World and WWE Championships

[Stickman]

I don't think these belts mean anything anymore. They change hands so regularly and in rediculous ways. Think, Hardy wins and 5 seconds later Punk takes it from him. That's 3 champions within basically 1 match. Batista wins and the next day he's stripped of it. Now they're having a fatal 4 way that I"m sure HHH or Cena will win, why not have a month long tournament or something. I'm just tired of the belts changing hands so often with weak victories.

We've debated over and over again how the titles don't mean anything anymore, and how they have lost credibility. I just think that the titles are at an all time low for credibility.

Wrestlers used to all want to be world champion, do you think they still do? Especially guys who know they're not really top guys; because chances are they'll look like a tool during their reign.

[#1-norm-fan]

Yes.

Undertaker's WrestleMania matches are so many miles ahead of any world title right now as far as prestige, it's ridiculous.

They need to look at ways to close that gap.

[kareru]

at least they should have

raw title
smackdown title
ecw title

and world title


i also find it funny that thw wwe's top belt is the wcw title belt lol

[Stickman]

I don't even think they have a top belt anymore.

[Savio]

Its the Divas Championship

[kareru]

I don't even think they have a top belt anymore.

im under the assumption that the world title is more prestigious than the wwe title, i cant be too sure though,

who knows what the wwe are thinking, i think vince has snapped, its all the pressure over the years has finally gotten to him its time to hand it to shane vince

[Stickman]

Do wrestlers still want to be World Champion knowing that HHH, Orton, Cena, Edge, and Batista are still around? Because they're definately going to lose it and look weak to one of them.

[Nicky Fives]

im under the assumption that the world title is more prestigious than the wwe title, i cant be too sure though,

who knows what the wwe are thinking, i think vince has snapped, its all the pressure over the years has finally gotten to him its time to hand it to shane vince

I think the reins will go to Stephanie & Triple H before Shane.....

[kareru]

I think the reins will go to Stephanie & Triple H before Shane.....


that would be quite good, then we could have who's the sexiest owners milf competition

dixie carter vs stephanie mcmahon

sweeeeeeeeeet

[XL]

im under the assumption that the world title is more prestigious than the wwe title, i cant be too sure though
Do you think that because the assumption would be WWE Champion means "champion of the company" and World Heavyweight Champion means "champion of the entire World"? If so I wouldn't put much stock in that hypothesis. Really the top belt is whichever HHH is ving for/carrying.

I don't think the Punk win demeans the belt at all. If that is the case then it's the Money in the Bank gimmick that belittles it, if anything.

As for the situation with Bats, it beggars belief. The feeling is that they switched the title as he was "defending Flair's honor", however, I think they would have been better off having Orton re-injure him having returned only a month or so ago. It puts Orton over, makes him look strong going into the fued with HHH and Flair could "get his revenge" by becoming GM and making Orton's life hell.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I think World Title reigns -- or any title reign, for that matter -- would work better if they had a goal attached to them. Lately we've been seeing guys win titles, and it's like there isn't even a thought behind it. We see Edge win the World Heavyweight Championship immediately after losing the WWE Title, before he loses it to Cena and then wins it back. And all I can do is wonder why they took the WWE Title off Edge in the first place, and why they felt the real need to put the World Heavyweight Title on Cena if they were just going to have him lose it and work with Big Show for a few months.

The WWE should look at each of their champions, and set themselves a goal with each. When that goal is achieved, it might be time to change champions over. For example: to avoid CM Punk's reign ending up like the last one, the goal of this one could be to make sure that by the end of it, CM Punk is accepted as a legitimate main event star in the WWE.

What does the WWE have planned with Tommy Dreamer? What is their goal with him serving as ECW Champion? It doesn't seem like they have one, and that they just went with the logical conclusion to his title chase story if he was sticking around -- winning the ECW Title. It might be time to have Dreamer drop the ECW Title as early as RAW.

[Savio]

Well I think it was a Retirement gift for Dreamer

[Droford]

Dreamer will lose the belt at the PPV in Philly.

[Batista03]

I think that they should do more tournaments like they did in the early 2000's. Now they have it to where it is like 3 on 1 or the GM is on your side. With Orton, he had Legacy to help him out almost every time he retained his title. Edge had Vickie to keep fucking over Taker and Batista to keep his title not to forget Chavo, Zack, and Curt to help him. I wish that they would do matches where it was face vs. face. Hell, even fatal four ways, 6 man HIC, and the E. Chamber match should not be only for just one PPV a year.

[FourFifty]

While prestige is good for the niche demographic known as the IWC, WWE would put out a Hog Dog Eating Championship and have Festus and Maria feud over it if it meant drawing in a crowd.

[abec]

Tuesday in Texas

[thedamndest]

Shorter reigns are more normal now than in the Hogan days, but that is to be expected with the number of PPVs they do and having three "top-tier" championships. They have to keep the brands exciting. The WWE Extreme events and the following Raw were unusual circumstances involving separate belts. You had a title switch from Edge to Hardy and then Punk cashing in th MitB (which we all knew was probably going to happen post-match some point. I don't really think people will view Jeff Hardy as a two-time champion anymore than they viewed Yokozuna as a two-time champion.

Batista's issue involved an injury. We can only guess what they had planned originally, but this whole thing now has been thrown together to compensate for that.

This year they have been doing lots of title switches. Possibly as a kneejerk reaction to when Cena held the belt for a long time he got booed, so now they're going to the other extreme. I don't know. It's all in striking a balance between switches and reigns.

[Johnny Vegas]

Dude, Cena almost had the belt for like 20 out of 24 months. We've had one of those already and people were bitching about it. And don't say because it was Cena because he basically appealed to the majority of the crowd as we know them today.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Frequent title changes don't really bother me. I don't like it when a guy gets the balls cut off his reign, but sometimes a really short reign can just do wonders.

For example, Jeff Hardy winning the World Heavyweight Championship for a few minutes was fine with me. Jeff proved that he could beat Edge in a Ladder Match. He proved that he has got what it takes to be a brand's champion again. What happened at Extreme Rules was a great way to tease Jeff Hardy as the top guy again, and it continues his journey to when he eventually wins the World Heavyweight Title and gets to spend a night with the belt.

Batista winning the WWE Championship also didn't bother me. Mainly because Randy Orton is boring as WWE Champion. It was the first WWE Title victory for Batista, and even though he was injured (and apparently they knew it at the time), it's more cradence to the growing legacy of The Animal. Like it or not, the man is very over, and winning the WWE Championship so dominantly in a Steel Cage Match makes Batista look like someone the fans should be behind -- so when he does return, people will still care about him.

[Destor]

Them changing hand sso frequently I dont think hurts the belt any more because of how normal that is and how that's been the standard for so long. Cena's long reign, JBL's long reign, Batista long reign, none of this really added anything to these belts. The only thing it did was tire the audience and make them want a change. They're trained to quick changes now.

The real issue is having two belts. Because of this practially every star in the company is now a former champ and THAT takes away from the prestigue. It's to the point where it's almost a given that these guys will win the title so there's no real drama. And at the end of the day they put the belt back on the guys they were pushing prior (Cnea's Orton's H's etc) so nothin good really comes from it.

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd rather that they at least distinguished between the two World Titles. Holding the WWE Championship, which was held by Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock is not the same as holding the World Heavyweight Championship created in 2002.

[Londoner]

Them changing hand sso frequently I dont think hurts the belt any more because of how normal that is and how that's been the standard for so long. Cena's long reign, JBL's long reign, Batista long reign, none of this really added anything to these belts. The only thing it did was tire the audience and make them want a change. They're trained to quick changes now.

The real issue is having two belts. Because of this practially every star in the company is now a former champ and THAT takes away from the prestigue. It's to the point where it's almost a given that these guys will win the title so there's no real drama. And at the end of the day they put the belt back on the guys they were pushing prior (Cnea's Orton's H's etc) so nothin good really comes from it.

Exactly.

[GD]

I was really pissed off when Batista won the WWE title because all this time he was running after the big gold and now all of a sudden he is the WWE Champion. That's fucking bullshit man.

[Y2Ant]

Another thing you have to think about is when a casual fan asks you who is the champ nowadays, what do you say?

I've never been a fan of two belts for each tier, or the brand split for that matter, but even spreading 4 belts out (maybe keep both midcard ones since you have three shows) over all the shows might be the better way to go.

[Testicle]

I agree with what Destor said, but I also believe that the lessening of the prestige of the belts has something to do with the frequent title changes. There was really no reason to have Batista win the title last week, just so they could put it back on Orton this week. With the WWE and World belts changing so frequently it makes every change less significant. (Edge has won 9 world titles in the last 3.5 years) It isn't a shock anymore when the title changes. Its no big deal anymore, they had four world titles change hands at extreme rules (if you count the ECW title), this takes away from what the belts have meant, IMO.

[USAUSA1]

Edge being a 9 times champion is crazy. It's nowhere as good as Bret Hart being a 5 time champion.

How many times the World title change hands during the Attitude era/NWO era when wrestling was at his height in popularity? Not that much, so it's no excuse. We need to go back to 8 months title reigns. Cena being champion 20 out of 24 months was pushing it, all we asking for is 6-8 months title reigns.

There should only be one world champion and he should work both brands. The IC belt should be the top belt for the ECW brand because they worth the same. Who is the ECW champion btw?