I really have a hard time understanding why some people always want to delete the US Championship from consideration  Lets look at this step by step  Brock Lesnar takes the WWE Championship to Smackdown so Raw GM Eric Bischoff creates the World Championship for Raw  Both Championships are understood to be of the same value Still in WWE Tag team Champions Lance Storm and Christian jump from Smackdown to Raw so  Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon sets up a tournament to crown Tag Team Champions for Smackdown  Again the gist is that both sets titles were to be viewed as equals In early June Raw coGM Stone Cold Steve Austin announces a Battle Royale to crown a winner for the newly reactivated Intercontinental Title so then a couple of weeks later Stephanie McMahon set up a tournament for the newly reactivated United States Title  The timing of this was done purposely to show that the IC and US titles were to be viewed  as parallel to each other  Even though Vince McMahon didnt come from the mountain top with stone tablets making a proclamation all of these new titles were introduced in such a way as to show that they were the equals of the originals  Its just a simple case of putting    together and figuring it out not everything has to be spelled out for something to be understood