good. I read the first page and had to say that.

I want good booking. I don't care if they have one belt or ten thousand. Good booking changes ratings, good booking brings prestige to all titles and good booking makes me want to watch the product.

Does Noid only bitch about KK? I've only seen like 12 of his posts, and they're all crying about KK.

You can't smell through a computer.

Except we have no practical reason to agree. In reality, what matters is the talent they tap and the booking. With the single belt, there is every reason to think it would be a lateral move at best. At best. More realistically, it probably just makes the title scene even more set in stone, does nothing for the IC or US titles, and leaves a bigger divide between the under/midcard and the ME scene.

Stop being such a Smark :roll:

Hmmm...Destor provides a dishonest comparison that defies logic (When a more logical path was available), and then attempts to draw conclusions form a distortion of the argument in question.

Surprise.

Please

Honestly, there is probably a pretty good apples to apples comparison. Territory days? Hulkamania era? Neither of these need apply. Actually, one needs only look at how we got from the former to the latter to see why the latter's a particularly bad example.

The problem isn't so much a single title as where particularly we're coming from to get to a single title, and the effect it will have on the current promotion and the current programming. Trying things that were done in the past may work now, but they generally don't because things have changed. Kind of like their current marketing strategy once made them huge and mainstream in the Hulkamania period, including cartoons, vitamins, and movie deals. Funny how it doesn't work now, though.

Well, except movie deals, but those are primarily in-house. And given the Condemned was only their third movie and "condemned" them to Direct-to-DVD status for the time being, I wouldn't be putting that one on my list of success stories from old promotional ideas.

With five hours of major programming, with numerous stars and a lot of talent, this is a recent development that is historically fairly unique. NWA wasn't a bunch of brands all owned by one person, it was a confederation. Hulk Hogan didn't unify two or three brands under the same banner who use the same corporate stationary. WWE programming is still all WWE programming, which means fewer logistical issues but more internal issues. Divided brands with one title means Cena, Trips, or Bats with the belt hurts even more. It clogs the title scene that much more, and is less likely to lead to Bats and Edge fighting over the midcard straps than it is to lead to TNA-esque clusterfucks. If there isn't a top championship on one brand, or if there is a de facto top championship that's a midcard belt, it could easily turn people off whichever brand doesn't have the big title, especially if it's been a couple of months. WWE can't even ajudicate fairly when they're running two programs with two separate titles, as was evidence by their willingness to harm one show for another.

The belt is a prop, but it's a prop that keeps things exciting in a way that fighting for contenderships can't be by default. It's a fake title, but it carries with it fake prestige and fake glory, and it may be only one of the story points in wrestling, it's kind of a big one.

How will this not lead to anyone not named Triple H, John Cena or Batista being lucky to even participate in a title match?

Stop thinking logically and start thinking Hulk Hogan 4 year runs. Evidentially, that's where some people in this thread think the title should be going.

This is my biggest worry. Even if there was only one World title, I think that the IC and US titles would improve only minimally. Guys like Jericho, Punk, Jeff would end up being challengers for this title and it would just seem like they are too good for that division.

The one title worked in the Attitude Era because the bookers were ridiculously better and far more intelligent, plus people seem to forget that the attitude era was only five years long at the most (97-2002), in which Austin, Rock, HHH etc were all fresh in the main-event scene following the Bret and HBK era -- whereas today we have the same guys from four years ago constantly in the main-event of two brands like Batista and Cena, and then of course we have Triple H.

You could have stopped at "Stop thinking logically."

Thinking Logically and Booking Committee don't seem to go together much these days.

Yeah, but this is about the fans and logic right now.

Well, the ass fans there as well.

In theory I like the idea of a single champion as I personally still don't buy the likes of Edge, Hardy, anyone else shifted to Main Event status during the brand split era to be on the same level as the likes of HHH, HBK, Undertaker, etc.

I've never seen the WHC to be on par with the WWE Title regardless of who is champ or who it has been booked.


In practice however it just isn't logistically possible given the current setup. As has been said already we either have the championship fued on one show (say Raw) which takes away from the other shows. More so, at the end of the month when that fued is "done" the champ then moves to the other show(s) leaving the contender behind. So we either have championship programmes that last a month at a time and that - if continued - have to have a month gap inbetween whilst the SD Number One Contender gets his shot before being picked up again. I guess that means fewer "none finishes" though so that could be viewed as a positive.

The alternative is to have the Raw Number One Contender follow the champ from show to show to continue the fued but that renders the brand split completely pointless.

Can't see how they could do it without ending the split - and of course ending the split causes the next set of problems with an over populated Main Event scene and an overinflated roster in general.

How about you have the other main eventers on the brand get in a feud that people care about. God forbid...

Clearly, the problem is that we haven't considered it, not that we don't believe it likely given the booking over the past several years.

I mean, let's be realistic. It sounds great through rose coloured glasses, but it's basically an argument of "if WWE does everything the exact opposite of what they've been doing for years, this will work."

Which would be awesome. It also would make the merging of titles completely superfluous, as they've be able to actually book exciting feuds for the existing belts and main eventers on the show as-is. Either way, it's a major hand-wave.

Let's say that they do combine the titles. What happens to the World Heavyweight Championship? They spent five years trying to build credibility with this belt, all for the sake of it being a filler belt for whichever brand it was on at the time.

A single belt, with the way things are in the WWE today, wouldn't work. It may for six months tops like when they tried it in 2002. But eventually the title matches will become contrived, based entirely on regulation and whichever pay per view they are having in that particular two week span. There would be no way for any natural title feud to develop under those circumstances. Well maybe there would, but it would be wedged between these awkward required title defenses each month.

That being said, I hate the brand split, or at least the extent to which they have let it go. It reflects the disorganized mess the company has turned into these last four years. But, if you are going to have fifteen brands or however many there are now, you've got to have some sort of championship hierarchy that is consistent with the different shows. I don't know, the WWE is a huge mess anyway. They can do whatever they want for all I care.

Honestly, I think they were keeping it around so Cena could hold it, now that he has they can unify the belts.

Once again that's a great idea - in theory.

Let's look at using the current split/champions etc.

First step is to unite the titles in a Cena v Hardy match, let's say CENA WINS.

Now we have Cena floating between Raw and SD. He goes back to Raw for the first month/title defense. This happens against JBL.

In the meantime we need to book Main Event level fueds for Jericho, HBK, Orton, etc on Raw and HHH, Taker, Hardy, Edge on SD. SD will no doubt fued their guys over the shot that Smackdown is due in 2 PPVs time so that's pretty easy. But what do you do on Raw? How many long running fueds have we had over the last 2 years that haven't been about winning the title or becoming No 1 Contender? HBK v Jericho is pretty much the only one that stands out.

So we get to the PPV, CENA WINS and heads off to SD to face Hardy again (for arguments sake). What does JBL do when he returns to Raw? Oh, that's right it's Raw's turn to work out who is gonna be their Number One Contender for their next shot.

Seems like we'll just have an endless line of Number One Contender fueds and one month long fueds over the title. Just seems like a booking nightmare to me. We already know that they struggle to book decent fueds/angles when they are seperate, surely it can't get any better if they have to constantly interweave them!?

If this is true, and if Cena wins it, Fox riots.

Boxing has multiple world titles for different bodies, don't they? Don't see why wrestling can't do the same. Maybe they should have unification bouts at times but still have the possibility for the indivdual titles to be defended, I dunno.

I thought a common criticism of boxing was that it has too many world titles...

And I like the idea; it is a shame I always see Vince in these stories, doing the same thing in each.

1 Good Looking Belt and Good Booking. Kthx?

Hunter Heyman Hindu's Solution:
 

Hunter Heyman Hindu's Solution:

1) Push Kane Knight off a cliff. :y:

2) Keep the brand split....COMMIT to it. However - do NOT have a draft every 13-16 months. Instead - make a COMMITMENT to a "solidified" roster split. If a guy is on Smackdown, he's on fucking Smackdown. Period. No showing up on the "other" show, no being draft to another show half-a-year later.

3) Have a lottery draft every 4 years...maybe 3.

4) Eliminate ECW (or the "3rd" show). The presence of a 3rd brand does nothing but hurt the depth of the other two brands. Eliminate ECW and disperse the talent to RAW and Smackdown. Or hell - have ECW take over Smackdown and just call the show 'ECW'.

5) Create a real rivalry between the two (now DISTINCT) brands. Have Shane manage one of the shows and have Stephanie manage the other. We should see a real "cold war" between the brands (i.e. planned backstage attacks every now and then). This "heated rivalry" between the brands can then play over on certain PPV's.

6) Have the winner of the 30-man Royal Rumble become World Champion of his respective brand. Let's face it. The 30-man Royal Rumble IS the main-event at the Royal Rumble. People could careless about the "world title" match. Hence - make the 30-man Royal Rumble worth something. The winner not only wins the world title of his respective brand, but he also is a "lock" for the final main-event match at Wrestlemania. Furthermore - he becomes the automatic 'special guest referee' at the other brand's main-event PPV match for the world title in February.

7) At Wrestlemania, the two world champions of each brand face one another. No title is up for line, but the winner gets a huge trophy and a (fictitious) $1,000,000.

8) Now that RAW and Smackdown are COMPLETELY DISTINCT (as I established earlier...due to the lottery draft now being held every 4 years, combined with the fact that wrestlers can't just "show up" on another show and wrestle in matches, etc.), add "fire" to the interbrand PPV's.

King Of The Ring: At King of The Ring, the winner of RAW's "tournament" (held on RAW) vs. the winner of Smackdown's "tournament" (held on Smackdown) face each other at KOTR....to determine the one TRUE king of the Ring of the WWE. Not only does this add to the RAW/SD competition (and bragging rights), but it also gives that ONE person the distinction of being "the next big thing."

Survivor Series: Main-event match. The best 5 wrestlers from RAW vs. The best 5 wrestlers from Smackdown. Not just any 5....THE best 5. The winner of this match gets some kind of reward (i.e. the next up-coming talent from the minors or something).

Anyway - those are some solutions that I have.

I would also combined the U.S and IC title (which then becomes specific to one brand), while also bringing back the Hardcore title 24/7 in-tact.

RAW titles:

-World title
-Tag Titles
-IC title

Smackdown titles:
-WWE Title
-Tag Titles
-Hardcore title

Titles are like currency. The more there are, the less value they have.

Wow, my head hurts now.

Please don't bring back the Hardcore title. Put the WWE and IC titles on RAW and the WHC and US titles on SD!

Mmmm...Desperation.

What are you on about KK?

If you combine the titles, you need to unify the rosters. If you leave multiple World titles, you need to leave the rosters completely separate and probably get rid of ECW. It's ambiguous right now what exactly ECW is supposed to do. It sure isn't building any new stars. With the talent exchange, the superstars can show up wherever they want, and the title is basically worthless; I'd rather see Matt feud over the WWE or World title than wank around with the ECW title each week until he drops it to the next guy, but okay. But that is really more of a digression on how ECW title matches waste all of our time at PPVs. If you made the exact same match and had the guys feuding over the US or IC belt, we'd all be better off.

I just reread that, and I left a few holes, but I stand by the general concept.

I just want to see ECW killed, split the talent between SmackDown, Raw, and FCW. From there keep the brands seprate, which includes single brand ppvs. Have 4 dual brand PPVs, 4 Raw, 4 SmackDown.

Jan- Rumble
Feb- SmackDown
Mar- Raw
April- Mania
May- SmackDown
June- Raw
July- SmackDown
Aug- Summer Slam
Sept- Raw
Oct- SmackDown
Nov- Survivor Series
Dec-Raw

Keep the WHC and the WWE titles seprate. Kill the Diva's title, put eye candy only divas on SmackDown, kill off one set of tag team champions, whcih can be defended at any PPV, bring back the Hardcore title w/24-7 rules, resign Braden Walker, and there, it's fixed.

Mar-Mania :roll:
April- Raw

even if it went into April the last two years, March is always Mania.

Lol. A full twelve Wrestlemanias have occured in early April.

Sorry I post in casual... you know.. the place people actually care about.