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Ricochet has done it. At WWE Stomping Grounds 2019, The One and Only Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe to become the new United States Champion. He defeated a veteran in Joe and captured his first main roster championship.
It's been a quick rise for Ricochet, who has only really been on the main roster since early 2019 (and became a permanent member around WrestleMania 35). There's no doubt that the high-flying sensation has enjoyed a lot of success in WWE.
At NXT, he never won the main title, but he did have a medium-length reign with the North American Championship. Then again, it was clear that Ricochet was never meant to stay at NXT for a long time. He's always been "main roster ready", even with relatively limited mic skills.
Either way, Ricochet has a certain "it" factor about him that has gotten him over and we congratulate him on his first main roster title win. Here are five reasons why it happened.
#5 Giving the fans what they want
Let's give WWE credit where credit is due. We often give them a lot of flak for not giving us what they want, often forgetting that they still do give fans what they want for the most part. If you look at the list of main roster champions, all of them are popular and deserving in every way.
Ricochet simply adds to that list. His popularity has been no secret and his star has constantly been on the rise since he arrived in NXT, not just the main WWE Roster. Since the United States title picture isn't taken particularly serious anyway, it was a little token from WWE to fans by giving them what they want. This is simply a stepping stone for Ricochet.
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#4 The United States title keeps changing hands anyway
When was the last time that we've seen a relatively long reign with the United States Championship? We'll tell you when - it was Shinsuke Nakamura in 2018, who held it for over 100 days.
However, before that and after that, there were only short title reigns. Since December 2018, it's been Nakamura, Rusev, Nakamura again, R-Truth, Samoa Joe, Rey Mysterio, Samoa Joe again and now Ricochet.
You can see the pattern here. Even prior to Nakamura's run, the United States title hadn't had a long reign in quite a while. It's quite obvious that WWE doesn't really take it as seriously as they should with other titles. If anything, one could argue that it's the least valued title on the main roster. That's why we mentioned it as a stepping stone for Ricochet.
#3 Samoa Joe wasn't supposed to be champion anyway
Samoa Joe lost the United States championship to Rey Mysterio in controversial fashion at Money in the Bank, as his shoulders were clearly up. His post-match beatdown on Mysterio was essentially to write the legend off, with Mysterio voluntarily vacating the title and handing it back to Samoa Joe.
Had Mysterio not been injured, Joe was not going to be champion anyway. It's possible that WWE would have re-run the Mysterio-Joe match at WWE Stomping Grounds 2019, but the feud likely would have ended there.
Since Samoa Joe was simply handed back the championship, WWE likely felt no real reason to keep the title on him as a placeholder. Hopefully, it means that Joe will eventually step up to the main event scene again, because he deserves it more than Baron Corbin does.
#2 To set up a Mysterio-Ricochet feud for SummerSlam
The good news with regards to Rey Mysterio is that he'll be back sooner than expected. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter stated that Rey Mysterio will be back around early July, if not late June.
This obviously means that he'll be available for SummerSlam, which is taking place unusually early this August. While there is a PPV in between, all WWE needs to do is re-run Joe vs Ricochet and Ricochet can retain the title.
To spice it up, we would rather have it be a triple threat match involving Ricochet, Joe and Mysterio. If Joe is pinned, then it can easily set up a dream rivalry between Mysterio and Ricochet.
It would be an incredible marquee SummerSlam title match that could steal the show. We could even see the best version of Mysterio since he returned to WWE.
#1 Big plans for Ricochet
While there were many rumors in the dirt sheets that Ricochet was being primed for 205 Live, it seems as though Triple H talked enough sense into Vince McMahon to convince him to be a part of the main roster and compete with heavyweights.
He knows that Ricochet has a style that fans take to very quickly and as we've seen, Ricochet has won quite a few fans already. What seems to be clear is that WWE has big plans for Ricochet.
Sure, he has been pinned a few times before but he's being pushed and protected enough and unless they're really impatient, then WWE is likely building the next big star in Ricochet.
That's obviously great for fans who want to see more of The One and Only superstar. The future is bright for Ricochet. Are you happy with his title win? Voice your opinions in the comments below!
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