We're always joking about how Ambrose never defends the US title (at least on those rare occasions when we remember he actually is champion) but it's kind of surprising to think just how long he's held this belt.
According to Wikipedia, Ambrose has a 329-day reign going, which is the fourth-longest reign EVER in the almost 40-year history of the title. He's closing in on the longest US title reign in WWE history, MVP's 343 days, and from there it's Rick Rude (419 days) and then a long way to go to top Lex Luger's all-time record (523).
Just like WWE didn't seem to realize the length of Punk's reign until he'd already been champ for close to a year, they've done nothing so far with noticing Ambrose's "epic" reign. It occurs to me that since Rollins has his high-flying offense and Reigns had his general awesome impact offense, Ambrose is lacking a little something as a face, so the title reign could be it. If it's pushed as a big deal, the reign could distinguish Ambrose as a singles guy and get the fans behind him as an individual as well.
Then, of course, he can eventually turn heel either by bragging about his reign Punk-style, losing the belt and blaming Reigns/Rollins for not helping him, or perhaps one of his Shield mates could take the belt off him themselves. At the very least, it'd be cool to see Ambrose pass at least Rude's reign to put himself in the record books.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball
He has defended it 13 times (profightdb.com) since winning it. He was defending it roughly every 30 days, until a barren stretch from 10/28/13 to 2/10/14. Though, his 13 defenses do average out to one every 25 days of his reign.
We're just in a weird time now where every title that isn't the WWE World Heavyweight (and to some extent the Divas) is de-emphasized. If they want to use a title to help elevate Ambrose as a face, they should quickly put the IC title on a heel (or turn Big E again) and then do the long-rumored unification match.
Then again, Ambrose is such a natural heel, that maybe pushing him as a face isn't the right thing to do.
(edited by SchippeWreck on 14.4.14 1046)
(edited by SchippeWreck on 14.4.14 1047) Everything is awesome.
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