Life before Logan Paul: Story of the WWE United States Championship
YouTube — Official WWEThe United States Championship is a long-running WWE title often considered one of the most prestigious prizes in all of professional wrestling, as several legends have donned the iconic belt in their career.
The earliest version of a United States Championship dates back to the 1880s, as most North American wrestling promotions had their own take on the title.
Regions like Detroit and Chicago — both under the National Wrestling Alliance umbrella — argued that their respective US titles were the definitive ones, but the NWA would soon cement its Mid-Atlantic belt as the one true championship.
The United States Championship, as we all know it, was officially established in 1975. It served as the primary title for most of Jim Crockett’s NWA ownership.
Here is a breakdown of each era of the United States Championship, including every version of the belt and the stars of the past and present who have worn it around their waists.
Contents
- NWA United States Heavyweight Championship
- WCW United States Championship
- WWE United States Championship
- What it means for current champion Logan Paul
NWA United States Heavyweight Championship
Harley Race became the inaugural titleholder of the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship, formerly known as the Mid-Atlantic title. It officially became the sole US title in 1981 following the closure of rival promotion, Big Time Wrestling.
With Race as champion, the belt served as the pinnacle of the NWA and helped catapult the rising talent to worldwide superstardom. He would be a fixture in world title discussions for the rest of his professional wrestling career, thanks to his time as the United States champ.
Race famously feuded with legends such as Bob Backlund and ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham in the NWA, and even body slammed Andre The Giant toward the tail end of the seventies. But his most notable feud came against ‘The American Dream’ Dusty Rhodes.
(YouTube — Official WWE)The two dueled over the belt for multiple years until Rhodes finally conquered his demon and defeated Race. It brought an end to the inaugural champion’s time atop the promotion, paving the way for future WWE legend Ric Flair to challenge Dusty for the belt.
The championship would change hands several times over the years, but Flair always found a way to come out on top, with the Starcade steel cage match in 1983 serving as the capper to their lengthy rivalry.
From 1986, the strap has helped wrestlers evolve from rising stars into bonafide main-event attractions. Lex Luger is a prime example, as he won the belt five times in the decade, even having one version of the belt dubbed the ‘Luger belt’.
WCW United States Championship
After Ted Turner purchased NWA in 1988 and rebranded it as World Championship Wrestling, the WCW United States title came into effect and became the mid-card title for the promotion. It was held by some of the biggest names in professional wrestling history.
(WCW United States Championship Belt — BeltsMania.com)Sting, in all of his WCW glory, was the inaugural champion for the WCW brand. He won the title in a 1991 tournament, defeating ‘Stunning’ Steve Austin, before his ‘Stone Cold’ days in the finals.
Rick Rude became the first person to force a title change in the company, as he beat Sting in a fearsome battle at Clash of Champions XVII. Rude went on to carry the belt for over a year before a familiar surname took over as champion.
Dustin Rhodes, the son of Dusty, won the first solo championship of his still-young professional wrestling career. Austin would go on to win the title from him at the tenth anniversary of Starcade.
The rest of the decade would see then and future wrestling icons don the strap, including Ricky ‘The Dragon’ Steamboat, Ric Flair, Eddie Guerrero, Jim Duggan, Jeff Jarrett, ‘Diamond’ Dallas Page, Bill Goldberg, Booker T, and Bret Hart, amongst others.
(YouTube — Official WWE)Many of those superstars used the United States Championship to elevate their status on the card, resulting in a world title pushes for several of them in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
WWE United States Championship
Following Vince McMahon’s decision to buy WCW in 2001, the title was used in the infamous ‘Invasion’ storyline before being unified and left on the shelf for nearly two years.
Eddie Guerrero, a former US champion under the WCW umbrella, was the first superstar to bring it out of hibernation following its two-year hiatus. Upon its return in 2003, the title took an even prominent role in turning mid-card talents into main-event players.
There is no better example than John Cena. Before his multiple US title reigns, Cena was nothing more than an afterthought in the championship landscape.
But with his moniker of ‘Doctor Thuganomics,’ Cena found his stride, and it coincided with his time as the mid-card champion. He even introduced the first-ever ‘spinner’ belt design in professional wrestling, which he would later bring to the WWE championship.
Other well-known stars of the 2000s that had time with the belt include Carlito, JBL, Bobby Lashley, The Miz, Kofi Kingston, Daniel Bryan and even the hilarious R-Truth.
The connective tissue between one era and the other continued in the 2010s as Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins — all members of the legendary Shield faction — held the belt at one time or another.
(YouTube — Official WWE; WWE.com)To this day, Ambrose maintains the lengthiest US title reign in WWE history at 351 days. Reigns and Rollins each quickly became world champions after leaving the Shield, but this mid-card belt gave them their first taste of individual gold.
What it means for current champion Logan Paul
And that brings us to the current United States Champion, Logan Paul. ‘The Maverick’ won the title from future Hall of Famer Rey Mysterio at Crown Jewel in November 2023 and has defended it twice since.
Paul’s exciting brand of wrestling is the perfect continuation of such an illustrious lineage. The social media megastar is a phenomenal in-ring talent, sporting excellent athleticism and a willingness to put his body on the line.
He’s incredible on the microphone and an expert at generating heat from the crowd as a despised heel. Very few superstars boast the all-around package that Paul displays every time he takes the ring.
There’s no better stepping stone to the top of the company than winning the United States Championship. It’s akin to winning the Money in the Bank briefcase — all but guaranteed to lead to a world title run.
Based on that, Paul should carry the US title for a while longer. But when he’s ready, don’t be surprised if the WWE pushes him into the main-event conversation immediately after dropping the belt.
The United States Championship is undoubtedly a career-making achievement, as the odds of becoming a world champion rise exponentially when a superstar has previously been the US titleholder. Paul should be the next to make that transition.