WWE United States Championship (1975)
Timeline
The WWE United States Heavyweight Championship dates back to 1975 under Jim Crockett Promotions. Harley Race won a tournament to win the first US Championship under Mid-Atlantic Wrestling. JCP had 37 US Champions from 1975-1988, ending with Barry Windham.
It was absorbed by WCW in 1988, with Lex Luger beating Windham, and they had 54 champions up until 2001, ending with Booker T. It survived the Invasion Merger as the WCW US Championship, with 5 Champs, beginning with Chris Kanyon and ending with Edge, who beat Intercontinental Champion Test in a Unification Match on 11/18/01 at Survivor Series.
It was reinstated as the WWE US Championship in 2003. Eddy Guerrero beat Chris Benoit in a tournament final at Vengeance on 07/27/03 in Denver, CO. There have been 83 WWE US Champs since 2003, beginning with Guerrero and ending with current US Champion Logan Paul.
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The HHH Era (2022) started off with the 172nd Champion Damian Priest who was the United States Champion at the turn of 2022, He defeated former champion Sheamus (champ for 132 Days) on 8/21/21 at SummerSlam in Paradise, NV. Sheamus had held the belt since 04/11/21 when he defeated Riddle at Wrestlemania 37 in Tampa, FL
This was Priest’ 1st reign and lasted 191 Days. This was the 3rd longest reign of this era, topped by Austin Theory (258 Days) & current champion Logan Paul with 258+ days.
Finn Balor, Bobby Lashley, Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins & Rey Mysterio also held the title since 2022, and a shorter reign for Theory before his longer reign as well. Theory’s combined 333-day reign marks the 11th Longest combined reign in US Championship history. Logan Paul’s current reign is 22nd Longest Combined US Championship reign.
The US Championship had been a RAW Title since 2019, and would revert back to Smackdown in 2023. So far since 01/01/22 there have been 7 Champions with a combined 8 reigns.
Number | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | |
Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Days recog. |
172 | August 21, 2021 | 1 | 191 | 191 | ||||||
173 | February 28, 2022 | 1 | 49 | 48 | ||||||
174 | April 18, 2022 | 1 | 75 | 74 | ||||||
175 | July 2, 2022 | 3 | 100 | 100 | ||||||
176 | October 10, 2022 | 2 | 47 | 47 | ||||||
177 | November 26, 2022 | 2 | 258 | 257 | This was a triple threat match, also involving Bobby Lashley. Austin Theory was formerly known as Theory.The title became exclusive to the SmackDown brand following the 2023 WWE Draft. | |||||
178 | August 11, 2023 | 3 | 85 | 84 | Austin Theory was due to face Santos Escobar, who had won the United States Championship Invitational Tournament, but was taken out by Theory before the match started. WWE Official Adam Pearce then allowed Mysterio to take Escobar's place for the title match. | |||||
179 | November 4, 2023 | 1 | 257+ | 257+ |
