De-Evolution of the WWE Championship

[JT]

Well I've been gone for a while so I don't know if a post like this was already made, but it's something I would like to make a discussion about.

Has anyone else felt that the biggest wrestling championship in the world for the last 22 years or so (The WWE Championship) has been losing a great deal of appreciation? I mean it is one of the greatest wrestling championships in the World and has been held by the likes of Buddy Rogers, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Shawn Micheals, Steve Austin, The Rock, and numerous other greats. It was the title that was always involved somehow in the main event of the first 19 Wrestlemania's. However today, I feel as WWE treats the title they created over 40 years ago as a second rate World Championship to the Raw World Heavyweight Championship.

I personally, along with many of you, still look at the belt as the greatest prize in wrestling today, but just look at where the belt is now. It's being defended on the show that many superstars in there promos have called second rate to Raw. Not to mention last year one of Smackdown's top stars, Chris Benoit, won the Rumble, went to Raw, and proclaimed that he came for HHH's title (the Raw World Championship) because it was the "real" World Heavyweight Championship. Then, after 20 years, the WWE Championship is not at all involved with the Wrestlemania XX main event. Instead the Raw World Championship which was created only 3 years ago is placed in the main event.

It's obvous though why WWE considers the Raw Championship the main event title now...it's the title started by the guy related to the McMahon family. However, I don't want to start another rant on HHH (there is enough of that as it is), but the title really means nothing in my opinion. It's a title made to look like the old WCW Championship (even though it doesn't carry the title history), there have been only been 5 champions (3 before Wrestlemania), and one wrestler has held it 5 times already (much less being the only person to hold it 4,3, or even 2 times).. Yet WWE seems to treat that title with more prestege than the federations original WWE World Championship.

I won't complain about it's current WWE Championship title holders here I think some of the best wrestlers in the fed today have held it recently, plus I even think JBL is an entertaining champ. Still, doesn't anyone else notice the De-Evolution of this great championship too? And if so, what do you think of it?

*EDIT: Should have proofread my work to begin with.

[The CyNick]

You pretty much covered the reason, its HHH (sorry we have to talk about him).

There is the talk of switching Orton and Cena after Mania, with both guys as their brands' champion. IF that were to happen, and the WWE title is now on RAW, then it will suddenly be the more heavily promoted title.

Its just like everything in the WWE for the past 3 or 4 years, its all about catering to HHH, the WWE is his playground.

Of course for all their efforts, the RAW title has just as little value as the SD title. The numbers for RAW are better than SD is some categories and worse in others, but generally they are about the same.

For myself, I haven't cared about the RAW title since HHH avoided jobbing it to BT at Mania 19. Since then I really dont give a dman about the title, because you know, ultimately its going back on HHH. The last month on RAW was a clear indication of that.

[Loose Cannon]

Right after Jericho won both belts is when I stopped caring a lot about the main Title. Then when Guerrero won it, it shot up to established again. Then JBL :(

[Loose Cannon]

^^Woah, total misworded sentence there. I mean when they jobbed Jericho to Trips is when I stopped caring.

[RemyRed]

No admit it LC, you meant the first one. (j/k)

I dunno, once I got wise to the business being fixed I didn't really watch wrestling like that. I mean yes I know there is a lot of athleticism in professional wrestling but I really don't worry about things like credibility in wrestlers or prestige in the titles. The title belts never really mattered to me after around the time of the attitude era.

[Mr. Nerfect]

No admit it LC, you meant the first one. (j/k)

I dunno, once I got wise to the business being fixed I didn't really watch wrestling like that. I mean yes I know there is a lot of athleticism in professional wrestling but I really don't worry about things like credibility in wrestlers or prestige in the titles. The title belts never really mattered to me after around the time of the attitude era.

That's fair enough, but I'm really into what titles are worth, I don't know why, but they show a certain faith/hope the wrestling industry has in you.

The current version of the WWE Championship (SmackDown! World Championship) is actually a composition of the original WWE Championship and WCW Championship. I wish Michael Cole and/or Tazz talked about that, and maybe even have Tazz obsessed with the belt, just to add to its hypnotising value.

I personally hope we do see the World Championships switch brands, as The CyNick has already said. Triple H may shatter The Rock's record of seven reigns with the belt, but it would be wroth it to hear Ric Flair spatter out the history of both the WWE Championship and WCW Championship every night on RAW, instead of talking about this hollow belt, which has lost my interest since it has become the most predictable and political Championship in the WWE. For once, I'd wish they'd let Benoit, Shawn Michaels or Randy Orton get a second title reign. Why is Triple H the only man that can win the belt more than once?

I think the WWE may be trying to install their own modern-day World Heavyweight Championship into the industry. They're doing it with the WWE United States Championship and the WWE Tag Team Championship, so why not with a World Championship? This whole scenario would be much prettier if they never unified the WCW and WWF Championships as such, just had them defending together in the same match. So when Lesnar took both the World Championship and the WWE Championship to SmackDown!, Vince McMahon could have stripped him of one title, and had to go over to RAW.

That would make Benoit a two-time champ, Jericho a two-time champ, Triple H a six-time champ *shudder*, and Ric Flair would have as many title reigns as he does now. I still can't remember if he means exclusive WCW/NWA Title reigns when he says he is a 16-time champ, or 14 with the WCW/NWA Title and the two with the WWE Championship.

I remember first thinking the WWE Championship was a joke when Triple H lost it to Hogan in a month, and Hogan then proceeded to lose the belt to The Undertaker the following month. I see both as worth winning now, but I don't think it's any surprise what direction the titles are headed.

[Heyman]

The World titles would mean more if it was unified (and one world champ appeared on both shows). I haven't cared that much about the world title(s) since Summerslam 2002.


END THE ROSTER SPLIT!

-Create two 2.5 hour shows (well.....2:40 since there's always an extra 10 minutes).

-Put the Cruisers on velocity (if the WWE is serious in pushing the CW division), and the Women on Heat (for wrestling matches....although they'll probably need a few more wrestling-women for this).


-Again: I go back to the analogy of sports. If the NFL, NHL (RIP :(), or the NBA *COMPLETELY* split into two different brands, do you REALLY think the fans would like that?

If you're going to have the Roster Split, atleast be like the MLB (Major League Baseball). More interaction during the year, and the champs from both brands face one another at Wrestlemania.

[Mr. Nerfect]

The World titles would mean more if it was unified (and one world champ appeared on both shows). I haven't cared that much about the world title(s) since Summerslam 2002.


END THE ROSTER SPLIT!

-Create two 2.5 hour shows (well.....2:40 since there's always an extra 10 minutes).

-Put the Cruisers on velocity (if the WWE is serious in pushing the CW division), and the Women on Heat (for wrestling matches....although they'll probably need a few more wrestling-women for this).


-Again: I go back to the analogy of sports. If the NFL, NHL (RIP :(), or the NBA *COMPLETELY* split into two different brands, do you REALLY think the fans would like that?

If you're going to have the Roster Split, atleast be like the MLB (Major League Baseball). More interaction during the year, and the champs from both brands face one another at Wrestlemania.

I think a mixture of these things would be good. Unify all the titles (save the Women's and Cruiserweight), but have them appear exclusively on Heat & Velocity (as much as I hate to say it, since I don't get either show). Have he increased length of the shows, so we can watch quality matches, as well as have more superstars getting airtime.

[The CyNick]

The World titles would mean more if it was unified (and one world champ appeared on both shows). I haven't cared that much about the world title(s) since Summerslam 2002.


END THE ROSTER SPLIT!

-Create two 2.5 hour shows (well.....2:40 since there's always an extra 10 minutes).

-Put the Cruisers on velocity (if the WWE is serious in pushing the CW division), and the Women on Heat (for wrestling matches....although they'll probably need a few more wrestling-women for this).


-Again: I go back to the analogy of sports. If the NFL, NHL (RIP :(), or the NBA *COMPLETELY* split into two different brands, do you REALLY think the fans would like that?

If you're going to have the Roster Split, atleast be like the MLB (Major League Baseball). More interaction during the year, and the champs from both brands face one another at Wrestlemania.

They struggle to do 4 hours of decent TV a week, how do you expect them to do 5? Plus Heat and Velocity?

Ive said before, and I'll stick to this; ending the brand extension would be the worst move the WWE could make. To make a long story short, you create about 4 months of new matches, they run out, half the talent gets fired, and in 6-8 months they're left with the same problem. Only now instead of guys like HHH, Angle, HBK and Taker being split over two shows, they are taking up ALL the top spots for both shows.

Essentially what they are doing with the brand extesnion is copying MLB prior to interleague play. And the fans (in the States) have been into baseball for a long time, despite the "brand extension". So, in theory it can work. In terms of champion vs champion, you can only do that once, you cant do it every year. Unless you were to have a new championship created every year, which would obviously make that title seem quite menaingless.