| WWE United States Championship | |||||||||||||||||||
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WWE United States Championship belt |
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| Current champion(s) | Zack Ryder | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date won | December 18, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Promotion | NWA (1975–1988) WCW (1988–2001) WWF/E (2001; 2003–present) |
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| Brand | Raw | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date established | January 1, 1975 | ||||||||||||||||||
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The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship in WWE. It was originally a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) championship, and is currently the secondary championship of the Raw brand.
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The WWE United States Championship was originally known as the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship and began as a regional championship created by and defended in Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling run by Jim Crockett, Jr. Following the title's introduction in 1975, Harley Race became the inaugural champion on January 1. The title quickly replaced the NWA Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship as the top singles title in the promotion. While the National Wrestling Alliance recognized only one World Heavyweight Champion, there was no single undisputed U.S. Champion as a number of NWA regional promotions recognized their own version of the title and champion. That all changed, however, in January 1981 when the NWA territory based out of San Francisco, the last remaining promotion outside the Mid-Atlantic territory that recognized its own U.S. Champion, folded. The title remained the primary championship within the Mid-Atlantic territory until 1986 when Crockett gained control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. The U.S. Title then became the secondary championship of the promotion. After Ted Turner bought the company and renamed it World Championship Wrestling in November 1988, the title continued to be used and recognized as secondary to the World Championship. WCW eventually began to slowly pull itself away from the NWA, demonstrated by the company changing the name of the title to the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) United States Heavyweight Championship in January 1991.
In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased World Championship Wrestling. As part of the purchase, the United States Championship became WWF property. Throughout 2001, the title was referred to as the WCW United States Championship, as this was during The Invasion period. At Survivor Series 2001, the title was unified with the WWF Intercontinental Championship. The United States Champion, Edge, defeated the Intercontinental Champion, Test, becoming the new Intercontinental Champion and the United States Championship was then deactivated.
In July 2003, the title was reactivated as the WWE United States Championship by SmackDown General Manager, Stephanie McMahon, and was commissioned to be a secondary championship to the SmackDown brand. Eddie Guerrero became the first champion after months of having been vacated through a tournament in the finals at Vengeance 2003 vs Chris Benoit, WCW was dropped from the name, and WWE was added. This was done shortly after the WWE Intercontinental Championship was recommissioned by the Raw brand, making the title its equal counterpart. The title remained on SmackDown until April 13, 2009, when reigning champion Montel Vontavious Porter was drafted from SmackDown over to Raw during the 2009 WWE Draft, moving the title with him. On April 26, 2011, reigning champion Sheamus was drafted to SmackDown during the 2011 WWE Draft, briefly bringing the U.S. Title back to the show. Five days later, Raw's Kofi Kingston defeated Sheamus for the title at Extreme Rules, returning it to Raw.
The inaugural champion was Harley Race. There have been 73 different champions, with Chris Benoit, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Lex Luger and Wahoo McDaniel having the most official reigns at five. Flair has the most overall reigns at six, however not all are officially recognized.[1] The longest reigning champion was Lex Luger who held the title for 523 days from May 22, 1989 to October 27, 1990. The shortest reigning champion was Steve Austin who held the title for approximately five minutes. During John Cena's last reign as the United States Champion, he made a custom "spinner" version of the belt. On an episode of SmackDown, the "spinner" version was destroyed, with the help of John Bradshaw Layfield, after Orlando Jordan defeated Cena at a previous event for the title. After destroying the belt, WWE returned the first WWE style championship. The current champion is Zack Ryder, who is in his first reign. He defeated Dolph Ziggler for the title on December 18, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland during the Tables, Ladders, and Chairs pay-per-view.
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