The WWE United States Championship is a professional wrestling championship promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. Along with the Intercontinental Championship on the RAW brand, it is one of the two secondary titles of the promotion.
The championship was established as the NWA United States Heavyweight Championship on January 1, 1975 for the regional territory, Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling, later known as Jim Crockett Promotions and then World Championship Wrestling (WCW), which eventually seceded from the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). Harley Race was the inaugural champion. This makes the United States Championship the only active championship in WWE that was not originated in the promotion, as well as WWE's second oldest active championship, behind the WWE Championship (1963).
After WCW was purchased by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) in 2001, the then-WCW United States Championship was defended in the WWF until it was unified with the Intercontinental Championship at that year's Survivor Series. After the 2002 brand extension and the promotion renamed to WWE, the championship was reactivated as the WWE United States Championship in July 2003 as a secondary title of the SmackDown brand. As a result of the 2017 Superstar Shake-up, it became exclusive to the SmackDown brand.
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