Five worst WWE title runs of 2019

There have been some great Championship runs in WWE this year.

Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston both had memorable reigns with the WWE title, while the reputation of the Universal title was only helped by stellar matches such as AJ vs Seth Rollins, Rollins vs Brock Lesnar, Brock vs Finn Balor and more.

However, there have been times where titles have been devalued. Be it either through injury or through poor booking, certain title runs just don’t live up to the prestige WWE likes to place on their titles.

Here are the five worst title runs this year in WWE.

Dishonorable mention – The Hardy Boyz – SmackDown Tag Team Champions

It’s hard to be too harsh on this run. An injury to Jeff resulted in the Hardys vacating the belts after just a week.

However it’s more the frustration of when they won the belts.

A Febuary reunion of The Hardy’s resulted in a social media campaign to have The Hardys vs The Usos at WrestleMania. Both teams took to Twitter to champion the match, but in the end it was futile.

The Hardys were relegated to the Andre Battle Royal and The Usos retained in what was a very forgettable four way. The match was tucked away on the post-Mania SmackDown where Jeff sustained his injury.

Who knows, if this match had been featured on Wrestlemania, The Hardys may never have gotten injured. Who knows, The Usos would have went on to have countless classics with the innovators of the ladder match.

5. Charlotte Flair – All 3 SmackDown Womans title reigns

Charlotte was already in the main event of WrestleMania. She was already going for the Raw Womans title.

So when 8 days before WrestleMania she defeated Asuka for the Smackdown Womans Championship, many were rightfully outraged.

Yes, this saw the Womans triple threat become ‘Winner Takes All’. However, it also relegated Asuka to the Miss Wrestlemania preshow battle royal.

All in all, it did nothing for the title, Charlotte, or Asuka.

Charlotte would go on to hold the title for 8 days before dropping it to Becky Lynch. The Queen would win back the Smackdown Womans title six weeks later. She’d hold it for a mere five minutes before losing it to Money In The Bank winner Bayley.

The pair would be involved in another quick title change when Flair won the title from Bayley at the Hell In A Cell PPV. Whilst this run was longer than the last, Charlotte would drop the title back on the second Friday Night SmackDown on Fox.

Three title runs, all very forgettable.

4. The IIconics – Womans Tag Team Titles

The IIconics are a massively popular tag team. Their backstage interviews have sparked a thousand memes and catchphrases.

That’s what made it all the more disappointing when their WrestleMania championship win meant nothing.

The team would not defend the titles on one PPV during their entire four and a half month reign.

Relegated to defending the titles against jobbers, the titles became meaningless during their tenure with the belts.

They would drop them on the go-home Raw before Summerslam. Sadly, even that wasn’t enough to see them make the PPV proper.

Their rematch took place on the kickoff and they have been scarcely seen on TV since.

3. Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman – Raw Tag Team Titles

Poor Braun. WWE waited too long to pull the trigger and now, well now we just don’t care.

When Bray Wyatt started cutting promos saying ‘See you in Hell’, fans knew the Clash of Champions Universal title match would be a stop gap before the Fiend reappeared.

Step forward Braun Strowman.

In the midst of Seth and Braun’s friendly rivalry, they managed a three week run with the Raw Tag Titles.

The reign wasn’t bad for how long it lasted, but it was more how it affected The OC.

Raws tag team division looked an overly competitive place with The Revival, The Usos, and Viking Raiders all ready to step up.

However, the mixed matched duo felt like a step in the wrong direction and killed the momentum The OC had gathered.

They dropped them in the opener of the Clash of Champions PPV to Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode and that was the end of that team.

2. Rey Mysterio – United States Championship

Rey Mysterio is currently the United States Champion, and we hope this run is much better than his tenure as champion back in the spring.

Mysterio vs Samoa Joe was a match at WrestleMania that every one thought could be a sleeper hit. One of the most physical superstars and one of the greatest high flyers in history presented an intriguing match up.

However a injury to Rey meant the match was booked as a 60 second squash. Fast forward six weeks later and the duo had a rematch at The Money in the Bank PPV with Rey picking up the win.

Unfortunately it seemed like Rey had been rushed back from injury and was forced to relinquish the belt back to Joe just a few weeks later.

1. Shinsuke Nakamura – United States Championship

Nakamura won the United States title at Extreme Rules 2018. During this run, he proceeded to do a grand total of nothing with the belt.

A title defense against Jeff Hardy at the next month’s SummerSlam and a pre-show match at Crown Jewel against Rusev were the only PPV title defenses in the space of five months.

So when Rusev took the title from The King of Strong Style on the Christmas Day SmackDown, fans were relived to see the title off a man they once used to clamour to see in WWE wearing championship gold.

However, Nakamura regained the title at The Royal Rumble in a match that seemed more designed to injure Lana and take her out of the Woman’s Rumble than anything else.

He held the title a mere two days before losing to R Truth.

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