There've been a fair number of these threads that've popped up over this year. When you think about the IC & US titles, you're talking about probably the two most recognized mid-card titles in the history of American wrestling.
Before the IC title, the WWF had never really had a legit mid-card title. Back in the days of the WWWF, the company did have its own United States Championship but it was never a bit deal apart from Pedro Morales. After he vacated it after winning the WWWF Championship, it just faded into obscurity so the IC title has a long history. For most of the first 10 years or so of its existence, the IC title was generally given to the guy that Vince felt was the overall most solid in-ring guy in the company. I personally don't believe that was always the case when you look at some of the initial champs, but most of them were pretty solid in the ring and did help establish the title's credibility. Probably the most celebrated run of the 80s was the year plus long reign of Macho Man Randy Savage, it's still hailed by the IWC to this day. I think that the IC title did go a bit downhill in terms of overall prestige during the Attitude Era as there were LOTS of brief title runs during that time. Another thing that hurt the title in my view was when the WWE allowed Chyna to win the title. It's hard to not roll your eyes when you have a woman winning a championship designed to be held and carried by men in my opinion. Over the course of this decade, I do think the title kind of languished to some degree but not nearly as much as it did during the height of the Attitude Era and I think it did start to slowly regain some juice by the middle of this decade. For most of the past 18-24 months, in my opinion, the title's prestige has grown as we've seen several strong reigns and feuds that've helped establish the title a bit more.
The WWE United States Championship was originally, technically, a regional title and the top singles title of Jim Crocket Jr.'s Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling. It was an important title for the company and it's hard not to be impressed at many of the champs for the first 15 years or so of its existence. Harley Race, Johnny Valentine, Blackjack Mulligan, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Wahoo McDaniel, Magnum TA, Tully Blanchard, Nikita Koloff, Lex Luger, Barry Windham, etc. I think the title began to lose a lot of prestige, however, during the Monday Night Wars. Title changes became more frequent and there was just this long string of unremarkable champions and weak reigns. That became especially true after Vince Russo took creative control of WCW. When the title was adopted by the WWE, there were some dud champs as well. Overall, however, I think by mid to late 2006, things started to get back on track for the title.
In terms of overall prestige, I think I have to give the edge to the United States Champiosnhip. Just by looking at the lineage of the title, especially the first 15 years or so, there were a lot of very memorable stars that had a number of strong reigns. Before Crockett Promotions gained control of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the United States Championship was definitely booked to feel like it was the company's top title. After all, with how the NWA territory system was set up, each territory did have its own top title. The IC title never had that sort of distinction and has always been branded a mid-card title. It was never inteded to be more than that at any point in its history.
As for which I think simply looks better, I'm also going with the United States Championship. The IC title today just looks kind of plain to me. Nothing about its design pops out and says "Hey, look at me". The United States Championship also has something of a plain design, but I like the contrast between the gold and the patriotic red, white & blue pattern shown on the center plate. It's eye catching and I also just kind of like how the center plate is shaped.
