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The United States has a long and storied history. As would be expected with something that has been around as long as it has, there have been a lot of odd circumstances around it. Here are five odd facts about the U.S. Title.
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0:30
Thank you for joining us on Leaving a Mark, where I finally look back on the things that made me a wrestling fan my whole life
0:37
Have we got a big show for you tonight? Now, I know last week I said that I would start a series about Magnum TA
0:46
We're going to put that off for one week since the WWF announced a change to the
0:51
they announced an entirely new U.S. title belt, plus Magnum was a big part of the U.S. title picture when I was first a wrestling fan
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By the way, my name is Nathaniel Mear. I'm the movie editor at AIPT, and I'm a longtime wrestling fan who knows his stuff
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especially when it comes to odd facts about secondary titles. Here are five odd facts about the United States Heavyweight Championship
1:18
After 17 years, the WWE finally created a new U.S. title belt
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It's better, I guess. but it really was not that great to begin with
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So it's kind of like complimenting a homeless person on their tan
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The biggest thing that stands out is the word champion. Literally, the thing is huge
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The current version of the U.S. title goes back to 1975. Don't believe me, Michael Cole always mentions how it goes back to Harley Race
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Now, towards the waning years of WCW, the title was killed of any prestige it once had
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WWE has actually shown flashes of bringing it back to its former prominence since reactivating it
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I'm thinking of the John Cena Open Challenge every week. That was really cool
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Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, it has mainly let it fall into the same level of
2:25
I forgot he was the champion importance as their intercontinental title. The title, though, it does have an interesting history
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Here are those five odd facts about the United States title. His opponent, the current U.S. heavyweight champion from Minnesota, Rick Nature Boy, Flair
2:45
In my most recent edition of a Marks-I-View, I discussed surprisingly patriotic wrestlers
2:52
One of the names I talked about was Rick Flair. The Nature Boy is synonymous with world titles
2:59
Not only has he won more world titles than anyone in the history of the sport
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he also had world title reigns that lasted for years. No matter how many world titles, someone wins in the modern wrestling landscape
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no one will ever be able to accomplish what the Nature Boy did
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His U.S. title reigns are a different story. While he did have one run with a belt that lasted most of 1978 his normal rains were an average of two maybe three months That a far cry from world title reigns that would last two to three years
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Much like the world title, no person has actually held the U.S. belt more than Rick Flair has
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Much like the world title became in the 1980s, the United States title strap was synonymous with Flair from the mid-70s until he did win his first world title
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There's actually a random reign in 1996 that put him over the top
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It was actually the second longest. Lex Luka has held the title longer than anyone else by far
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but the number of times Flair won the belt, along with the world title victories, is very impressive
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So as far as I'm concerned, there are no champions. It can be seen as a commentary on how wrestling has changed
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or it can be an argument for the NWA versus WCW, or it just might be sheer coincidence
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But the United States title was a lot more stable in its first 20 years
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The title was declared vacant only six times during that period. Once the company became WCW, things became a little more shaky
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It took only seven years for it to be able to. vacated as many times as it had been in the first two decades. In 2000 alone, it was vacant three
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times. That's definitely a statement about WCW. Taddles being vacated are part of wrestling
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Injuries, people leaving promotions. Sometimes the storylines require it. Fans are willing to
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accept when these things happen. Unless they happen with every other title holder
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One of the best things about wrestling is when one of our favorites overcome their hated rival and win a title at the same time
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There is a sense of satisfaction that a tournament and especially a battle royal, they're just unable to replicate
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Six times in 20 years, that sounds about right. an average of more than once a year
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that's a lesson in how to devalue a title. Roddy Roddy Piper is the new United States heavyweight champion
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Trying to figure out the history of any belt associated with the NWA is incredibly difficult
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And that's even before all the nonsense with the WCW and the NWA World International Championship of New Japan got involved
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To try, to get into all the intricacies of the United States title, would require research, lawyers, and a whole lot of headaches
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For the sake of everybody's time and my own sanity, I'm going to make this as simple as possible
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Basically, a bunch of territories had their own version of the United States title
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It does not sound too difficult on the surface. After all, there are multiple world titles around today
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The difference is those world titles are with different promotions. In 1981 there were different versions of the NWA United States title I understand how the territory structure worked and I know why it wasn around for so long I also think it was great for wrestling fans and it helped build stars that quite frankly
7:23
just wanted to have cut it on the national platform. What I don't get is how the sanctioning board of the NWA would allow a title with the same
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name to be defended in different parts of the country, different territories, and held by different
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people, especially considering some of the stories of pettiness that surround the group. Yeah, I get it
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There was no national television at the time. So naturally, they thought that the fans would never
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find out since all wrestling promoters think that fans are Marx and idiots. So instead of a U.S
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title and an American title and a national title, which is what some promotions did because
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it makes sense. We get stuff like the NWA World Tag Team Champions Mid-Atlantic version or the
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Florida U.S. tag team champions. In the early 80s, wrestling promotions started to fold
8:27
finally leaving an undisputed United States champion. You might have heard of those
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Rowdy, Roddy, Piper. This man, look out. Look out. Here he comes
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Let's take all it. I wrote about this once in a markside view, but the NWA had a lot of titles floating
8:46
around the promotion in the mid-80s. The world title. The world tag titles
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The U.S. tag titles. The Mid-Atlantic titles. The TV titles. The Six-Man titles
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The brass knuckles, junior heavyweight, women's, women's U.S. The list goes on and on
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Being a champion is a whole lot less special when every single person seems to have a belt
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Now, along with the U.S. title, there was also the national title
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What was the difference between the two? Who knows? Apparently, the NWA did it
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So they decided to unify the two belts. Nikita Koloff beat Wahu McDaniel to get rid of all that confusion
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The national title disappeared until finally being brought back in 2018. So far, there are no plans to bring back an NWA U.S. title
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Ladies and gentlemen, this event is for the United States Heavyweight Championship
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Rick Steiner, Scott Steiner, Greg Valentine, Barry Windham. What do all these men have in common
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they, along with one other person, held both the U.S. and U.S. tag team belts
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The final person? Michael Hayes. There's no denying that Hayes is an important part of wrestling history
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The fabulous freebirds are one of the most influential teams ever, and Hayes is a big reason why
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What also can't be denied is that Buddy Roberts and Terry Gordy
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brought the ring work while Hayes was just mainly the mouthpiece. Look at their UWF run where Hayes was a commentator and manager the whole entire time
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And as awesome as he was on the stick, purely sexy was barely passable in the ring On the surface it doesn seem like that big of a problem Plenty of stars got by mostly on charisma And in the 80s this was even less of an issue
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They could be managers like Hayes had been, or they were tag teams to help out the less talented people
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kind of like Hayes was a part of. Hayes was charismatic, but he can only do so much in singles competition
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And his shenanigans, they quit. Lickley wore thin in a singles match, which is why giving him a major singles title would be a huge mistake
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But that's exactly what the NWA did in 1989, the year that Rick Flair, Terry Funk, Rick Steamboat, and the Great Muda were tearing up rings all around the country
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The man Hayes beat Lex Luger, the person who repeatedly came within a whisker of capturing the world title in 1988
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The win made no sense, and Hayes would lose the title back to the total package within two weeks, making it even more strange
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It was short and unmemorable, but it also put Michael Hayes in the total package
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very exclusive company. And yes, I'm sure I forgot someone. If you know of anyone else who held the U.S. title and the U.S. tag titles, put it in the comments below
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And there you have it. Five odd facts about the United States title
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Next week, I will really, really begin my series on Magnum T.A
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What did you think of the new U.S. title? Let me know in the comments below
12:44
If there's anything that you'd like for me to cover, let me know in the comments below
12:49
Until then, we'll see you next week. Support for leaving a mark is brought to you by Manscaped
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