The Contentious Ten 8.20.12: Top 10 United States Champions

Believe it or not, Santino Marella has been the WWE United States Champion for nearly six months. Granted, he’s mostly been a featured jobber to Alberto Del Rio during that timespan, but still, that’s good for the 24th longest out of the 129 reigns in the belt’s checkered past. Once upon a time, the United States title was a big deal, looked at as the number two guy in the NWA and in WCW before the title was revived in WWE. In WWE, it’s almost always played second fiddle to the Intercontinental title, and has occasionally been all but forgotten. It’s been consolidated with the Intercontinental title, and it’s been vacated at least a dozen times throughout the years. Still, some legitimate legends have held the title, such as Harley Race (who was first), Ric Flair, Sting, Steve Austin, Vader, and Orlando Jordan. Just FYI, that last name was a joke. I feel like I have to specify that, otherwise I’ll get a thousand comments screaming like their head is on fire about me thinking Orlando Jordan was an all time great. Anyway, here is my criteria for The 10 Greatest United States Champions so that we’re all on the same page:

It’s always a little startling to me to see Barry Windham these days. Once upon a time, Barry Windham was on the fast track to being one of the greatest of all time. From the standpoint of simply enjoying watching a guy in the ring, I can’t definitively say anyone has ever been a better worker than Barry Windham. Even in his early days, he received high praise from Ric Flair as the only guy that he couldn’t “blow up” in the ring. Windham could work effortlessly as a heel or a face, was a member of the greatest version of the Horsemen, and to this day is the owner and operator of the best version of the superplex that’s ever graced a wrestling ring. Knee injuries and a tendency to put on some weight like he’s got Samoan blood somewhere down the line sidetracked Windham, but he remains one of the best US titlists ever.

Blackjack Mulligan was a prototype for the modern big man. He was so much more than a lumbering bruiser, and remains one of the greatest brawlers in the sport’s history. As the father half of the first father/son duo to hold the US title (the Rhodes and Flairs would follow), Mulligan is the beginning of quite the legacy in the sport. Beyond being the father to Barry, though, Mulligan is a legitimate great in the sport. His feuds throughout the territories in the 1970’s with Paul Jones, Ric Flair, Kevin Sullivan were the stuff of legend, and his feud with Andre the Giant in the early 80’s is some of Andre’s best work. Mulligan unfortunately doesn’t get a lot of attention in the years since his retirement, but new fans would be well served to research one of the modern era’s first true great big men.

Booker T won a hell of a lot of titles, didn’t he? Between WCW and WWE, he’s held over thirty championships, with a half dozen of them being one version or another of a world championship. Not bad for a guy that I first saw wrestling as a part of The Ebony Experience during the GWF’s brief run on ESPN. Booker was one of the few WCW holdovers to survive in WWE, and arguably the only one that truly thrived immediately after the merger. As good as he was, though, Booker lands just outside my Fave 5 US Champions. I’m sure he’ll forgive me. WWE went back to the well multiple times with the “Best of _ Series” for a title that Booker and Benoit turned in classics with in WCW. They would attempt to duplicate that series with another series against Benoit and one with Cena. Neither of those were as good as the original Best of 7 with Benoit, but they were still high quality matches that served as a reminder of how good Booker can be.

I remember being about 13 or 14 years old and telling one of my friends that Steve Austin was going to be a world champion one day. This was way back during his days as “Stunning” Steve, and before the idea of “Stone Cold” had even been conceptualized. As far as what he did in the ring, I prefer Austin’s work as “Stunning” Steve, even if he’s much more important to the business in his “Stone Cold” persona. Austin used the United States title to become a superstar, but not in the typical fashion of moving on from the US to a World title. Actually, Austin’s second reign was influential in creating “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. It was after being handed the title then jobbing to Jim Duggan in 8 seconds immediately afterward that Austin would begin to get real good and pissed off. That festered in him, and heaps of salt would be poured in the wound in the months that followed. By the time he got to ECW, he was real good and pissed off. The rants that ensued in ECW would be the rough draft version of Stone Cold.

My first memories of Rick Rude are in World Class, as he challenged people to arm wrestling contests. Shortly after, he was a member of the NWA world tag team champions with Manny Fernandez. He would go on to excel in the WWF as one of the great Intercontinental champions, then returned to WCW and became United States champion. Looking back, there wasn’t much that Rick Rude wasn’t good at. His reign as United States champion was a showcase in how to help yourself by helping others. Rude turned in fantastic matches at every turn with a wide variety of talent during his year plus reign as United States champion. From Dustin Rhodes to Sting, Ricky Steamboat to Brain Pillman, Rude helped make everybody that was in the ring with him look good. As a result, Rude looked even better. That philosophy is something all of the true greats have grasped, proving that Rude belongs on this list better than any other argument I could make.

By the mid 1980’s, Magnum TA was becoming a superstar. Unfortunately, he was in the NWA, not the WWF. Dusty Rhodes has admitted in interviews that they had “no idea” what to do with Magnum. What he’s referring to is how Vince was able to get his guy, Hogan, onto Letterman and into the public eye. The NWA just made Magnum a wrestler. Magnum was a great wrestler, and before his near fatal car crash, he was being groomed to take the NWA World title from Ric Flair. It was almost inevitable. This should have been a stepping stone for Magnum TA, not his defining career achievement. Instead, what we’re left with are images of what could have been. If his body of work with the United States title is any indication, then Magnum as NWA World Champion would have been a colossal success.

Nikita Koloff is a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time. He rose to fame during the Cold War era, when it was easy to get over as a heel simply by being Russian. It didn’t hurt that he was the size of a small apartment complex, and the true steroid era of professional wrestling was in full swing with guys like Hulk Hogan and the Road Warriors dominating the title scenes. Incredibly, though, the Russian Nightmare was a legitimate phenomenon after his face turn. If you haven’t seen it, there’s a clip floating around YouTube that shows Nikita saving Dusty Rhodes from an attack by the Four Horsemen, and crowd absolutely erupts. One of the loudest reactions you’ll ever hear. Nikita won the title in an epic 7 match series with Magnum TA; the idea was likely to have Magnum put Nikita over before winning the NWA World title himself. Nikita would dominate all challengers to his title for nearly a year, before losing the title to Lex Luger. About a month after winning the title, Nikita unified the NWA US Championship with the NWA National Championship (held by Wahoo McDaniel), making Nikita the answer to a trivia question: Which wrestler was responsible for unifying both the NWA United States and Television titles?

In every sport, certain guys get lost to history, regardless of their ability. Ken Anderson of the Cincinnati Bengals, for example. The guy led the NFL in passer rating more times than anyone except Steve Young, led the league in passing yardage twice, got the Bengals to a Superbowl, helped pioneer the West Coast offense, and finished his career with only 300 fewer yards than Steve Young despite playing in an era that focused more on rushing. Yet he’s not in the Hall of Fame and is rarely mentioned outside of Cincinnati. In that vein, Greg Valentine remains one of the most underrated performers of the modern era. He is by all accounts a consummate professional, and his early work with the United States title would be an example of just how good he could be. He would go on to be a WWF Intercontinental champion and tag team champion, but his first signs of greatness were feuding with Ric Flair and Roddy Piper – and getting the best of them quite often – over the United States title. Flair and Valentine traded the title at house shows in 1980, which remain unrecognized as part of the title’s official history, despite Valentine holding the title for nearly four months.

A few years before Ric Flair took over the main event in the NWA, he was a lynchpin of the United States title scene. The names of the guys feuding over the title at that point in history would go on to become a who’s who of the wrestling industry. Seven years before tearing down the house in the Meadlowlands, Flair and Steamboat cut their teeth on the United States Championship. In looking at the guys that Ric Flair defeated for the US title in the late 1970’s, you can get a sense of how the business was beginning to change. Flair won his first US title from Bobo Brazil, then his second from Mr. Wrestling. When he lost the title in 1980, it was to Roddy Piper. In just three years, Ric Flair helped bridge a gap from Bobo Brazil, who had legendary feuds with men like The Sheik, to Roddy Piper, who would be instrumental in the Rock N Wrestling era that ushered in Wrestlemania. Flair was also one of the first champions to use the title as a launching pad to bigger and better things. There would be others that did the same, but none quite to the same level that Flair managed.

Almost from the moment that Lex Luger arrived in the NWA, he seemed to be a perfect fit for the United States championship. He was young, still green, and wasn’t ready for the main event quite yet. He still had an undeniable look to him that warranted a push, and the fact that he was a part of the Four Horsemen almost demanded a championship of some sort. Even now, Luger is the first person most older fans associate with the title. That’s probably thanks in no small part to the fact that from February 20, 1989 (when he beat Barry Windham) until July 14, 1991 (when he won the WCW World title), there were only 65 days that Luger didn’t have the United States title. I’m sure the idea was that at some point, Luger would ascend past the United States championship and to the NWA World title, but it never really worked out like anyone thought it would. Instead, there were feuds with Dusty Rhodes, Nikita Koloff, Barry Windham, Michael Hayes, Stan Hansen, and others throughout the years. For a variety of reasons (politics and ego being among the primary), Lex never got the chance to beat Ric Flair for a world title. Well, it may just be a list put together by a random guy on a small corner of the internet, but Luger finally beat Flair at something. He is, without a doubt, the greatest United States champion ever.

Who’d I miss? Who’s in the wrong spot? Who’s off the list entirely? As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback on this, and at some point I’ll join in the discussion in the comments section below. I’ll be back next week for another countdown. See you in 7.