WWE News: Why Zack Ryder's U.S. Title Run Will Be a Lengthy One

When Daniel Bryan won the World Heavyweight Championship, the initial reaction of joy and excitement was replaced by anxiety and fear that WWE officials would quickly take the title off of Bryan. 

Yet, when Zack Ryder won the United States Championship on that very same night, it was pure elation from Ryder fans. There was no worrying about Ryder having a short title reign or being a flop of a champion. 

And there shouldn’t be, because Ryder is—as Alberto Del Rio might say—destined to have a long run with the United States Championship. 

Recent mid-card title history says so. 

The previous US Champion, Dolph Ziggler, held the title for 182 days before dropping it to Ryder. Meanwhile, current Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes has held his title for more than 140 days, and WWE Tag Team Champions Air Boom have held onto the straps for 128 days. 

Although one of our main complaints as WWE fans is that “title reigns are too short,” the WWE seems to be in the process of changing that recently, especially when it comes to its “less important” or secondary titles. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the fact that the titles are hardly ever defended, but I’m not going to get too picky here. 

Ryder should have a lengthy title reign because mid-card champions seem to get them these days and because they hardly defend their titles during said reigns. Even if that weren’t the case, however, I’d put my money on him keeping the United States Championship until Wrestlemania and beyond. 

The WWE has invested a lot of effort and TV time into Ryder to give him a joke of a title reign. He’s picked up multiple victories over a rising star like Ziggler, he’s defeated Mark Henry, he’s main evented Monday Night Raw on more than one occasion and he’s had a ton of interaction with John Cena. 

These are all really good signs for Ryder. 

WWE officials don’t just hand out big victories or spots in TV main event to wrestlers who they do not plan to push. No, they give them to performers with bright futures, performers who will make some noise in the coming months. 

Performers like Zack Ryder. 

Whether you like him or not, Ryder has earned his way up the card and is getting a tremendous push as a result. He will be a major player in Raw’s mid-card scene for the foreseeable future, and he’ll be the face of it as the United States Champion. 

After all, there are relatively few options for Ryder to feud with in the Raw mid-card. This could all change come WWE Draft time (which is way down the road, anyway) or if we get a surprising heel turn or two, but this is what Ryder’s list of possible challengers currently looks like: Brodus Clay, David Otunga and Jack Swagger. 

Yeah, that’s about it, and even that list might be stretching it a bit. 

I suppose you could add guys like Alberto Del Rio or The Miz to the list (and hope they get pushed all the way down to the mid-card level) or someone like Drew McIntyre (and pray that he actually gets on TV for a change). 

But, for the most part, Ryder has very few options to feud with in Raw’s mid-card scene, as was evidenced by the fact that Tyson Kidd was brought out of the woodwork this week to face Ryder on Monday Night Raw. 

The WWE may be in the process of giving its secondary titleholders lengthy title reigns, but this is more of an indication of its inability to book its mid-card superstars than anything else. Titles don’t change hands often because the creative team puts very little effort into its mid-card feuds, and oftentimes, they simply forget about a majority of the mid-card workers. 

Ryder will benefit from that, if you want to look at it that way. 

I mean, he may not be main eventing pay-per-views or putting on quality feuds like he did with Ziggler, but at the very least, he’s going to hold onto that title for a while and be viewed as a long-running champion because of it.