Quote:
Originally Posted by Heyman
The Attempt to "push everyone" has also lead to the devaluation of the mid-card titles in my opinion
Since the Attitude Era didn't attempt to "push everyone," which lead to an acceptance amongst the wrestlers that not everyone on the roster was going to get a main-event push, it lead to the Intercontinental Title and European Titles to actually mean something.
Nowadays, you have all these guys that have won IC titles (with the false expectation that they'll become credible main-eventers one day), which has to lead to many of these "wannabe main-eventers" being artificially "above" the IC and US titles. Why? Because - many of these wrestlers have been transitional world champions in the past.
Guys like Sheamus, The Miz, Jack Swagger, Dolph Zigger, etc., etc., should be heavily involved in the IC title making the division an exciting one, but because of the WWE's "push everyone" mindset, this is not the case.
Now - you have all these guys that are "artificially" above the division when they really shouldn't be.
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I was literally *just* thinking about this.
The reason the IC and US Heavyweight Titles existed within their respective companies (or "territories") was because of the fact that professional wrestling was presented a lot differently then. The World Champion would either be touring or not on every show. The IC or US Champion would provide a beacon, if not exclusively for "the future," or the "workhorse" of a company -- a "guy." He may not be
the guy, but he has something everyone wants. It was an underline to a guy's name.
Hot-shotting the title around may have hurt that, as has the way wrestling television is presented. Now the World Champion is usually on every show. So what does being the IC or US Champion mean? Especially now that
both titles exist in WWE?
I think the easy fix is to re-establish divisions. Believe it or now, since my matured appreciation of the old-school presentation of wrestling (clarification: the simplicity and logic of wrestling), I am NOT a major fan of top-ten rankings and the such. I feel that a product that needs to be as flexible as professional wrestling should have a more organic and, dare I say, "emotional" feeling to it.
That being said, the IC and US Titles have very little added emotional investment from the guys who hold them. And that's not the fault of the guys. John Cena has been far and away the best United States Champion the WWE has ever had. Why? Because you believe that being able to call himself the
United States Champion means a whole hell of a lot to him. In my opinion, Jack Swagger could
easily be presented in the same league. He's not, but he definitely could be a guy that is always chasing
that title.
I don't know if I've ever published this on this website, but I had this idea for Fandango where he would be the IC guy. To explain the origins of his gimmick, I had this idea that it would somehow be presented that when Pat Patterson became the first Intercontinental Champion, the big post-tournament celebration that took place in Rio de Janeiro featured Fandango's parents as dancers. The loser of the match (I don't know if there is a kayfabe explanation to who this was, and always assumed it was an unknown, but did read an example somewhere that surprised me in their celebrity -- but it doesn't really matter) would have gotten drunk in a self-pitying fashion and made a pass at a young Fandango's mother. Fandango's father -- not a professional fighter, but a proud man -- threw a punch at the ex-South American Champion, which enraged him, but security broke it up. The young Fandango would have watched and thought "Wow...when I grow up, I'm going to be the Intercontinental Champion..."
This would have made Fandango older than Johnny Curtis' shoot age, but I think that would have added to the mystique of his originally mature and manipulative gimmick (he did lure Chris Jericho -- one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions of all-time -- into a WrestleMania debut match for himself). It would have explained a real emotional connection to the IC Title for Fandango, and he could always be a guy you could switch the belt back to give new guys trial runs.
Now guys win a title, they lose a title, they win another title, they lose another title, they challenge for a title, they lose, they challenge for another title, they win. It
has been reduced to a flavor of the month prop. For these titles to exist and mean something in 2015, then they need someone actually gunning for them because of what they are and what they represent. That way they actually are and represent something.