Great Moments In Championship History: United States Title

The Nelson brings to you a look back at some of the great moments of the United States’ pro wrestling championships. We start with 10 of the most memorable, intense, and just plain great moments of the U.S. Title:

The United States Championsip: perhaps the most prestigious ”mid-card” championship in wrestling. Its roots go back to 1975, when Harley Race was named the 1st U.S. Champion. The title was a staple of NWA Wrestling, then the WCW in the ’90s, and finally made its way to the WWF/WWE in 2001. Some of the greatest names in wrestling- Race, Ric Flair, Wahoo McDaniels, Roddy Piper, Eddie Guerrero, etc.- have held this belt. The current champion is Daniel Bryan (Bryan Danielson of ROH fame).

Act I: Magnum TA and Tully Blanchard

Setup: Tully Blanchard had just come off of a bloody feud with Dusty Rhodes over the NWA TV Championship (a belt that Blanchard lost, after a 1 year reign). he then set his sights on the U.S. Champion at the time Magnum TA. This feud quickly became one of the most intense, VERY bloody feuds in NWA history, esp. with the constant interference of Blanchard’s valet, Baby Doll. The title switched hands a couple of times throughout mid-1985. However, the feud culminated at Starcade 1985, in an “I Quit” match (this clip may be too bloody for work viewing):

Aftermath: Tully Blanchard fired Baby Doll (slapping her in an interview), leading to Dusty Rhodes to come in and make the save. Blanchard hired JJ Dillon as manager; that, plus his increasingly frequent tag team matches with Arn Anderson and Ric Flair, led to the formation of the Four Horsemen in early 1986. Magnum TA started a feud with Flair for the NWA World Title but had his career cut short by a car accident.

The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar

The interwebz are all up in arms about this clip, after Lesnar got his a$$ handed to him at Ufc 121 by Cain Velasquez. Some think this was a “work” by the WWE (without UFC’s approval or knowledge), trying to hype a possible Taker-Lesnar WM 27 Main Event. Others think this was a random event. Some think (like myself) that ‘Taker was invited by UFC to the bout but didn’t plan on words from Lesnar. What are your thoughts?

Half Pint Brawlers

A new show on Spike follows a band of midget (their word, not mine)  wrestlers documentary style during their nationwide tour across the US. There’s the boss Puppet, the veteran Kato, the ladies man Bobby, the hardcore Mad Mexx and the rookie Turtle. There’s also their announcer Spyder and it looks like their going pick up a guy named Teo on the way.

The debut show started off with a bang. Between the Jackass like hazing of the rookie to Puppet starting off a show by auctioning off the “privilege?” to staple his sack to his leg. These guys are pretty hardcore and really good wrestlers as well. The main portion of the show dealt with Kato getting injured having suffered a nasty gash on the back of his head after going through a table onto the concrete floor they were wrestling on. He even talked his way into wrestling at their next show despite Puppet’s better judgment.

It was entertaining 30 minutes and definitely worth checking out at least once. It’s an easy show to jump in on without feeling lost so give it a look and see how these guys make us “normal” sized guys look like chumps.

Get well soon!

The writers of the 1/8th Nelson would like to toss out a get well soon wish to our own codebreaker30 who’s been in the hospital this week.  We miss you and hope to have you back soon!