Rusev Could Revitalize the WWE United States Championship

Rusev could bring some prestige back to the most poorly treated championship in WWE.

The United States Championship has been in peril for some time now. For whatever reason, WWE can’t seem to book the titleholder correctly unless his name is John Cena, and the result of that is the title being defended on the pre-show for three straight pay-per-views.

And not only has it been defended on the pre-show for three straight months, it has done so despite there being ample time for the matches to occur on the main card. At Fastlane, Kalisto defended his title against Alberto Del Rio in a 2 out of 3 falls match in what was one of the best matches of the night. Meanwhile, what was taking up valuable time on the main card? An impromptu Curtis Axel vs. R-Truth match. Seriously.

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Then we have WrestleMania, a 4-hour show that somehow could not fit a match for one of the company’s 5 championships on the main card. Admittedly the rest of the card was pretty good, but come on, this is a title match. Could we not have just taken out the random Rock vs Erick Rowan match, or the hastily-thrown-together legends vs League of Nations segment?

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Then it happened again at Payback, and again, the match was fantastic! And I’m a big Enzo and Cass fan, but that tag match should’ve been on the pre-show instead of Kalisto’s title defense. Ideally, neither one would be on the pre-show, but if one of them had to be, it should not have been the championship match.

So what’s the solution? A Rusev victory at Extreme Rules would go a long way toward giving the U.S. title some more credibility. Part of the problem has been that Kalisto is just not the right person to hold this title anymore. There was a lot of hype surrounding him during his feud with Alberto Del Rio because it was a pretty good feud and he was the underdog. But after a few months, it’s become abundantly clear he does not have what it takes to be a compelling champion. He hasn’t been given much mic time since being the champion, and after watching his SportsCenter segment and hearing him on commentary this past Monday, it’s clear why. He always sounds nervous and stumbles over his words, and that weakness is going to prevent him from becoming what everyone expected him to become: the next Rey Mysterio.

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Now that Rusev is finally free from the trainwreck that was the League of Nations, he can get back to being one of the best solo heels in the company. He is the only one besides Cena who WWE seems to be able to book with the U.S. title. Of course, most of his reign involved him defending the belt against Cena, but Rusev showed that he’s able to make the title relevant no matter who he’s facing. In fact, if/when Rusev does win the U.S. title, Cena should stay as far away from it as possible. Not only because that feud already happened, but because once Cena gets involved, it never ends well for the guy that he’s facing.

This could mark not only the U.S. title’s revival, but Rusev’s as well. If he wins the title, he could go on a rampage for the next few months and regain the momentum that was ripped from him by the love quadrangle storyline he was thrown into a few months ago. He was destined to be WWE’s next monster heel until they misused him in historic fashion. Rusev should not only win the U.S. title from Kalisto, he should hold it for a long time for the benefit of both the title and his own career.

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