United States Championship

The United States Championship was introduced on the first episode of Smackdown, which saw Booker T claim the belt after defeating Dean Ambrose. It is the current mid-card championship on Raw.

## History

The United States Title debuted as the mid card title on Smackdown, with Booker T being crowned as the first champion, defeating Dean Ambrose. Ambrose defeated Booker in a rematch at Extreme Rules in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Dean went on to be a great champion, holding the belt for an incredible 126 days, holding onto it time after time. After Dolph Ziggler attacked both Dean and Kevin Owens, SmackDown GM Teddy Long set up a triple threat for the title at Summerslam, which was won by Dolph, ending Dean's reign.

Owens and Ziggler met in a rematch at No Mercy, with Owens coming out successful in a No Holds Barred Match. Immeadiately afterward, he announced that he was leaving for Raw, and taking the belt with him, making his first appeance on the Raw brand the very next night. Owens succesfully defended the belt against John Cena at the Raw Season 1 Finale, and again at Survivor Series against Sami Zayn. Owens was unsuccessful in challenging for the World Heavyweight Title against Goldberg, disappearing from Raw for a few weeks. He would return to host an open challenge for the belt on December 19th. The challenge would be answered by the returning Sami Zayn, who defeated KO with a Helluva Kick to win the title.

Sami made his first appearance with the belt on January 16th, 2017, hosting his own open challenge. However, he would be attacked by a vengeful Owens as he was backstage. Sami would go through with his title defense, losing the belt to Chris Jericho, who also qualified for the Royal Rumble. Jericho would begin issuing open challenges for his belt, defeating the likes of Zack Ryder, Austin Aries and Sami Zayn, whom he defeated at Elimination Chamber. During an open challenge a few weeks before WrestleMania, John Cena answered Jericho's challenge, wanting a match with him at the event. At WrestleMania, Chris Jericho retained once more, defeating Cena with a Codebreaker. Jericho then entered a feud with Kevin Owens, who was obsessed with capturing the United States Championship. The rivalry got personal very quickly, but despite doing everything he possibly could to take down Jericho, Owens never managed to win back the belt. Y2J got the better of him at Payback, but KO would powerbomb him onto the ring apron after the match. This led to a Street Fight at Extreme Rules, when Jericho won again with two Codebreakers. At Bad Blood, Chris Jericho's reign as champion came to an end, as Rusev made him tap with The Accolade.

Rusev's reign as champion would be marked by his feud with Shinsuke Nakamura, with the Japanese star setting his sights on the championship. Jinder Mahal, working with Rusev, was able to defeat Nakamura to become number one contender, but came up short at Summerslam. In a rematch on Raw a few weeks later, Nakamura avenged his defeat, earning his shot at Rusev. At No Mercy, Shinsuke Nakamura became the eighth United States Champion, quickly ending Rusev's reign. In a rematch at Halloween Havoc , Nakamura once again defeated Rusev, this time in a 2 out of 3 falls match. After taking part in the Raw vs SmackDown match at Survivor Series , the King of Strong Style began a feud with the Show-Off, Dolph Ziggler. The two met first at Armageddon , with Shinsuke winning and Dolph turning heel afterward. The second match between the two was an Extreme Rules match at Royal Rumble , where Nakamura was once again victorious. After turning on tag partner Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa won a battle royal to become the next contender to the championship. At WrestleMania , the Pyscho Killer became the new champion.

Ciampa's reign would begin with a defense over Kassius Ohno at Backlash , but on the Raw following, Johnny Gargano returned for revenge. The two partners would face off in a Street Fight for the championship at Extreme Rules , which Johnny won, forcing Tommaso to leave Raw. But Gargano's reign was short-lived, as at Money in the Bank , he lost the title in his first defense to Jason Jordan. Jordan defended against Shelton Benjamin at Vengeance , but he couldn't hold on to for long either, as he would lose to Pete Dunne at Summerslam . Dunne would debut a new design for the belt, and began calling it the United Kingdom Championship. He defeated Gargano at Unforgiven , before Jordan returned with the old championship. The two would face off again at No Mercy, with the winner getting his title officially recognized, and Pete Dunne was victorious again. Dunne would then compete in a losing effort for Team Raw at Survivor Series . Following his star-making performance at that show, "The Bruiserweight" would pick up a win over Randy Orton at Armageddon before competing in the Royal Rumble and challenging for the Universal Championship at Elimination Chamber, both ending in defeat. Dunne's reign would finally come to an end at the hands of Adam Cole at WrestleMania III, thanks to repeated interference by Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of the Undisputed Era.

Cole tossed aside the UK title to bring back the US version for his reign, and he began feuding with Ricochet. This rivalry saw Cole retain his belt against "The One and Only" at Backlashand inside of a Steel Cage at Bad Blood. At Summerslam, Cole defeated Kassius Ohno, and afterward, he, Fish and O'Reilly were confronted The Elite(Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks). Cole lost to Elite leader Omega at No Mercy, but it was by DQ after Fish and O'Reilly interfered, meaning Cole still remained champion. But the feud between the two groups continued, and came to a head at Survivor Series, where in a Winner Take All match that also had the Raw Tag Team Championships on the line, The Elite came out victorious and Omega took the title from Cole.

Kenny Omega's first defense was a "dream match" against Hiroshi Tanahashi. They were given the main event at Armageddon, where Omega retained with the One-Winged Angel.