Top 5 Greatest United States Champions of the Modern Era

In total there have been 88 different United States Champions throughout the course of history.

Today i’d like to focus on the time of it’s reincarnation in 2003. A lot of WWE Superstars used the United States Championship as a stepping stone to a bigger spotlight, for some it was their one and only run with a singles championship. The United States Champions faced a lot of dark times, especially during 2009 and 2014 where many reigns could be considered as ‘through-away reigns’.

Nowadays, also thanks to the new brand-split, the United States Championship is back being a solid midcard title and holding it actually means something again. But only the best elevated not only themselves but the championship itself and some even elevated other talent. Let’s take a look at the Top 5 Greatest US Champions of the Modern Era:

5. Daniel Bryan

In September 2010 Daniel Bryan overcame his former NXT Pro The Miz and won the United States Championship from him at that year’s Night of Champions. This kicked the door open for the so called ‘indy wrestlers’ in WWE and was the first title in Bryan’s extremely succesful WWE career.

The reign span over 176 days. Bryan was driven to make his US Title reign as competitive as it could be, which lead to many great wrestling matches, for example against the then Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler at Bragging Rights.

His successor as a Champion, Sheamus, never came close to that with his follow-up reign. 

4. Shelton Benjamin

The recently returned ‘Gold Standard’ Shelton Benjamin was able to turn his first and only reign with the esteemed championship into a 240 day reign after beating Matt Hardy for it in 2008.

Just like Bryan he took the ball and ran with it. During the impressive run he had with the title he had multiple incredible matches and made it a guarantee his title defenses where indeed the GOLD STANDARD on SmackDown. It was the following superstar who dethroned one the most impressive reigns in SmackDown’s history.

3. MVP

Montel Vontavious Porter, MVP, held the red-white-and-blue-title on two occasions between 2007 and 2009. Both reigns combined, he had one of the longest reigns in the title’s history. The impressive number of 419 days made MVP look like a millions bucks. It was the peak of his career.

The highly entertaining feud between and Matt Hardy over the title is still talked about to this day. He even went a step further by winning the WWE Tag Team Title alongside Matt Hardy, making both the Tag Team and United States Champion simultaneously. After great title matches against, for example, the great Ric Flair, MVP dropped the US Title to his familiar foe, a returning Matt Hardy. After a face turn saw another run with the title for him he later switched brands while holding the strap, only to lose it to Kofi Kingston a couple of months later.

2. Rusev

Before Rusev and after MVP not many United States Champions could really give something to the US Title or to audience for that matter. Not even Dean Ambrose, who had a meaningless reign with the title for over 350 days, the longest reign in the WWE history of the US Title.
For first time in a long time the United States Championship actually meant something. Eventhough Rusev was portraying the standard stereotypical foreign-heel, he was so good at it, it perfectly tied in the american gimmick of the United States Championship. In November 2014 he defeated Sheamus for a 146 day reign which was filled with an intriguing feud between him and the ‘real american’ Jack Swagger. Rusev was undefeated until….until...WrestleMania 31. The first time in a long time the United States Title was defended at the grandest stage of them all. Rusev won the title for a second time in May 2016 but it was not nearly as impressive as the first run.

1. John Cena

You may not like him, but you sure have to respect him. John Cena made the United States Title in WWE. It was the first ever championship John Cena held in WWE. He was the only one that ever put a rededsign on the title (which was dropped soon to return to the current design). But it wasn’t until his fourth reign where Cena really became the greatest United States Champion in a long long time. After defeating Rusev at WrestleMania 31, Cena introduced the UNITES STATES OPEN CHALLENGE. Every week Cena and a random member of the WWE roster, mostly midcarders, had the match of the night. This elevated the United States Championship and it became the most talked-about championship in all of WWE. It also made for some incredible television when Kevin Owens, then the NXT Champion, surprisingly appeared on RAW and challenged Cena for the title. Another epic night for the WWE fans and the United States Championship followed when the US Title was part of the Main Event of a WWE Pay-Per-View alongside the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam. Seth Rollins became the first ever man to hold both the US Title and the World Title at the time. This was the biggest possible spotlight the United States Championship ever received. All thanks to the incredible work of John Cena in the months and weeks prior reestablishing the prestige of the title.

Cena won the title back from Rollins shortly only to drop it to a returning Alberto Del Rio later the same year. John Cena held the title for an impressive 5-times and who knows, without him, where would the United States Championship be today? Ever since Cena has been champion in 2015 the WWE treats the United States Title with more respect.

Bobby Roode, the current champion, recently introduced the Open Challenge back at SmackDown Live. Maybe he will be featured in this list of the Greatest United States Champions after he gave up the title. Who knows?