He bounced back on 29 November, with wins over Kofi Kingston and John Morrison to become King of the Ring, after receiving a bye through the second round. As King Sheamus, he faced Morrison again at the PPV for a future WWE Championship match but lost the Ladder match. Going into 2011, he continued to lose to Morrison in a mixture of singles and tag team matches. Triple H returned on 28 February and took revenge for his scripted ten month injury by putting him through the announce table. Right after that, Sheamus was defeated by Evan Bourne who returned to Raw after a four month injury. On 7 March, after losing a match against Daniel Bryan, Sheamus challenged him to a rematch with his WWE career on the line against Bryan's United States Championship. He won his match against Bryan the following week, winning his first United States Title. The rematch between Sheamus and Bryan took place on 3 April, during the preshow of WrestleMania XXVII, and ended in a draw after interference from the lumberjacks.