WWE spent weeks designing a championship for Trick Williams. It was on someone else’s shoulder 23 days after it debuted.
WrestleVotes Radio reports there was no expectation inside WWE that the custom United States Championship would be taken off Williams that quickly, either when it was unveiled in July or during the weeks the title was being designed and developed. The outlet reports the decision to move it to Baron Corbin came together only recently, and that a number of people backstage were surprised by the late change.
The belt arrived on the July 10 SmackDown. Lil Yachty presented it to Williams backstage, a white faux-fur strap in place of the usual black leather, the first fur strap in the title’s history. Williams later told Bleacher Report that Yachty hand-directed and sculpted it himself and described him as his creative director.
WWE moved fast on it commercially. A replica went up on WWE Shop within hours of the segment airing, priced at $699.99 and billed as a limited edition celebrating his first reign.
There was a signal that night, though nobody read it that way at the time. Baron Corbin returned on the same episode, attacking Williams and Carmelo Hayes and immediately pointing himself at the United States Championship.
He got there at SummerSlam on Sunday, beating Williams on Night 2 after Yachty was knocked through a table Williams had set up himself. It was Corbin’s first premium live event match since returning and his second reign with the title.
Williams had held it since WrestleMania 42 on April 19, when he beat Sami Zayn in Paradise, Nevada, and had turned back Zayn and Ricky Saints before Corbin.
