The Ripple Effect 5.25.07: The United States Championship

That Hulk Hogan, he never ceases to amaze me…

As if being the most enduring symbol of the wrestling industry, starring in several Hollywood films and having his own reality show wasn’t enough. The Hulkster has now been heralded for, of all things, his child rearing skills. That’s right, the National Father’s Day Committee has bestowed upon him an award for “father of the year.” Don’t believe me? Here’s a snippet of the press release:

Famed professional wrestler, actor, TV and movie star, humanitarian and dad, Hulk Hogan, has accepted an invitation from the National Father’s Day Committee to receive a Father of the Year Award at the group’s 66th Annual Luncheon on Thursday, June 7, 2007, at the NY Sheraton Hotel & Towers in Manhattan.

Richard Wurtzburger, Committee Chairman and Sr. Vice President of Peerless Clothing, announced that Hogan would be honored along with General George W. Casey Jr., U.S. Army Chief of Staff; Allen Sirkin, President and COO, Phillips Van Heusen; Tom Glavine, NY Mets All-Star pitcher; and Harry Smith, Host, The Early Show, CBS-TV. Sirkin also will receive the prestigious 2007 Milton Margolis Humanitarian Award.

Now I’m not fully aware of the committee’s motives here, but I suspect it has a lot to do with the show. And in that case, I just can’t understand how Hogan deserves this honor. He’s overprotective of Brooke to the point where I’d be surprised if she isn’t a crack whore (I bet she’s at least blown Timbaland a couple times). He’s gone out of his way to actually cockblock Nick on at least one occasion. I can see all of this, and I’ve seen maybe four full episodes of the show. Sure his kids seem well-adjusted (as much as any other celebrity’s kids I guess), but does that plus a fat TV deal justify an award?

I’ll tell you what would make the whole thing better: if the awards were televised and we got to see Hogan acting all badass standing alongside Casey. That would be HILARIOUS.

Let’s move shall we? There’s a whole week of mediocre wrestling to discuss is there not?

The RE Wrestling Clip of the Week

Punk and the Saints

This promo from CM Punk and his group the Second City Saints was shot back before all three men were picked up WWE/OVW. I personally haven’t seen much of the Saints in action, but you can tell just from this clip what kind of cohesive unit they were. This is the second Punk heel promo I’ve posted in the column, and for good reason. The man is gold when running down why he’s a better person than his opponent. If the ECW guys ever plan on turning him full-fledged heel, they should use interviews like these as a template for how the character should be written. And with Colt Cabana and Ace Steel both under developmental contract with Vince now, it’s interesting to see them do some character work themselves. The promo gets a little weird at the end when some chick named Lucy shows up and the other Saints start dancing to “Greased Lightening”, but it’s a cool clip nonetheless. But listen for some Tommy Boy references!

America, America, God shed his grace on thy title…

I first started getting into wrestling at the very beginning of 1998. I’d heard my friends talking about some guy named whose name was apparently Stone Cold and what assholes Hogan and the nWo were. And right when I started watching Monday Nitro, Diamond Dallas Page was feuding with Chris Benoit over the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. They had a match for the title at SuperBrawl VIII that February, and Raven was about to be added into the mix for the next match at Uncensored. About a month later, a young whipper snapper named Bill Goldberg won that title the night after Spring Stampede and in doing so staked his claim to being one of the best in the company.

Now while this was all happening, the world title situation was a confusing mess. Due to a Hogan ego drop, Sting was never given the chance to be the strong champion they were building him up to be for the past year. The title flirted with the likes of Hogan, Sting, Macho Man, even Scott Hall during the first part of the year, and fans were getting frustrated. But luckily, their second-tier title was still looking stronger than ever.

Fast forward to June 2003: the brand split had made the Intercontinental title the exclusive property of Raw, and SmackDown had found themselves with one championship short of what the A show had to offer. So what did Vince do? The same thing he often does when looking for answers…use WCW mainstays. The WWE United States Championship was put on the line in a tournament whose final match would take place at the SD-presented Vengeance PPV. Eddie Guerrero, who at this point was a well-established talent, repeated Page’s actions from five years earlier and beat Benoit for the inaugural title reign. From there, the US title has evolved into one of the best booked belts in the company…even if the belt itself is probably the ugliest. And I am including the spinner in that list.

With that said, let’s take a look at the long and winding road to credibility for the WWE United States Championship!

The first thing we’ve got to answer is, how does one gauge whether or not a championship is successful? The easiest way to answer that is by direct comparison with its counterpart, which in this case would be the Intercontinental title itself. Here’s a list of every person to hold the I-C title since the US title became active again, pulled straight from WWE.com:

Christian
Booker T
Rob Van Dam
Chris Jericho
Randy Orton
Edge
Shelton Benjamin
Carlito
Ric Flair
Johnny Nitro
Jeff Hardy
Umaga
Santino Marella

I’ll admit, there are some awesome names on that list. But aside from Orton, Shelton and maybe Nitro, can you point to a specific I-C title run and say it was memorable and/or it substantially helped their careers? Booker, RVD, Jericho and Flair were all not as over when they won the title as they were earlier in their careers, and people like Carlito, Hardy and Umaga focused on different things when they were champion.

Now take a look at the list of WWE US Champions since the belt’s inception:

Eddie Guerrero
Big Show
John Cena
Booker T
Carlito
Orlando Jordan
Chris Benoit
JBL
Bobby Lashley
Finlay
Mr. Kennedy
MVP

Except for a few clunkers (Orlando being the only glaring example), this particular list of champions fits the idea of the championship better. Pay special attention to the last four; all these men were up-and-comers (I use that term loosely with Finlay) who were getting over on their own right but needed something tangible the crowd could see as proof that they were legit talents. The US title was that proof, and it has helped the careers of seemingly everyone it’s touched for the past couple of years. This is the title that Cena first decided to bling up back in ‘04, the title that JBL would kiss and worship like it was his greatest accomplishment, and the title that Benoit can hold proudly and not feel like he’s being held back.

You want another form of proof? Take a look at how the title has been showcased at the company’s biggest show. In March, Benoit successfully defended the title against MVP at WrestleMania 23. The year before, the title was defended again by Benoit against JBL. Two years before that, John Cena won his first gold in WWE by giving the F-U to Big Show in a US title match at WMXX. Out of the four WM’s since the title was brought back, it’s been defended at three of them. Two of those have in high profile title changes. Compare that to the IC title, which has been defended at exactly zero of the last five, and it becomes pretty clear which one they value more. And for some icing on the cake, the last two times the IC title WAS defended (XVII & XVIII) it was the curtain jerker.

But to talk about the US title in only its WWE incarnation would be foolish; the title, perhaps more than anything else, is associated with its great heritage. Past US champions have included the likes of Harley Race, Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Bobo Brazil and Dusty Rhodes among many others. For some more perspective, consider this: WWE went out of their way to get the Big Gold Belt back yet refuses to acknowledge past NWA and WCW champions in their World Heavyweight title history. For the US title they make their own stylized jingoistic belt and christen it their title but still go all the way back to Wahoo McFuckingDaniel in its lineage. It’s a weird system of logic.

Why does this title appear to hold so much prestige? I’d like to think it isn’t the simple fact that it says “United States” on it, but that really may be it. Wrestling is no stranger to empty patriotism, and bringing back the title and making the belt a big giant flag is a good enough way to pay tribute I guess. But I also think it’s a way to honor wrestling’s history. Whereas in the Attitude era the WWF was distancing itself from its past as much as possible, we’re more apt to embrace the past nowadays. VH1 made nostalgia cool, and wrestling has been no exception. And since the championship has such a strong lineup of past winners, it makes the title seem that much more important in the process.

We just arrived at what I assume is the end of a long and surprisingly good feud over the US title. Benoit and MVP delivered some cool matches, the bookers didn’t shoot their wad in the beginning, and now we have a believable new heel champion on our hands whose career looks to be very bright. A lot of thanks for this goes to what they were fighting for. The title has an air of legitimacy about it that its counterpart over on Raw just doesn’t match. We’ve been too conditioned to think the I-C title is an afterthought to take it seriously, and we’ve had too many interesting people hold the US title to not take IT seriously.

With the right booking and a little respect, any championship can get over. Just look at TNA; up until recently they were booking the X division with a great deal of ambition. Even though the title was pretty much a gold plate with a big “X” on it, the writers and performers helped it raise its status by leaps and bounds with good matches and adequate focus on the title itself. All it took was someone caring.

Someone clearly cares about the WWE United States Championship, even if it may not be Vince. I think the title is in good hands, both in terms of who holds it and who books it.

Sendoff

That’ll be all from the RE this week. I truly hope MVP does good things with the US title, and from everything I’m hearing about his reputation and work ethic it sounds like he’s going to. I’ll leave you guys with this question:

Who else will win the WWE United States Championship in 2007?

Ponder that for a while, hit me up in the e-mails, and we shall discuss this in more detail next week.

Also, my extreme condolences to the family of Jill Jarrett. I have a serious girlfriend right now with whom I’ve talked about the marriage thing, and I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose her to something like cancer. I wish Double J the best during the next few months, as his life has surely been turned completely upside down through all of this.

Until next time, have a good week and enjoy the buildup for One Night Stand, which according to my calculations is only NINE DAYS away! Man, they really need to space out those shows.

Anyway, keep your fandom alive and I’ll be back next week!