Who do you consider a "World Champion"?
 

It's been awhile so lets play this game again. Let's say Rodrick Strong (former ROH World Champion), Adam Pearce (Current NWA World Heavyweight Champion), and Okada (former IWGP Heavyweight Champion) all signed with the WWE. Do you think that any of those three men should or would be recognized as former world champions? What do you consider a World Heavyweight Champion in professional wrestling? Mexico and Japan have well known professional wrestling promotions, what about Canadian or South American wrestling promotion's World Champions?

WWE would not consider any of those guys to be a former World Champion. WWE is the major leagues and there's no other company on their level. All those guys are just minor league champions.

International World Champions have the potential to be recognized, probably not as "World" champions, but probably acknowledged as "stars from overseas who have won major accolades/championships".

The other North American World Champions would not be recognized because of what Iggy said.

I wouldn't recognize any of their past accomplishments unless they were in Japan because then it seems exotic.

I wish they would honestly but unless they sign them with a major push in mind the best you'd get is 'competed at the highest level worldwide' or something to that effect, its a pity because it would give guys more credability as long as they don't go the TNA route and declare everyone a world champion regardless.

Noppers. The WWE is all that matters.

It worked for Tensai right.........right?

Did they call him a former Champion of Japan etc though? I mean, don't get me wrong, Tensai's gimmick destroys the idea of anyone ever caring about him, but if they were to list his accolades (which I don't recall seeing) that might have done something

Honestly, the WWE should recognize Mexican and Japanese organizations so that when they grab their talent people might care a little.

Although it's meaningless they should do it.

I do not understand the bragging about "17 time World Champion". It's not as if they're counting successful defences. You have to lose the championship to win it back. Idiots.

They said he "conquered" Japan. Didn't call him a former World Champion, but their description leads one to believe he was pretty much untouchable.

I guess when your only other Japanesse wrestlers in the past decade are Yoshi Tatsu and Funaki that might not hold weight with the audience lol

The only way I could see them acknoledging anything is if they go right to the main roster.

Fake titles in a fake sport. I'd count pretty much any title called a "world" title.

If you haven't held it in the WWE & than no. They're the big leagues, can't get any higher. But a case when they did recognize it, is when they talked about Brock Lesnar being the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. I would say that counts.

Indy titles don't count.

Btw ROH 'world champ' David Richards is wrestling in a 100 capacity hall in my town on Sunday. Big time star.

Go steal his belt.

Well, some people consider ROH a major US promotion (I'd call ROH a bigger promtoion than JCW or Chikara, but not on the same level as WWE) On the other hand the NWA World Heavyweight Title has been around since the 1940s and is still defended around the world. So we can agree that the WWE wouldn't acknowledge a world champion unless it's to their benifit (booking that match with former WCW World Heavyeight Champion David Arquette on RAW) but do you consider a wrestler who held the title for a major Japanese or Mexican promotion a World Champion?

I always felt like the regional indie feds should stop calling their champs "world champs", honestly. They should go back to "Florida State Champion" and shit like that. I have a feeling that if they all went to the state championship method, the WWE might care slightly when they transfer over to the big leagues.

Like if the Brisco Bros were to come in as a hot new tag team, since they're rednecks they could push 'em as winning regional tag team championships all over the south etc.

(Some places still do this, just wish they all did)

Christian wasn't considered a World Champion when he had 2 reigns as ECW Champion under his belt. His TNA and NWA World title reigns were ignored too.

The only belts that the WWE has acknowledged till date are the NWA World title (in it's golden days), the WCW Championship and the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

The World Heavyweight Title barely gets considered a World Championship other than in name right now. In a year or two it'll probably get scrapped or get its name changed and it'll officially be a midcard title.

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Remember when Ric Flair brought the NWA World title to show off on RAW?

That would be disgusting. The belt represents royalty. It has been contested for thrice in main event matches at Wrestlemania.

I'd say the NWA World title should be recognized no matter what era, as it's still an active World title.

ROH's is getting there, but not just yet.

While NJPW's IWGP titles has a reputation of being defended outside of Japan several times since the early 1990's and has a vast variety of international stars holding the titles, its Heavyweight title was defended outside of Japan once or twice (once in United States and once in North Korea, both in 1995), compared to their other titles.

I think one of the reasons why it doesn't seem to get the respect it deserves is because of the "I don't give a fuck" name attached to it that just kinda stuck. Once they dropped the WCW off the front of World Heavyweight Title after heavily modifying the idea of making one of the shows a WCW show, it doesn't sound as prestegious. Also, with the on-again/off-again nature of brand exclusivity, it seems kind of odd to see both champions on a single show unless it's some sort of supershow, PPV, or special occasion (like RAW 1000 or Tribute To The Troops). And, add the fact about broken lineage (Booker T is a 5x, not doing it, WCW Champion, but held that specific belt six times) and starting the title history over from when HHH was awarded the belt doesn't exactly champion the cause of giving it more prestige.

This is one of those occasions where a name means something. They let it go unnamed so long, it would be weird to correct it now unless they came up with something super catchy.

As for the question, if done right, WWE could recognize (or, fail to, given the angle... see Ric Flair being the "real World Heavyweight Champion"). But, as already been stated, they will likely only go as far as saying "international superstar who has won multiple championships all over the world". Unless it's something truly unique and marketable to one person, like Angle's Olympic Gold Medal or Lesnar's UFC championship reign. I'd almost guarantee if another former UFC champion shows up in WWE in the future, they likely wouldn't mention it.

The other thing about glossing over past accomplishments is that, quite generally, everyone starts over in the 'E. It would be a good way to get someone who is semi-established over right away, but Vince likes to build guys from the ground up. Even if they're already built. Places like WCW or TNA wanted you to recognize that the guy was somewhat legit coming in the door. They didn't just drop them in the basement and have them claw their way up like in WWE. WWE likes to pretend other places don't exist. Just about everywhere else will usually allow any advantage a guy can use to get over, ESPECIALLY if they're a former champion in WWE.

I mean, we all have seen the Ultimo Dragon pic, and we know what happened to him in his WWE run. Stupid cape. If a guy holding that many titles doesn't get any mention of them, what chance does anyone else have coming in with an impressive resume?

Nope doubt the WWE would call them former champions unless they had a name value and following similar to Bryan or Punk in the indies.

WWE usually only states wrestlers are former non-WWE champions if they own that company or its video library. I don't think they've ever reference Tensai as a former champion when he was in Japan and usually just state he destroyed the competition there.

Lol who other thqan St.Jimmy considers ROH to be a major US promotion. They aren't even remotely bigger than ECW was and I don't consider the ECW champion to be a "World Champ"

I believe they started calling it the World Championship back when The Rock and Chris Jericho were fighting for it. Most probably after WWF defeated The Alliance at Survivor Series.

I always liked that the fact that it was referred to as the World Heavyweight Championship. Back in college, my roommates (kayfabe fans) thought that the World Heavyweight Championship was a title of more importance than the WWE Championship mainly due to it's name and the physical belt itself.

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:nono:

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I am huge mark for the World Heavyweight Championship.

It really doesn't matter. WWE doesn't push either title as hard as they push their true main events with Cena/Rock/Lesnar/Taker/Triple H ...

ROH is an indie shit show, as well as every other promotion not TNA, or NJPW. IF WWE were to sign a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, I think the odds are decent they would mention it... but it doesn't matter... this is trivial

I don't know man. According to me, the main event should feature the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion.

WWE would never acknowledge another promotions world title period. Those guys probably won't even be considered the same person when they get to the WWE. The closest we got was Sin Cara and even he was never really mentioned as being anything more than "A major star in Mexico" which to the average retarded WWE viewer probably translates as "He was the top taco vendor in Tijuana".

WWE only cares about WWE related things. They'd never give credit to another company for something because it would make it seem like there are other wrestling promotions out there and we can't have that now can we?

Let's be real here.... two of those guys are gonna be in this position on their television debut.

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Anyone holding the top title of their respective company is a World champ to me.
But, the main title, of course, is the one that's defended on Raw (WWE title).

I hate to be cliché-ish, but unless a wrestler makes it to WWE and becomes either World Heavyweight Champion or WWE Champion, it doesn't really mean anything.

I mean, as a baseball player, you can be Minor League Player of the Year, but you still hope to get "The Call" so you can go up to the Majors and show what you can do.

A College Football player may win the College National Football Championship, he may win Bowls, and he may even win the Heisman Trophy, yet it doesn't necessarily translate into having a successful NFL career. A player may win all those championships and awards, but he still wants to be drafted and show what he can do at the highest level.

The same goes for professional wrestling. You may accomplish a lot of things elsewhere, but the dream (for most) is to get a chance to achieve greatness in the WWE.