Roman Reigns' Win Creates Parity Between United States, Universal Championships

Roman Reigns' lightning-rod tour just made a stop at the midcard.

After a victory over Rusev at Clash of Champions, Reigns captured his first WWE United States Championship. Coming off a series of unsuccessful attempts at the world title, Reigns can now be a big dog in a smaller yard.

"The U.S. title win would seem to keep Reigns occupied and out of the WWE Universal Championship picture," said Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net.

As fans saw when John Cena held the U.S. title, having a perennial main eventer hold a secondary championship can elevate its status to the level of the world title.

With Raw's current world title still in its developmental phase as a brand new championship with a first-time champion, there can easily be scenarios in which a Reigns U.S. title defense is on equal footing with a Universal title match.

A theme of the WWE brand split has been the elevation of secondary championships.

Following his memorably fiery promo on Talking Smack, The Miz has once again become a must-see champion, as announcers have played up his never-ending intercontinental title world tour. Even with a red-hot AJ Styles carrying the WWE World Championship, The Miz has carved out a large niche on SmackDown as the 1A champion.

Although an iconic promo would help, Reigns hardly needs one to inject life into the U.S. title. Reigns is fresh out of the main event picture. Just three months ago, he was the world champion—when the title was undisputed. He has headlined the last two WrestleManias. He has already been anointed "the guy."

Sure, winning a secondary championship seems like a demotion, but it can serve as a rebirth for the embattled former world champ.

Reigns' stature as a top star of WWE's New Era will lend the U.S. title prestige. Future feuds and matches against WWE Superstars such as Sami Zayn, Chris Jericho and even Seth Rollins—who has had his own run of unsuccessful world championship opportunities—would be just as good as any world title program.

Even prior to Reigns' win, Rusev had done a fine job as a heel U.S. champion for the past 126 days. WWE effectively rebuilt Rusev into the monster he was upon his debut. His lengthy run as a fighting U.S. champion was everything that Kalisto's run was not. 

Rusev finally met his match in Reigns, and now WWE's continued emphasis on secondary championships will help strengthen every division, which will be critical if WWE is to remain competitive throughout a loaded fall television season. 

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.