The European Title is generally one of two things: a stepping-stone for up-and-coming talent, or an obsure, relatively-meaningless belt, fought over by mid-carders. Val Venis' reign, which began December 12th, 1999 and lasted well-over a month, was the latter.
Kurt Angle's defeat of Val Venis on February 10th, however, was just the opposite. After a fairly tame introduction to the WWF, winning the European Title was Angle's first step toward his eventual superstardom. During his European Title reign, Angle drew more and more heat, and, according to Angle, tourism and the economy for Europe grew. How about that?
Holding both the European and the Intercontinental Titles, Angle was forced to put both on the line, and Chris Jericho walked away from his first Wrestlemania as European champ by defeating Chris Benoit early in the three-way dance. It seemed odd at the time that Jericho, already on his way to becoming the #2 face in the WWF, would win such a piddling title, but it all came clear the next night on Raw when...
Chyna finally gave in to Eddie Guerrero's Latin lover charms and betrayed her "friend" Jericho, helping Guerrero win the European Title. Winning the European Title (and more importantly, winning over Chyna) helped seperate Guerrero from the Radicalz (which had lost its steam) and created "Latino Heat", an offensive gimmick that put Guerrero over.
Since it had done wonders putting one Radical over, the WWF decided to try again with Perry Saturn. They even gave him a valet in Terri. The problem is, the European Title didn't put Guerrero over, Chyna did. Terri is no Chyna. The European would once again be an obsure, relatively-meaningless belt, fought over by mid-carders.
Along comes Al Snow, the ultimate relatively-meaningless mid-carder! His silly representations of various European nations were just a joke, which of course, is what the European title usually is.
Since they have this thing called the European Title, I guess they might as well give it to a European. Steven William Regal returned the WWF to play the hated foreigner, and since he was a goodwill ambassador it only made sense to give him a platform to represent the UK.
By the time the WWF went to England to shoot their Rebellion PPV on December 2nd, Regal was starting to generate some legitimate heat (a Thanksgiving match with the Rock was a big help). So to maintain his heel status, they couldn't have his hometown fans cheering his victory (heels aren't supposed to get cheers). So they set up the upset victory for Crash, which did little for Crash but helped his "cousin" Molly, like she needs it.
Back in the U.S. of A., Regal could once again win to the boos of the crowd, so he regained his title two days later on Raw. This helped further his heat because his was able to beat on sweet old Molly. Recently, Regal's stock has risen significantly, but that's more due to a lack of heels, not because of the European Title.