena but it's still a pretty shocking result there was however a wider reason for this cena was about to win his first wwe title from jbl at wrestlemania and wwe needed to take that gross uncool mid-card title off him to make room for a big shiny main event prize that's better unfortunately for jordan and the importance of the us title he didn't even defend his newly won gold at mania instead he took part in the pre-show battle royal and no he didn't win after that orlando enjoyed a fairly long reign but usually defended his gold on velocity for our younger viewers velocity is everyone's second favorite wwe show that nobody ever watched it's behind heat but ahead of nxt uk however he did take part in three pay-per-view defenses first he beat babyface hyden reich at judgement day and yes babyface hyden reich was weird then orlando surprisingly beat chris benoir at the great american bash but lost the rematch at summerslam in about 20 seconds which was less surprising all in all this was a weird reign featuring massive wins over the likes of cena and memoir but never really gaining momentum it's like wwe wanted to create a future star but didn't book jordan like one at all and then got angry and squashed him when it didn't happen thankfully we never see that sort of thing these days hey number 46 kalisto if you stumbled upon this video without knowing anything about the us title at all but somehow retained your knowledge of everything else in wrestling kalisto's place on this list would probably take you by surprise the most but against all odds kalisto's two u.s title reigns didn't last a day each and they didn't utterly destroy the credibility of the belt and that presumption isn't kalisto's fault of course but the inconsistent way he's been booked for years in wwe admittedly his first reign wasn't the best kalisto shockingly beat del rio on a january 2016 raw before losing it back to him later in the week however he won the title back at royal rumble and started winning matches far beyond his usual capability he beat del rio in a two out of three falls rematch at fast lane on the free show beat ryback at wrestlemania on the pre-show and beat ryback again at payback yes on the pre-show finally kalisto got himself a main card spot at extreme rules and was easily destroyed by rusev to end his reign still he gave a go didn't he now on to his main rival at the time number 45 alberto del rio oh good it's time to talk about alberto del rio when he first left wwe in 2014 del rio had already been a multiple time world champion without ever really fulfilling his potential so when he returned the following year and won the us title it seemed like the first step in a rebuilding process would it help him become world champion again even better how about gfw global champion in impact wrestling the less said about that the better anyway del rio made his shot return to wwe at helen a cell 2015 and beat john cena in surprisingly straightforward fashion was jon having an off night had del rio frozen time and trained for centuries to increase his power level like some sort of anime villain whatever the reason alberto was now u.s champion and successfully defended it against jack swagger at tlc in everybody's favorite stipulation a chairs match then something weird happened and we don't know what that is but one moment del rio was beating cena clean as a whistle and the next he was dropping the belt to kalisto on raw he won it back the following smackdown but lost it again at the royal rumble strange times well no stranger than the majority of his career to be honest number 44 dolph ziggler everyone's favorite wrestler with the surname ziggler has enjoyed two u.s title reigns his first coming in 2011 at capital punishment remember that pay-per-view great times after choking out kofi at that show thereby bringing the title from smackdown to raw ziegler prepared to face a whole host of challenges on the red brand unfortunately for him the brand extension rudely ended in the middle of his reign inflating the number of wrestlers in the u.s title division he gained a new friend in jack swagger and a new foe in uh popular actor hugh jackman who socked ziggler in the face during a feud with zach ryder it was this feud that would eventually end dog's reign at tlc 2011 which of course saw zach pick up the emotional victory and celebrate with his father despite having a fairly strong first reign ziggler's second was a very weird one he beat baron corbin and bobby roode at clash of champions 2017 only to leave the belt in the middle of the ring the following week authority figure daniel bryan declared the title vacant and zigler disappeared for a while until entering at number 30 in the royal rumble so that's why he gave up the title smart thinking dolphster he lasted two minutes and was eliminated by finn balor number 43 kevin owens if he was given a proper chance we firmly believe that ko could be one of the greatest heel us champions of all time he's good enough charismatic enough and canadian enough to really make it work on the other hand you could argue that owens has already been given enough chances he is a three-time champion after all he beat jericho for the belt at wrestlemania 33 in that perfectly acceptable match that vince mcmahon hated for some reason then he lost it back to y2j at payback before winning our game two nights later on smackdown utterly destroying jericho in the process and writing him off tv ko retained the title against aj styles at backlash by trapping his leg in the announce table thereby getting him counted out so far so good but then he lost the belt at that place where mid-card title reigns are at most risk an msg house show then things got weird owens won the championship back from aj at battleground in a potentially botched finish the pair exchanged pinfall attempts and submissions which ended when ko pinned styles probably by accident fans debated whether the finish was deliberate or not before ko suspiciously lost the belt back to aj two days later hmm so yes we still think that kevin owens could be one of the greatest us champions of all time it's just that things keep getting in the way number 42 shelton benjamin ah yes the gold standard after defeating matt hardy shelton held the us title from july 2008 to march 2009 a stretch that included no pay-per-view title defenses in fairness he did defend it on the cybersunday wwe.com exclusive pre-show which is perhaps the most late 2000s sentence ever he also put in a decent performance as part of team alternate survivor series but in terms of actual title defenses shelton was usually limited to short matches on smackdown against the likes of our truth and hurricane helms he eventually dropped it to mvp an impressively long reign for sure but one which coincided with a drop in prominence for the championship number 41 aj styles styles has been the phenomenal one for long enough now that big losses don't seem to hurt him he might have been buried alive by the undertaker but you can still buy him as a believable champion anywhere on the card this may explain why wwe have turned to aj as u.s champion on three occasions so far although really it may as well have just been two he first won it from kevin owens at that msg house show in 2017 leading to that strange possibly botched finish at battleground two days later and the title was slapped back on styles as he came out on top in a triple threat match featuring both ko and jericho with his reign now properly underway styles rolled into summerslam for a big rematch against owens and it should have been a great one unfortunately the special guest referee was a certain best wrestler in the world and predictably he made it all about himself styles went on to drop the belt at helen a cell going down in a triple threat alongside baron corbin and ty dillinger a weird combination of wrestlers there but a couple of years later aj was back in the us title pitcher this time as vince mcmahon's weird d push enforcer he took the gold from ricochet shortly before the nxt call-up dropped drastically down the card and then comprehensively outclassed cedric alexander he did the same to umberto curio and even beat ricochet again before finally dropping the belt to one of wwe's deserving up and comers rey mysterio number 40 roman reigns now we come on to the big dog sorry the tribal chief roman reigns but back when he was everybody's favorite wisecracking canine roman enjoyed a solitary stint with the us title he beat rusev for the belt at clash of champions 2016 before winning the rematch inside helen a cell where he powered out of a steel chain assisted accolade classic babyface stuff this may as well have happened at wrestlemania 2. the only problem was it had only been a few months since roman's mega push had cooled off so quite a lot of the fans still hated him he was put straight back in the main event scene anyway challenging for kevin owens universal championship the plan to take ko's belt backfired as reigns lost his own title to chris jericho in a handicap match against the two canadian bffs and speaking of y2j number 39 chris jericho despite having more success than most over the course of his glittering career jericho only won the united states title fairly recently and for the most part he was mainly filling the role of kevin owens's sidekick but as always he turned it into goal the pair had great chemistry proving to be the real highlight of monday night raw until the heartbreaking and brilliant festival of friendship segments unfortunately despite giving us the feud we were all desperate for wwe then decided to mess up the booking along the road to wrestlemania jericho costa owns the universal title at fast lane allowing goldberg to win the belt a decision that infuriated everybody not named bill from there it was hot potato season jericho lost the us title to kevit mania won it back in the rematch of payback and lost it to him two days later in the main event of smackdown oh christopher number 38 lance storm storm jumped from ecw to wcw in 2000 the equivalent of jumping off the titanic into a vat of acid but at least he started winning matches and storm wasn't just winning he was winning at an incredible rate he won not only the us title but the hardcore and cruiserweight belts as well making him a triple champion oh and also the fans hated him storm was a full foreign heel at this point in his career even renaming the us title the canadian heavyweight championship and changing its design lovely lance was a heat magnet an in-ring great and truly one of the bright spots in the latter day wcw landscape even when he lost the goal to terry funk on a house show he won it back the next night so it seemed like just a bump in the road then at halloween havoc he lost a general erection of all people and i don't know why i even bother i thought we would never have to talk about him again storm won his gold back defeating wrexham at a nitro in london but lost it back to him again a couple of weeks later at the mayhem pay-per-view despite crashing to a halt in the face of erection we have to give lance props for making the championship a relevant part of wcw once again even while everything else was heading for disaster number 37 johnny valentine now on to the second ever united states champion who dethroned harley race in 1975 and packed quite a lot of defenses into his three-month reign valentine wasn't beating mugs either turning away challenges from the likes of wahoo mcdaniel ken patera and dusty rhodes unfortunately valentine's reign would end in tragic circumstances the infamous plane crash that changed wrestling forever valentine's injuries forced him to retire from in-ring competition and after a brief stint as a manager in texas he left the business altogether however happily for johnny that's not quite where his story with the us title ends his son would go on to be a very prominent champion as we'll see a little later on number 36 conan conan's story with the us title is a fairly simple one but vital nonetheless he beat one man gang in wcw to take possession of a belt which let's be fair wasn't exactly at the height of its prestige at this point thankfully though conan set about restoring the title's reputation as a work-rate belt he improved its image slightly with pay-per-view victories against eddie guerrero and duchen thunder liger not a bad pair of rivals to defeat however after a decent reign of a few months conan lost the belt to ric flair at bash of the beach 96. flair's feet were on the ropes and just to make things extra certain conan had been ko'd by woman's shoe of course flair's victory was somewhat overshadowed by the other big event at bash at the beach 96 steve mcmichael's big victory over joe gomez oh and hulk hogan's heel turn i suppose number 35 goldberg right no messing about bill win that belt beat everyone in your path and just keep going and as we all know that's exactly what goldberg did big bill won the us title from raven on an april 98 episode of nitro it was a simple victory but a thrilling one too as goldberg destroyed raven and the entire flock on route to becoming champion this win coincided with goldberg's electrifying rise through the wcw ranks so you know what to expect here his reign consisted of quick and dominant victories including pay-per-view wins over the likes of perry saturn at slamberry and conan at the great american bash unfortunately goldberg's success was also the undoing of his reign like ultimate warrior and the ic title a decade prior goldberg vacated his mid-card belt once he'd won the big one toppling hulk hogan in that famous georgia dome world title match goldberg's reign was impressive but short more of a vehicle for his continued success than a great reign in itself he won a game the following year but by this point things had well and truly gone south in wcw number 34 dick slater slater was a renowned nwa tough guy and probably not the easiest to get on with backstage as stories of confrontations with sting and jim cornette will attest but his hardness translated to a tough credibility as us champion he won the title from greg valentine at the tail end of 1983 and feuded with him thereafter until greg had departed for pastors new the pair had many title bouts in those few months including a no dq steel cage match at boogie jam 1984. unfortunately for slater and valentine that match was immediately followed by the forgotten classic between flair and steamboat a 60-minute time limit draw that set the scene for their legendary trilogy five years later so that wasn't exactly great for slater but his reign was still a decent one largely due to that first feud with valentine once greg had left slater feuded mainly with the junkyard dog but he would ultimately lose the title to the dragon steamboat that is not danielson or ultimo or everyone's favorite dragon dragon number 33 kurt hennig while talking about steve mcmichael yes we're revisiting steve mcmichael buckle up anyway while talking about steve mcmichael we mentioned the shocking betrayal of the four horsemen by the cowardly kurt hennig and yes the horsemen were the good guys in this scenario and we were supposed to feel sorry for them it's weird okay well just one day after he betrayed the horsemen for the nwo hennig beat [ __ ] to become u.s champion for the first and only time this set up a mouth-watering feud with ric flair and the pair clashed at halloween havoc 97. flair kicked the title into hennig's head for the dq a nice call back to hennig's war games betrayal but also you know not a valid way of winning the title rig kurtz also won the intense no dq rematch at world war 397 but flair was eventually avenged by ddp at starcade who ended hennig's reign it was a fairly short one admittedly but an action-packed one all the while number 32 dusty rhodes based on nicknames alone you would imagine that the american dream would be one of the most prestigious u.s champions of all time unfortunately for dusty he only held the title once but it was a reign full of intensity i mean it happened in mid-atlantic in 1987 everything was full of intensity dusty beat four horsemen member lex luger for the gold at stark 87 after luger fumbled jj dillon's throne chair a swift ddt onto the steel later and the son of a plumber was us champion by the way it was a title vs career match too so it's probably best that he won here dusty held the gold for a few months defending it against the likes of bobby eaton and larry zabisco but the reign took a back seat to those white hot angles popping off all over the place in mid-atlantic tally blanchard and jj dillon had just attacked magnum ta who was recovering from the car crash that ultimately ended his career an enraged dusty went wild on the heels with a baseball bat like a big violent hulk hogan coming to the aid of his fellow babyfaces except in dusty's case it felt like real anger rather than excuse to get himself over brother the problem was in the midst of his rampage dusty accidentally took out the man with all the power in mid-atlantic no not ric flair but jim crockett jr who subsequently stripped him of the title ah number 31 diamond dallas page ddp was oftentimes the big hero of wcw at least when goldberg and sting were having the night off anyway his first us title win was evidence of this beating kurt hennig at stark 897 to capture the gold take that nwo paige was of course a popular babyface champion he beat chris benoir in a nice face versus face match at super brawl 8 and won a bit of a wild no dq triple threat match at uncensored 98. despite promising early signs ddp was booked to lose the belt to raven at spring stampede but not without a lot of interference from the flock thankfully for ddp mega fans such as myself he won it back later that same year beating bret hart by avoiding a wild brass knuckle shot and hitting the diamond cutter two more matches against brett followed the first of which featured a crooked ref and a dusty finish the second saw the giant run in to help brett easily defeat paige which was just a huge shame to be honest there's no punchline i just feel sad about it number 30 cesaro cesaro only has one united states title reign to his name which is almost as shocking as the fact that he has zero world title reigns to his name but we're not bitter about it honestly the swiss superman or superhero or sensation whatever we're calling him these days the swiss very good wrestler won the belt from santino marella in 2012 just a few months after his main roster debut and obviously the ring work during his reign was good but also weirdly booked shocking we know often cesaro would lose to an up-and-coming contender only to then win the eventual rematch and retain the belt this can sometimes be a valid way of setting up a title match but not when it happens every time and these opponents weren't wrestlers clearly above cesaro like john cena or randy orton he lost non-title matches to the likes of justin gabriel and santino morella as well as our truth naturally however cesaro's reign did hit a few impressive heights by ironically taking a step down his best title defenses came on the shiny new nxt brand against the likes of tyson kidd and adrian neville by the time he finally dropped the goal to kofi kingston after a 239 day reign cesaro hadn't just used it to elevate his own stature he'd also helped out some of wwe's best and brightest upstarts number 29 steve austin now look before you get excited this was a slightly different steve austin to the one we know today he had hair here for example still austin's two u.s title reigns represent a key step in his pre-wwe career he first won the championship at starcade 93 beating dustin rhodes in a two out of three fours match by quite frankly cheating a lot he won the first fall by dq and the second by grabbing the tights unconvincing but it got the job done austin held the title for much of 1994 and certainly had his fair share of ups and downs one underwhelming moment would be defeating the great muta by getting backdropped out of the ring still the best match of the reign has to be austin's victory over ricky steamboat of bash at the beach getting his feet on the ropes after an intense bout he lost the title in a rematch to steamboat at clash of the champions 28 and even though another match between the two was scheduled for full brawl injury prevented the dragon from competing austin was awarded the title as a result before losing immediately to hacks or jim duggan who beat him in seconds with a backdrop and a splash it remains the shortest reign in u.s title history still he was never going to go on and do anything of note was he number 28 paul jones to clear up some confusion because paul jones is obviously a very common name we're not talking about your older cousin's mate who sells knock-off xbox 360s round the back of morrisons we're talking about the old-school hard-hitting texan who also happens to be the first u.s champion with multiple reigns jones was a bit of a star in the mid-atlantic region even before becoming champion he enjoyed singles success as well as a helping of tag team gold too often teaming with ricky steamboat and the mysteriously named masked superstar aka acts from demolition nice in the title's early days jones lost a tournament final to terry funk for the vacant belt but beat him in a rematch a couple of weeks later jones would go on to hold the title three times in the mid 70s occasionally getting the better of a young ric flair his biggest nemesis though was blackjack mulligan with whom he traded the gold and stiff right hands a number of times big pauly jay has to be considered an important champion in the first few years of the title's history but it was only part of his extensive trophy cabinet from his mid-atlantic days number 27 harley race now we get to the first ever united states champion and one of the most influential wrestlers of all time harley race race became inaugural champion on new year's day 1975 defeating johnny weaver in a tournament final and despite many of mid-atlantic stars holding the title from around this time weaver would never etch his name into us title history that's sad race though was clearly the right choice to be the inaugural champion a competitor as tough and legitimate as they come on the negative side the belt was something of a stepping stone for harley who really just wanted the nwa world title back ultimately he held the u.s championship for six months before losing it to johnny valentine and then of course went on to get the nwa's top prize back around his waist in fact he would go on to hold the nwa championship eight times for close to 2000 combined days so yeah he did all right in the end number 26 rick rude rickroad's circumstances in 1991 were certainly interesting he was coming back south after his fondly remembered wwe heel run now joining the new wcw promotion not just that but he was now a member of poorly dangerously dangerous alliance stable also featuring the likes of anne anderson medusa and a certain stunning steve austin roode won the u.s title at clash of the champions 17 defeating sting in infuriating fashion but in the right way it was the right sort of heat actually in the pre-internet age all heat was the right sort of heat basically the fans wanted to hurt him and that was a good thing because wrestling is weird rood went on to have the second longest reign in the history of the title 2 this day at 378 days unfortunately despite being gargantuan it wasn't the most eventful tie rood only had one pay-per-view defense of the gold which came at super ball 2 against ricky steamboat heyman helped rude win by and we're not making this up disguising himself as a ninja ally of steamboats and twatting him with his big 90s phone unfortunately the rest of rood's reign wasn't fought against top level opposition we're talking about the likes of eric watts tommy angel and the italian stallion not that one the other one rude was eventually forced to vacate the title after a legitimate neck injury still it remains a historic reign just not the most enthralling number 25 sheamus it's safe to say that sheamus has won it all apart from the ic title at the time of recording multiple wwe title reigns check the world heavyweight championship you bet wrestling observers most improved award for 2010 take it off the list so unsurprisingly sheamus is also a former u.s champion he first won it in the spring of 2011 beating daniel bryan to snap a losing streak with his career on the line no pressure there unfortunately though wwe didn't book sheamus a title defense on the main card of wrestlemania 27 he instead defended it on the pre-show in a lumberjack match which was called off when the lumberjacks started brawling great the celtic warrior was then drafted to smackdown and lost the belt to kofi shortly afterwards but his second reign would begin in much more impressive fashion come 2014 and sheamus managed to win a 20-man battle royal to end dean ambrose's near-year-long reign last eliminating the lunatic fringe himself he defended the title against future tag partner cesaro in impressive matches at payback and knight of champions he also beat miz at helen a cell but ran out of steam and lost it to rusev where you ask on a network exclusive match that took place after a november episode of raw oh sheamus number 24 eddie guerrero the legendary eddie guerrero did not have the most legendary of starts to life as us champion he defeated ddp in a tournament final after a lot of interference from the nwo who then beats him up and stole the belt that was just life in wcw for non-nwo members it seems eddie got revenge sold out 97 beating six in a ladder match before defeating chris jericho at super bowl seven both were decent matches but maybe not as good as the names involved would suggest eddie lost the belt to dean milenko in a no dq match at uncensored 97 which was actually very good but would have been even better had six not gotten involved in the finish dammit x-pac and that seemed to be it for eddie guerrero as u.s champion he joined wwe as part of the radicals and a year later wcw folded which soon meant the end of the united states championship until the title was reactivated on smackdown in 2003 by stephanie mcmahon and who should be on the scene to become the first champion of the belt's new era eddie won a diverse tournament defeating ultimo dragon billy gunn and chris benoit to hold the gold for a second time he was still a heel at this point but the fans were starting to love him for it anyway especially when he counted a rhino gore at summerslam by accidentally holding the belt in the way hey if it works it works a very natural babyface turn followed as did a victory over john cena in a parking lot brawl with help from a returning charvo guerrero the pair would then win the tag titles the following week making eddie a very popular double champion he then embarked on a brief but heated feud with the big show which included an angle where eddie sprayed show with human sewage according to commentary if you had human sewage on your michael cole bingo cards cross it off now it's just between local medical facility and boss time big show gained revenge slamming eddie several times into his own lowrider before defeating him at no mercy 2003 number 23 daniel bryan oh yeah it's time to talk about our boy d d-bry no messing about at all brian won the u.s title by beating miz at knight of champions 2010 and everyone loved it yeah he retained against ms and morrison in a submissions count anywhere match at helen a cell which is honestly a weird stipulation but brian still won so everyone loved it yeah on to bragging rights where brian beat ic title holder dolph ziggler in a great champion vs champion match and everyone loves it yeah then with all the momentum in the world brian became a ladies man with the bella twins and gail kim all competing for his affections hmm everyone doesn't love it with the best wrestler in the world being booked as an awkward casanova it wasn't long before brian lost to the man who can always be relied upon to beat him when it matters most daniel bryan defeating specialist sheamus number 22 the miz now we move on from daniel bryan to his bestest buddy in the entire world mike the miz the miz miz won the us title from kofi kingston in october 2009 making him a singles champion in wwe for the first time ever he then beat former tag partner morrison at bragging rights and another of those mid-card champion inter-promotional clashes which always matter absolutely loads from there mrs raine saw him defend the title in fairly short tv matches against the likes of mark henry evan bourne and mvp he also beat mvp at the rumble and the elimination chamber the latter coming after help from new bff the big show unfortunately this meant that the us title now took a back seat to mrs tag exploits as he and show became unified tag team champions and this is just asking for somebody to furiously correct me in the comments but i believe this made miss the first triple champion in wwe history holding the us world tag team and wwe tag titles simultaneously things turned sour for ms shortly afterwards a show broke up the team after they dropped the tag belts his u.s title would shortly follow which was transitioned onto brett's heart of all people thankfully miz won it back the following month he did so in a fatal four-way on raw and then defended it in a singles match at fatal four-way it sounds like a riddle but it's not we promise at this point sadly the us title again took a back seat this time to miss his money in the bank briefcase however he did at least drop it in crowd-pleasing fashion to daniel bryan given their history on nxt number 21 kofi kingston sos i hear them shouting sos i'm us champion those are definitely the lyrics to kofi kingston's old theme i'm serious right now it would have therefore been awkward if kofi had never won the title in his wwe career but thankfully he has done three times in fact he first won it from mvp in 2009 and became a fighting babyface champion he won various multi-man matches on pay-per-view often relying on the trouble in paradise to pick up a flash victory against the likes of regal carlito swagger and the miz kofi's luck ran out against the miz but he won it back a couple of years later at extreme rules 2011. there he won a tables match against smackdown superstar sheamus bringing the title back with him to monday night raw this reign wasn't as impressive however as dolph ziggler beat kofi a month later making him pass out in a sleeper hole dolph is a legitimately dangerous raw underground shoot fighter after all thankfully kofi's third reign was a return to the quality of his first he toppled cesaro on a 2013 episode of raw defended it in an excellent rematch on main events of all places before losing to ambrose at extreme rules all in all a good effort from mr kingston but of course he would go on to prove that his ceiling was far higher than we'd ever expected number 20 rusev so slightly earlier when we were talking about sheamus we mentioned that he lost the u.s title on a post-raw match that aired on the wwe network the winner of that match was rusev which means that rusev alone is responsible for the growth of the wwe network into the sprawling medium it is today well done mate now get off twitch and win that aw world championship already rusev's first meaningful feud came against mr america himself no not that one john cena we mean and rusev was able to render him entirely unconscious with the accolade a huge push seemed to be on the horizon but then he lost the rematch at wrestlemania 31 to cena and the entirety of america so clearly still furious about this one year later rusev almost broke kalisto's spine at extreme rules to win the belt again he took care of smackdown folk like cesaro titus o'neil and zach ryder before being drafted over to the red brand there he ran into the guy you don't want to run into if you want to keep winning wrestling matches roman reigns reigns interrupted ru7 lana's wedding reenactment resulting in a scuffle which saw lana knocked into the cake that is quite mean was rusev meant to be the babyface here and incensed rusev attacked reigns at summerslam before losing the belt at clash of champions but he would still win it one more time that victory should have happened at wrestlemania 34 when literally everybody was behind the concept of rusev day instead jinder won it lol the bulgarian brute did finally win it on the christmas day smackdown though beating shinsuke nakamura before losing it back to him on the royal ramble pre-show honestly there were quite a few good moments here but rusev really had the potential to be right in the upper reaches of this list sadly wwe always seemed to miss the boat number 19 booker t four-time four-time four-time time he held it four times is what i'm getting at here booker t was the last u.s champion in wcw's lifespan beating rick steiner for the belt on the promotion's final pay-per-view before defeating the other steiner on the last ever nitro to become world champion as well unfortunately although booker was one of the only wcw stars to arguably benefit from the invasion angle it didn't spell good things for his u.s title reign he didn't even lose the belt he just gave it to chris canyon and didn't see it again for three years booker's second reign came along in the summer of 2004 where he won an 8-man elimination match last eliminating john cena and rvd within seconds of each other crikey booker steady on your big bloody winning machine oh it says here that he did actually lose the title to cena that's awkward sorry his third reign came in 2005 beating benoit with help from wife charmelle but the title was then stripped after a double pinfall storyline because lord knows we all love those the vacant title issue was solved by a best of seven series between booker and benoit but it got a bit complicated booker raced out to a 3-1 lead and then got injured which meant that randy orton stepped in in his place orton won the series 4-3 with interference from booker himself naturally who became a four-time champion as a result benoit won it back shortly afterwards but we like to imagine that booker still has his eye on the us title even today he just needs to make it five reigns and won't stop until he does so number 18 jimmy snucker snuggle won the u.s title about a year after first arriving in the mid-atlantic territory having previously wrestled for the nwa in texas and out on the west coast there he oh god another tournament for a vacant title i can't take this anymore there he defeated ricky steamboat in the final of a tournament blah blah blah blah anyway the reason it had been vacated was because ric flair the previous champion had become tag team champion alongside blackjack mulligan in 1979. it's a reminder that at this time the us title was still only a regional championship and those big bad nwa titles definitely took precedence snooker didn't care though and embarked on a 233 day reign defending it primarily against steamboat and flair he often had the better of the dragon but lost to him in a couple of champion vs champion matches when ricky was the tv title holder you just know that that's cost snooker a couple of places on this list because we're a sucker for maintaining the prestige of the belt jimmy snucker eventually lost the title to flare in april 1980 and never won it again heading off to new york and the wwe a couple of years later number 17 tully blanchard sometimes there are heels in wrestling and sometimes there are heel heels sally blanchard was coming off the back of a bloody and intense feud with dusty rhodes over the nwa tv title when he was thrust straight into another bloody and intense feud with magnum ta this rivalry and we'll talk about it more later has become the stuff of us champion legend so despite only holding the title once and only being championed for a few months we had to put tully somewhere near the top of this list blanchard beat magnum for the gold in july 1985 after being given a foreign object by manager babydoll who was disguised as a security guard ocean's 11 eat your heart out he held it for the remainder of the summer and into november a truly despicable southern heel champion despite being born in canada but you know what i mean tully lost the belt back to magnum ta in a now legendary steel kgi quick match at starrcade the rivalry and indeed this match has gone down in history far more than tully's one reign itself but he didn't just clash with magnum around this time also defending against the likes of terry taylor and ron garvin but for obvious reasons it's those battles with magnum that stand out the most number 16 sting 1991 was an eventful year for wcw they broke away from the nwa at the beginning of the year and in the summer their first independently recognized champion fell out with management and left for the wwe lex luger was shoehorned into the new role as the top star in the promotion but in becoming wcw world heavyweight champion he was forced to vacate the u.s title so who would be wcw's number two inter sting hot off an intense tag team run with luger and a singles feud with nikita koloff the crowd favorite rode this momentum to a tournament victory for luger's vacated title defeating austin in the f wait a second another tournament this is a joke an actual joke sting held the title for a few months before losing to rick rude a clash of the champions 17 part of a one night angle which worked to perfection sting had been jumped earlier in the evening by luger went to hospital came back and lost the title to rude in a short but electric match he didn't win it again until 1995 beating meng in a tournament fight off you have got to be kidding me sting defended the u.s champion on the first ever nitro against flair but ann anderson ruined the match by attacking the nature boy still it's a cool stat especially as it's the match-up flair and sting would repeat on the final ever episode of nitro 2. around this time sting also took part in the hilariously awful fall brawl 95 war games match as part of the camo crew with hogan savage and luger later he was persuaded to join forces with flair only for flair to immediately turn on sting and reform the horsemen that is a very sting thing to do we have to admit alongside these high-profile story lines he was still u.s champ too a five-month reign which eventually ended in defeat to kensuke sazaki in japan number 15 dean ambrose who even likes john moxley anyway we missed the days of dean ambrose pulling pranks and squirting condiments on people the crazy little scamp thankfully dean ambrose's one u.s title reign came before his wacky babyface run when he was still the snarling de facto leader of the shield and even though he was often backed up by rollins and reigns ambrose sent his stablemates to the back at extreme rules 2013 before defeating kothi kingston on his own to win the gold the same can't be said of his early defenses however which often saw interference from his fellow hounds of justice ambrose's reign was a long one stretching 350 days and was a real mixed bag he had convincing wins such as when he forced a count out against kane by driving the big red machine's head into the floor but he also used cheaper tactics getting dq'd against rvd and taking a deliberate count out loss against big e things picked up in 2014 when ambrose had a strong showing in the royal rumble and took part in the excellent shield vs wyatt family feud the shield's face turn followed as did that emphatic win over kane and the new age outlaws at mania and a big victory over evolution at extreme rules unfortunately ambrose's reign ended the very next night on raw triple h forced him to defend the title in a battle royal and he was unable to overcome the odds getting eliminated by sheamus right at the end still the lunatic fringes one reign restored a lot of prestige to a title that has often needed a boost in the modern age it also remains the longest reign under the wwe banner so a decent effort from ambrose all in all now get out there and feud with nia jax you big joker number 14 barry windham even if you didn't know that barry windham was once united states champion you'd bet your house on it right some wrestlers just seem like they've been us champion before and big baz is certainly one of them wyndham won the belt in 1988 shortly after turning on tag partner lex luger and joining the four horsemen this betrayal signaled a change in attitude for wyndham who began wearing that infamous black glove and using his father's claw hold finisher more on the elder windham a little bit later by the way windham's title win came in the final of a tournament for the vacant belts stop me if you've heard that one before he defeated nikita koloff and embarked on a strong nine month reign defending the championship against the likes of sting doctor death steve williams and even a young bambam bigelow but it was karma that would eventually defeat wyndham well karma and lex luger the man he'd betrayed all those months ago number 13 sergeant slaughter listen up maggots only joking it's still me your friendly host adam petchiti sergeant slaughter came to mid-atlantic in 1981 on a hot streak having just finished a successful heel run in wwe culminating in an intense rivalry with pat patterson and it didn't take long for slaughter to carry this momentum into jim crockett promotions in his first month he wasted no time winning the us title and you'll never bloody guess what it was in a tournament for the vacant belt with slaughter last defeating ricky steamboats slaughter would hold the belt for seven months although it probably felt like an even longer reign to fans at the time the heel would infuriate audiences by retaining against all comers including jake the snake roberts jack briscoe blackjack mulligan and blackjack mulligan jr aka barry windham and when slaughter finally did lose the belt to wahoo mcdaniel it only took him a couple of weeks to get it back mcdaniel didn't give up however and raised the stakes what's that an indian strat match with a hair vs title stipulation in charlotte north carolina the heart of the mid-atlantic territory yes you could say that things got quite exciting slaughter lost because how could you have the babyface lose after that build and then went back up north to wwe the following year he would never get his hands on the u.s title again but did face cesaro for the gold on a 2012 episode of raw he lost obviously number 12 roddy piper we are really getting into iconic territory now let's talk about three time champion rowdy roddy piper hot rod beat ric flair for the title in january 1981 around the same time that nwa san francisco closed its doors taking its version of the united states title with it this was the last remaining nwa us title other than mid-atlantic's version meaning that piper now held wrestling's undisputed united states championship as brash and obnoxious a champion as you would expect piper's reign lasted for seven months and mainly consisted of a feud with the nature boy with the champ often squeaking by via draw or dq he also faced popular figures like andre the giant and wahoo mcdaniel the latter finally ending his reign hyper won the belt again after returning to mid-atlantic in 1983 now as a babyface after his monstrously popular turn in the adjacent georgia territory he beat greg valentine for the gold but dropped it back to him after the heel ruthlessly targeted his injured ear their feud continued for months leading to the iconic dog collar match at the first ever starrcade piper won but unfortunately it was non-title it would take over a decade for the rowdy one to win the u.s title again beating bret hart on an episode of nitro in 1999. for those wondering if it was as good as their wrestlemania 8 classic it wasn't piper only held the belt for two weeks before losing to scott hall at super brawl 9 and although this final reign may threaten to tarnish the legacy of his first two it's easy to forgive roddy was truly special in his heyday and whether as a heel champion or a fan favorite he always got an incredible reaction number 11 chris memoir as uncomfortable as it is to talk about chris benoit's past achievements the title most synonymous with his career must surely be the u.s championship benoit won the gold five times first from david flair in 1999 what a battle that must have been another reign in wcw followed as he was awarded the vacant belt at starrcade 99 before beating jeff jarrett in a ladder match later the same night he lost it to double j the next night on nitro however because title changes equals fun right russo benoit didn't get his hands on the gold again until summerslam 2005 where he destroyed orlando jordan in under 30 seconds to become a three-time champ much of the next year was spent in a tangled feud with booker t and charmele with benoir eventually emerging victorious after exchanging the title a few times he then rolled into wrestlemania 22 and immediately lost it to jbl the quality of the matches with benoir's champion were nearly always good of course but the main problem was the length of his reigns he never fully got a chance to build up ahead of steam until that is his final run with the gold after returning from injury and defeating mr kennedy benoit embarked on a strong seven month reign built mainly around two long feuds with charvo guerrero and mvp he won at wrestlemania 23 and backlash but lost to the rapidly improving mvp at the challenger's third time of asking it was a sensible title change putting a newer star over after a hard-fought series of matches and as we'll see in a few minutes mvp took the ball and ran with it but first number 10 wahoo mcdaniel by the time he'd got his hands on the us title wahoo mcdaniel was already a seasoned veteran he had had epic feuds with flair and valentine over the mid-atlantic heavyweight title the belt the us title would eventually eclipse he finally got a hold of the gold in 1981 beating roddy piper but his reign didn't last long as the vengeful piper brought in abdullah the butcher to injure mcdaniel forcing him to vacate the belt and let's face it abdullah was proper terrifying wasn't he so this must have been quite an ordeal wahoo returned from injury to beat the man who'd won the u.s belt in his absence sergeant slaughter he again lost it in short order as he was injured by piper and don morocco everyone had it out for poor wahoo in the 80s didn't they again he won it back a few months later before dropping it to old foe greg valentine cementing his status as an unfortunate magnet for the most vicious and dastardly heels of the day so mcdaniel did what many beloved babyfaces do when faced with hardship he turned heel tully blanchard helped mcdaniel screw steamboat out of the belt in the summer of 1984 but he was stripped of the gold a week later because apparently rules were sometimes actually enforced back then old wrestling's weird isn't it wahoo won a tournament to once again win the belt back anyway and was finally given a reign of decent length it was a significant one too as he defended the title against billy graham at the second starrcade event before passing the torch to rising star magnum ta all in all wahoo was a key part of the us title scene and boasted five reigns as proof but it's hard to shake the feeling that he usually seemed to be the other guy in his feuds and really that's the only thing stopping him from an even higher finish here number 9 ricky steamboats to quote the intro of uk garage classic do you really like it by dj pied piper in the masters of ceremonies enter the dragon ricky steamboat's first two u.s title reigns came just a couple of years into his career defeating ric flair both times he contrasted incredibly well with the nature boy a modest young babyface to flare's heelish loudmouth persona the second of these victories was also the first us title change outside of the united states as he bested flair in toronto canada steamboat then had to wait a few years for his third stint as champion and he was now a more experienced figure defeating the intimidating dick slater in 1984. he held the goal for a couple of months before dropping it to kayfabe former mentor wahoo mcdaniel the man who had also recommended he be brought to jim crockett promotions in the first place that was probably a lovely moment in reality but an infuriating healish win in kayfabe a bit like when bret hart passed the torch to sean michaels at survivor series 97 you just know those two jokers were laughing at up backstage right steamboat's last reign came in the mid-90s with the dragon now a beloved veteran of the wrestling world after his legendary nwa title feud with flair and wrestlemania 3 classic with randy savage now back in the south with wcw steamboat won the title at clash of the champions 28 defeating none other than steve austin in a great no dq match unfortunately he had to vacate the title due to an injury and was infamously fired by eric bischoff shortly thereafter number 8 mvp it's strange to talk about mvp as a great us champion of the past as he's now one of the focal points of monday night raw and for the purposes of this list we just have to pray that he doesn't win the belt again and render this entire list inaccurate almost immediately so please montel just lose all of your matches from here on out thanks pal mvp first won the gold at judgment day 2007 beating chris benoit in a two out of three falls match two falls to nil that's a pretty impressive start right things only got more entertaining from there as the new champ out dirtied the dirtiest player in the game at vengeance before embarking on his now classic feud with matt hardy and instead took on hardy in many different contests basketball arm wrestling and so on somewhere are young street prophets and viking raiders were clearly taking notes mvp and matt eventually won the tag titles together when forced a team by teddy long making mvp a double champ but the feud was put on hold when hardy got injured mvp passed the time by facing the likes of kane and rey mysterio weaseling his way out of danger with his title reign intact he even scored two wins over batista on consecutive episodes of smackdown won by count out and one with a big assist from umaga but still eventually matt returned costing mvp the money in the bank briefcase at wrestlemania and beating him for the title of backlash ending the longest u.s title reign of the wwe era at the time mvp struck gold again as a babyface one year later but this was a shorter reign still the greatness of his first period as champion is fondly remembered today as much for his antics outside of the ring as his matches in it number 7 magnum ta it's probably no exaggeration to say that magnum ta could have been the nwa's answer to hulk hogan if a car crash hadn't tragically ended his in-ring career in 1986 magnum managed to win the u.s title twice before that fateful day creating a handful of legendary moments in the process he first defeated wahoo mcdaniel for the belt in 1985 and defended it against kamala at the inaugural great american bash in fairness he only beat the ugandan giant via dq in a three-minute bout but far greater things were to come magnum bravely lost a non-title match to nwa champion ric flair after a valiant effort before beginning his now legendary feud with tully blanchard he first lost the u.s title to the horsemen before winning it back in a renowned i quit steel cage match at starrcade to this day it is surely the most famous and beloved match in the history of the championship the following year magnum began his next intense rivalry with nikita koloff a contract signing descended into a brawl when nikita insulted magnum's mother magnum was reprimanded by nwa president bob geigel for behaviour not fitting the u.s champion and in response he uttered the infamous statement reprimand this before decking the authority figure as a result he was stripped of the belt magnum ta was never the longest reigning or most dominant champion but formed one half of the belt's most legendary feud with tully blanchard as well as taking part in its most legendary match it's a great time to look back upon but also sad when you realize that he should have been a great world heavyweight champion too number six blackjack mulligan even if younger or newer wrestling fans aren't familiar with blackjack mulligan you're probably aware of his legacy being the father of barry windham and grandfather of bray wyatt and bo dallas already a big star elsewhere before becoming u.s champion blackjack had been the major nemesis of wwf champion pedro morales in the early 70s he was said to be in line for a big push only for it to be abandoned after a fan stabbed him in the thigh bloody wrestling fans eh he also wrestled bruno samartino in madison square garden bruno's first appearance in the arena since the end of his record-setting title reign so blackjack had already had a very eventful career it's fair to say success only continued however as he found great tag success alongside blackjack lanza as the blackjacks the pair competed and won in various nwa territories but mulligan found his greatest singles success in mid-atlantic this mainly came about during his intense feud with paul jones during which mulligan won the u.s title from him three times these were often long reigns giving mulligan 500 accumulative days with the belt but he wasn't always dominant often retaining via dq in traditional how show fashion his opponents however were both varied and prestigious with blackjack facing the likes of dusty rhodes dino bravo and even andre the giants after success throughout the decade one final reign came in 1978 as mulligan beat a young ricky steamboat in doing so he cemented his status as perhaps the first u.s champion to really make the belt synonymous with himself number five nikita koloff from one legendary nwa figure to another we now take a look at nikita koloff he was first brought into jim crockett's promotion as a total novice and billed as the cafe nephew of veteran ivan koloff although perhaps not the most promising start nikita improved rapidly and was soon the russian nightmare enough of an expert at getting heat that he was attacked by fans on multiple occasions what a great reward for being good at your job he then feuded with magnum ta in the reprimand of this angle which we mentioned just before this led to a best of seven series throughout the summer of 1986 which koloff won by the skin of his teeth thereby becoming u.s champion it was the beginning of an almost year-long reign his first major victory came over wahoo mcdaniel which saw the georgia based national heavyweight championship absorbed into the u.s title's lineage apparently the plan was then for magnum ta to beat flair for the nwa title and then feud with koloff over the big one unfortunately as we know magnum's wrestling days were prematurely cut short leaving kolof's push in the dark so dusty rhodes made a risky booking decision he turned nikita babyface now aligned with dusty himself koloff went after flair's nwa title and came close several times most notably an epic champion vs champion match which ended in a double dq in the main event of stark 886 but despite missing his shot at the world heavyweight title koloff was still u.s champ he reigned through 87 defending the gold against numerous heel opponents including tully blanchard arn anderson and even now rival uncle ivan come the summer it was time for the invention of war games koloff was a crucial part of the babyface team winning the two pioneering matches alongside dusty the road warriors and paul ellering but the damage he sustained in those bouts was the reason for the end of his highly acclaimed u.s title reign as he dropped the belt to lex luger and would never hold it again still nikita koloff has to be remembered as a fantastic champion both as a heel and a baby face during a time when the mid-atlantic territory was red-hot number four greg valentine even before he won his first u.s title greg valentine had amassed a huge reputation as a despicable heel some of his antics have gone down in wrestling history like breaking wahoo mcdaniel's leg and then wearing a t-shirt that said i broke wahoo's leg subtlety was not always part of valentine's game as you can see he also cheated to win the tag titles alongside ray stevens attacked jim crockett himself and faked a babyface turn only to betray friend and former tag partner ric flair it was the last of these dirty deeds that sparked a feud with flair a rivalry which led to valentine's first u.s title reign and wouldn't you know it he defeated the nature boy for the title in charlotte of all places talk about heel heat valentine eventually dropped the title back to flair in a lumberjack match but won it again two years down the line defeating wahoo mcdaniel with the help of manager sir oliver humperdink what a name i think that's what americans think all english names are like he then enjoyed another historic feud this time with rowdy roddy piper including a series of brutal dog collar matches valentine lost the belt to the hot rod but won it back by focusing on piper's ear which was notoriously susceptible to injury with that career defining victory valentine became immovable as u.s champion his reign lasted 228 days full of sheer hatred from paying audiences at every show before he mercifully dropped the belt to dick slater from there it was off to wwe where valentine actually became a beloved babyface and helped hulk hogan defeat andre the giant at wrestlemania 3. only joking he stayed here and everybody continued to hate him magnificent number 3 john cena i think it's fair to say that without the us title cena wouldn't have become the industry defining juggernaut we know him as today it represented a key step in his journey from green as grass vanilla rice wannabe to one of the greatest of all time cena first won the u.s title from big show at wrestlemania 20 a contest which saw him take a boatload of punishment only to fire up at the end and topple the giants it's a match layout that might seem a bit familiar to anyone who's watched any of john cena's bouts cena defended his newly won gold at judgment day against renee dupree and then in a fatal four-way at the great american bash this time against booker t rob van dam and renee dupree again okay then cena was stripped of the gold on an episode of smackdown after accidentally clotheslining injured gm kurt angle but won it back after a hard-fought best-of-five series against booker t again though his reign was cut short as he was defeated the very next week against a debut in carlito in boston as well john the feud with carlito continued with cena winning the belt back then getting stabbed in a nightclub by carlito's henchman jesus fortunately he would gain revenge in a more standard wrestling environment thank goodness it was then time for cena's mega push to begin so he dropped the us title to orlando jordan while preparing to face jbl at wrestlemania it made sense i suppose and even jbl interfered in the match to tie everything together so we now have to jump 10 years into the future with a very different john cena gearing up to face rusev for the us title at wrestlemania 31 and of course cena controversially won over the newer star unleashing the power of america in order to do so he then announced the open challenge one of the strongest periods in the history of the championship this led to great matches against the likes of dean ambrose sami zayn neville and a wonderful half hour battle with cesaro it's because of this that cena finds himself very high on our list now if we could just overlook the part where he was cost the belt by jon stewart and also the part where he lost to alberto del rio of all people number 2 ric flair and so on and so forth flair has the most u.s title reigns of anybody in history with a whopping 6 although one sometimes isn't recognized by wwe but they also claim that he is a six-time champion rather than a five-time champion so what's going on there is anybody's guess anyway flair's first reign came two years after the infamous plane crash that almost ended his career it forced him to change his wrestling style from powerful brawler to more of a technician which of course helped him to become an iconic in-ring talent flair defeated bobo brazil in 1977 to first win the gold and went on to have five reigns over the next few years clashing with greg valentine jimmy snucker roddy piper and ricky steamboats his longest reign was his second when he held the belt for most of 1978. around this time he defended against former champions like paul jones and blackjack mulligan before finally dropping the title to steamboats it's good to know they got the practice in a decade before their legendary nwa world title feud one of flair's reigns had to end when he became nwa tag team champion alongside mulligan in 1979. when jim crockett promotions became wcw and flair was recognized as the first wcw champion in 1991 this already made him the first triple crown champ in wcw history because of course he'd already held the wcw tag team and us titles in their mid-atlantic forms although the bulk of flare's u.s title brilliance came in the late 70s he won it one final time at bash at the beach 96 defeating conan with his feet on the ropes the most healish act to take place that night for certain number one lex luger numbers aren't the only reason that lex luger tops our list but they do at least tell part of the story lex held the us title longer than anybody else across the course of his five reigns an astonishing 950 days he also boasts the longest single reign ever clocking in at 523 days at times it really seemed like this title was fused to the total package's waste yes that sounds like an anatomically dodgy sentence don't think about it too much luger first won the belt as a four horsemen member in 1987 having replaced oley anderson earlier that year he did so with a big assist from horseman manager jj dillon who threw a chair into play allowing lex to ko nikita kolov and torturak his unconscious body dylan and luga tried to repeat the trick at starcade against dusty rhodes but lex dropped the weapon and dusty capitalised to win the belt oh dear lex someone's a little clumsy onesie luger was furious and turned on dylan a week later leaving the horsemen and turning face now let's fast forward just over a year jim crockett promotions was now wcw and it was time for luger to win the title again this time from former friend barry windham who had betrayed lex to join the horsemen one year prior history repeated itself as lugo was betrayed by his new ally michael ps hayes and lost the title he won it back a few weeks later though wcw perhaps realizing that they made a bit of a mistake this was the start of a massive rain stretching from may 1989 to october 1990. it remains the longest in title history but it all began with a shocking heel turn luger must have learned something from wyndham and hayes because he turned on permanent good guy ricky steamboat he was tired of making fans happy and wanted to prove that he was better than the dragon it does kind of make sense as luka's feuds with windermere hayes had taken place in the gigantic shadow of flare and steamboat's world title trilogy but mid-range luca became babyface once again getting himself counted out of a world title match at wrestle war 1990 to check on sting who had been jumped by the andersons on the outside lex you had a chance to beat flair forget your weird face painted friend he'll only go all gothi and steal your thunder in the war with the nwo anyway eventually luger's historic reign was ended by stan hansen at halloween havoc but he again won the title back a couple of months later at starrcade this reign would end with the belt vacated as luga became wcw champion winning the title after flair had taken his ball and the actual physical belt to wwe luger's final reign was a disappointing one defeating bret hart nwo associate edition the title change came on nitro and lex ended up losing it back to brett on thunder that very same week still we do not want that to tarnish the great legacy of lex luger with this title and for our money he's the greatest us champion of all time

Channel: Cultaholic Wrestling

Views: 1,763,457

Rating: 4.7552299 out of 5

Keywords: us championship, united states championship, us title, united states title, wwe us championship, wwe us title, wwe united states championship, wwe united states title, wwe, wcw, nwa, wcw us title, wcw us championship, wcw united states title, wcw united states championship, nwa us title, wwe title, nwa us championship, nwa united states title, nwa united states championship, ric flair, roddy piper, tully blanchard, ddp, bret hart, eddie guerrero, kofi kingston, rey mysterio

Id: bKsTtXBu0uM

Length: 118min 32sec (7112 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020