All that hard work wasted.

[Navi]

When John Cena won the US Title at Wrestlemania, I sort of groaned. But his US Open Challenges on RAW each week quickly became one of the highlights of the show.

He managed to use the title, to elevate some wrestlers who would never have had the chance to fight against him, and made a lot of them look good. Neville, Cesaro are just two of them.

When I heard he was leaving for a couple of months to film another show, I wondered what would happen to the US Title, and my worst fears were realized. John Cena took a title that most really don't think about as being very important. He elevated that title to a point, where it almost overshadowed the WHC title.

He dropped the title to Alberto Del Rio, and nothing has happened with it ever since. When Del Rio won in October, I didn't expect the challenges to continue, but I did expect him to at least defend it. Has he even defended that title once since he won it? Actually he's not been in a lot of matches period since coming back.

All the hard work that Cena put into elevating the title, is now gone. It's not Del Rio's fault, I blame the booking more than anything else. I just have no clue how a company can take a title so far just to apparently lose interest in it

 

[Mustang Sally]

All the hard work that Cena put into elevating the title, is now gone.

Maybe not gone, maybe just on hiatus. When Cena gets back after the longest non-injury break he's had since joining WWE, his mind & body will hopefully be rejuvenated to the point he could win the US title back again, if that's what WWE Creative has in mind for him.

It's ironic; for all the 'hatred' and 'boredom' with Cena we read about on this forum, the US Title project did, in fact, find something new for him to do, even as he battled Seth Rollins and others at main event level. So, Creative had him operating on all cylinders in spite of forum members crying for him to do something new.

Originally, management's idea was the have Cena make the US Title relevant while Daniel Bryan did the same with the IC belt. I believe it would have worked in both instances, but we know what happened to Bryan's efforts. Cena, meanwhile, did that 'weekly challenge' thing.....and I admire the fact they weren't trotting out people like Primo Colon to vie for it.

I mean, Samy Zayn? Rusev? Neville? Cesaro? C'mon folks, the challenge became an event people looked forward to. Also, despite many fans saying anyone who faces Cena winds up getting buried, I'd love to ask guys in the locker room who are looking for a break whether they'd want the exposure of working with Cena. What do you think they'd say?

No, I don't believe the project has been wasted, although it remains to be seen what will be done with it. Excitement was injected into the US Title and since Cena was leaving for awhile anyway, management had Del Rio win it to give him a boost right from the get-go. He wasn't intended as a replacement for Cena, but as I see it, the prestige of the belt has been raised because Cena wore it, and ADR is the prime beneficiary.

 

[Azane]

Both the US and IC Title were ignored for the SS season because of the Tournament needing KO and ADR in the tournament to even pretend the roster had any depth with all the injuries.

I do think they could make those titles more relevant, Cena has been the best midcard champion in years, in terms of putting people over, and it was also interesting to see him fight so hard for what so many people think is an afterthought title.

 

[Redemption-2012]

John Cena is above the US Title in all truthfulness and I am surprised he even agreed to have a reign as US Champion considering the position he's in in terms of star power. That's not to say the reign was bad because it was excellent and Cena did a fantastic job of elevating the belt. Unfortunately now it's gone ADR who absolutely sucks and cannot do what Cena did with the belt, I fear it may go back to being irrelevant once again.

Oh well, it was great while it lasted.

 

[YatesA]

This is more of a creative thing than a Cena thing. It's just they care more about Cena than any title. Almost everyone Cena faced were better in the ring than him, let's not let that go unnoticed. For me there's loads of people who could do the open challenge and produce stellar matches, they may not have the prestige of Super Cena ( probably because no one is ever promoted or given a chance to ) but maybe this sort of thing would garner the respect and cheers of fans to elevate them. No one was truly elevated or put over during Cena's reign except himself, you could maybe argue Owens but he didn't truly get out over, he got a rub like the rest did but due to creative, they've mostly stayed stagnant.

 

[thekooljt]

Hey guys, just had to chime in. I too, like everyone else, liked how the US title was used under Cena. But at the same time I'm glad he lost it. I've always had this idea that "today's" WWE US title should be used as a way to continually showcase those wrestlers we no longer see on RAW or SMACKDOWN but for some reason, have been regulated to MAIN EVENT or WRESTLING SUPERSTARS (i.e. Heath Slater, Fandango). Or, for those who just couldn't cut it on top but is somewhere in the middle (i.e. Neville, Cesaro). I feel if WWE puts those wrestlers together, with a good plot and the US title in between them, great matches can be created and executed.

 

[whoopin' ass]

While I disagree that Cena elevated the title at all, I do see where you are coming from. wwe has one major problem in that they push people more than things when they should be pushing the thing - in this case the US title. We have complained for years that the US and IC titles were treated like jokes so they put the US title on Cena to try and fix that and make it a priority by having his weekly challenges for it. It made the title seem important again however now that Cena is gone, so is the importance. A simple storyline would be for Del Rio to continue the challenge saying that he is better than Cena and he will continue it since no one can beat him(makes whoever beats him seem important too). But are they? That's why I disagree that Cena elevated the title - if the title was more important now in the minds of the wwe, they would still be doing things to make it seem like that. Instead, it was adding another title to Cena to keep him relevant - it was a repeat of his world title runs where he overcomes whoever he is up against and only lost because he wasn't going to be around for a while. But it does show the wwe mindset as, like you said, all that time was wasted now since Cena is no longer champ and they are no longer really that interested in pushing the title when it could be done so easily.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I have to disagree because the United States Championship is becoming more along the lines of exactly what it's supposed to be: a mid-card championship.

Are we going to see US title defenses every week with Del Rio, or whomever takes the title from Del Rio? Probably not because the John Cena US Open Challenge was an angle that was so successful because it was used by John Cena. One of WWE's genuinely biggest problems, no exaggeration in my opinion at least, is that they haven't built anyone over the last 10 years who can even approach Cena in terms of consistently strong booking; I've said in lots of other threads that Vince put most of his eggs in Cena's basket instead of building up roster depth in the main event scene and it's biting him in the ass. At any rate, hardly anyone is going to be booked like John Cena so long as Vince McMahon has anything to say about it, which means the US title was going to be treated more along the lines of a main event championship than a mid-card championship.

Now that Cena is no longer champion, the title is now more along the lines of its overall status, but that doesn't remotely mean it's heading towards irrelevancy. I dunno, this just seems like it's another of those all or nothing scenarios: either the US title is being used like it was with Cena, hence it's relevant, or it isn't and that means it's on the way to being irrelevant. Del Rio's part of the League of Nations, he's United States Champion and it looks like he might be defending his title soon against Jack Swagger, possibly in a Chairs Match at TLC. Underwhelming? Compared to Cena's open challenge each week, it probably seems that way but, then again, Swagger is firmly a mid-card star and mid-card stars are the guys who challenge, almost without exception, for mid-card championships.

Cena elevated the title out of the gutter and the title isn't anywhere near going back to the gutter in my eyes. When the title is no longer defended in competitive matches, when the title is essentially shifted around every few months, is just carried around by the guy without defending it and is treated like a prop that holds no meaning, then it's irrelevant once more. In Del Rio's situation, I don't see that it'll be treated badly due to the fact that WWE is paying out big money for Del Rio's return; after all, Del Rio's contract from October 2015 through October 2016 has a downside guarantee, which means the least amount of money he can make, of $1,450,000. With that sort of price tag, I don't see them doing anything that amounts to wasting Del Rio so, at least for a while longer, the title is safe.

 

[MartialHorror]

It's too early to say, as I think Cena's open challenge worked because...well, it's Cena. Alberto del Rio continuing it would actually devalue what Cena did and wouldn't make sense, as he's a heel. I do believe they need to make stronger feuds involving him. Does he have a defense at TLC? The only story Im aware of (outside of League) involves Jack Swagger, who is a jobber. Kind of lame...

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

Del Rio isn't Cena. It was a case of the star made the title, not the other way around. When you put that title on the biggest star in the company, yeah, it's going to be pretty over. The IWC hates Cena, but general fans realized that title was a big deal when it hit Cena's waist. They can book it as strong as they want, but when it's around the waist of someone people do not truly care about, it won't mean much.

 

[J.J.]

I would say he elevated In terms of more defenses. I liked the Raw defenses as opposed to some random program stretched out over 3 PPVs. I wish the company would switch to one mid card secondary belt and treat it how the territories did back in the 80s when I was growing up. It would be the featured belt on TV while the world title was only defended on major shows - or ppvs today. I guess that's why I appreciayed Brock as WWE champion more because his appearances weren't every week so the title was primarily seen when he was defending it.

 

[kadroan]

When John Cena won the US Title at Wrestlemania, I sort of groaned. But his US Open Challenges on RAW each week quickly became one of the highlights of the show.

He managed to use the title, to elevate some wrestlers who would never have had the chance to fight against him, and made a lot of them look good. Neville, Cesaro are just two of them.

When I heard he was leaving for a couple of months to film another show, I wondered what would happen to the US Title, and my worst fears were realized. John Cena took a title that most really don't think about as being very important. He elevated that title to a point, where it almost overshadowed the WHC title.

He dropped the title to Alberto Del Rio, and nothing has happened with it ever since. When Del Rio won in October, I didn't expect the challenges to continue, but I did expect him to at least defend it. Has he even defended that title once since he won it? Actually he's not been in a lot of matches period since coming back.

All the hard work that Cena put into elevating the title, is now gone. It's not Del Rio's fault, I blame the booking more than anything else. I just have no clue how a company can take a title so far just to apparently lose interest in it

It's been a weird time to be US Champion especially with all these injuries. Less than a month since he returned he had to be in the WWE WHC tournament.

I think he's doing the best he can, hopefully this Swagger/ADR feud ends soon so they can get ADR some real opponents.

 

[rmp0012002]

Cena put the belt back as something meaningful especially with the open challenge so I don't understand why they elevated the title and then have it dropped to a guy on a limited schedule. Sorry, this is not the 80's where the AWA and NWA champ wasn't on tv because he was actually defending the title somewhere else. This is a good reason to have jobbers and squash matches. Your champion should appear on Raw every week in at least an interview or in a non-title match. Not appearing on your main tv show doesnt make me want to see him more at a PPV, and he doesn't work them all any way.

 

[mkw1962]

It seems as though all the hard work was wasted, but let us wait and see when John comes back. Will they give John the Title back or will they put John in the World Title picture. Alberto could also lose the Title to another face and than he can continue wrestling with LON. It seems as though the U.S. Title is defended more when a face is holding the Title, the heels always get out of having to defend there Titles, I guess that is a plus when you side with HHH.

 

[ShinChan]

When John Cena won the US Title at Wrestlemania, I sort of groaned. But his US Open Challenges on RAW each week quickly became one of the highlights of the show.

He managed to use the title, to elevate some wrestlers who would never have had the chance to fight against him, and made a lot of them look good. Neville, Cesaro are just two of them.

When I heard he was leaving for a couple of months to film another show, I wondered what would happen to the US Title, and my worst fears were realized. John Cena took a title that most really don't think about as being very important. He elevated that title to a point, where it almost overshadowed the WHC title.

He dropped the title to Alberto Del Rio, and nothing has happened with it ever since. When Del Rio won in October, I didn't expect the challenges to continue, but I did expect him to at least defend it. Has he even defended that title once since he won it? Actually he's not been in a lot of matches period since coming back.

All the hard work that Cena put into elevating the title, is now gone. It's not Del Rio's fault, I blame the booking more than anything else. I just have no clue how a company can take a title so far just to apparently lose interest in it

Yeah i think a lot of Hard work is wasted....... But still i think, if the booking is much stronger and Alberto Del Rio faces much relevant faces than facing someone like R-truth then it can still be a good title reign..... Its also to be seen what happens with John Cena when he returns.... I meant he would be still wanting US Title or he would be going to main event scene.... If its the former, there is no problem.... But if its latter, its gonna lose its left relevancy.....

 

[Jeff Deliverer of Mail]

The U.S Open challenge was the best thing to happen to the U.S Championship title in a long, long time. Perhaps its the best thing that has ever happened to the title. IMO it leapfrogged over the Intercontinental Championship in terms of importance.

Del Rio has won the belt and now the open challenge vanishes. He's renamed it The Mexamerican Championship.

IMO the belt hasn't lost steam because it's still fairly new around Del Rios waist. He was involved in the tournament distracting any title defences. Now he's freshly involved in the LON being parts of multiple tag team match ups and beat downs, more distractions for defences. I think once things settle down he can start defending it more often and more attention will return to the belt.

Hopefully they won't ignore the belt like they did when Dean Ambrose was champion as part of The Sheild.

 

[pipebomber]

When John Cena won the US Title at Wrestlemania, I sort of groaned. But his US Open Challenges on RAW each week quickly became one of the highlights of the show.

He managed to use the title, to elevate some wrestlers who would never have had the chance to fight against him, and made a lot of them look good. Neville, Cesaro are just two of them.

When I heard he was leaving for a couple of months to film another show, I wondered what would happen to the US Title, and my worst fears were realized. John Cena took a title that most really don't think about as being very important. He elevated that title to a point, where it almost overshadowed the WHC title.

He dropped the title to Alberto Del Rio, and nothing has happened with it ever since. When Del Rio won in October, I didn't expect the challenges to continue, but I did expect him to at least defend it. Has he even defended that title once since he won it? Actually he's not been in a lot of matches period since coming back.

All the hard work that Cena put into elevating the title, is now gone. It's not Del Rio's fault, I blame the booking more than anything else. I just have no clue how a company can take a title so far just to apparently lose interest in it

you're right, It's not Del Rio's fault. It's creative's fault. If they would only make someone immediately step up when del rio won it and come for it, people would still care. But when all you do with a belt is put it on a new champion and forget about it then nobody is going to care. It should be "ok, now he's champion, now he needs to prove he deserves it, and can hold onto it."

 

[bjarvis]

I think either the US or IC Title should be given the status of a title that is defended every week (or 2nd week) in open challenges.

Its constantly given to wrestlers who are willing to work.

 

[Wald]

I can't believe how little they've done with Del Rio since his return to be honest. I mean he beat John Cena clean in under ten minutes! Who else has done that since Cena took off to the main event 12 years ago? Brock Lesnar is all that comes to mind. I really thought they had huge plans for Del Rio, I even half thought that they'd set up Del Rio as champion to face Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania. Instead he's in something called MexAmerica and the League of Nations at once and isn't even the focal point for the main stable.

That to me speaks to the massive problems within WWE Creative more than anything else this year.

 

[sMark]

Current WWE stands for We Waste Everything. Nothing bad happens there will surprise me.

 

[BillAlfonsos_Whistle]

And the morons in WWE creative couldn't get it right.
Basically what they did with Cena was book the US title as if it were a "TV title"
They should scrap that stupid piece of shit USA belt that they seem ONLY to be able to write if the feud involves a foreign threat *LOL* it's very pathetic.

They should institute a TV Title that must be defended every RAW or Smackdown. At least once a week. Could be open challenge, could be pre-booked. Whatever. That's the easy fix to this issue.

 

[TempestH]

Cena didn't really elevate the US Title. The US Title was only important because Cena had it. Once he dropped the belt, regardless of who won it from him or if he lost cleanly, it was always going to become an afterthought.

 

[Noshowers]

Definitely seemed like a way for WWE to keep Cena relevant then him looking to elevate the belt in my opinion. "Hey everyone look at me, I might not have the big belt, but i'll spend 10 minutes talking about it then let a guy come out and wrestle me for it".

I appreciate the angle though cause if not for those segments we would have had one less watchable match on Raw (I did enjoy the matches, in the end it is about entertainment so it isn't all bad). If WWE wanted to elevate the belt they would then have done "one" thing with it after it passed to the next guy. After all, Cena has to break Ric Flair's record at some point and wouldn't hold it forever, but this angle was just to toot Cena's horn some more. Once Cena dropped the belt the belt might as well went into the dumpster.