Rhyno is happy to join the exclusive club of competitors who have been WCW United States Champion -- not that he would know much about his fellow club members.

Due to a combination of lack of cable, lack of time and lack of desire, Rhyno almost never watched the NWA or WCW when he was growing up in Detroit. Luckily, one of Rhyno's friends is a longtime NWA/WCW devotee, and he filled Rhyno in on the lineage.

"I asked my buddy," Rhyno said. "He told me it was the second most prestigious title."

Despite his lack of knowledge of the title's history, he's happy to have it. "It goes to show you that they do reward you for hard work."

And he added that he was happy with his match, against Tajiri, who he wrestled often during the two men's days in the old ECW. In fact, Rhyno once beat Tajiri for the ECW Television Title.

"I always have fun wrestling Tajiri," Rhyno said. "Him and I have so many things that we've done and we can do. It'd be nice to have a little storyline (which culminates with) a 15-20 minute match."

The U.S. Title match was second-to-last at Unforgiven, situated right between the Triple Threat WCW Title match (The Rock vs. Booker T and Shane McMahon) and the Federation Championship match (Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Kurt Angle). While some would say that it was a tough spot on the card, Rhyno doesn't see it that way.

Asked if he had a "tough act to follow," after WCW Title Handicap match, Rhyno said. "A lot of matches are a tough act to follow. I'd rather have that than have two guys going out before me and having a bad match.

"Whether the match is first, second, third or the main event -- whether it's in front of 500 or 50,000 people -- I go out there and give it my all."