WWE Needs To Respect Its Undercard

[Mr. C]

I thought I’d examine one of the problems with WWE. The problem is that although WWE knows how to build an event, it has no idea how to utilize its undercard.

Intercontinental Championship:
There was once a time when feuds were built around this title e.g. Benoit/Jericho, Ramon/Michaels, Austin/Rock, etc. Nowadays, it carries no purpose and is used for only two reasons:

1 - A guy who has nothing to do.

2 - A guy who’s talented, but WWE has no plans for.

What WWE needs to do is start treating this belt as seriously as they once did. They need to build feuds around it, adding some value to the title and start making some effort to build toward matches over the belt.

United States Championship:
John Cena held the title off and on for a year, but how many feuds did he really have? His best was with Booker T. The mistake WWE made was that they failed to keep the rivalry heated throughout and focused solely on the matches. By the time Cena eventually regained the belt, fans had lost interest. In short, this title is being tossed around aimlessly and needs someone who can defend it and bring it back up a notch (like Ken Kennedy or Matt Hardy).

Tag Team Championship:
It’s something simply for midcarders to do while they don’t have an angle. The only tag teams on the roster are Carlito & Primo, Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase, and Cryme Tyme. Remember when tag teams used to have a name? It’s just laziness to hear Carlito & Primo announced as “Carlito & Primo”, rather than “The Colons”. How about Brian Kendrick & Paul London? These guys had potential to be the next Hardy Boyz, but WWE thought that splitting them would make more sense. With such a roster of talent, you’d think WWE could do better. The titles have become meaningless.

Women’s Championship:
We saw some feuds between the likes of Gail Kim, Jazz, Molly Holly, Trish Stratus, and Victoria, but after that, it was as if WWE stopped trying. It’s quickly becoming stale. Now we have Divas who can’t wrestle to save their lives. The Divas Championship should be gotten rid of.

It’s the undercard that can bring back the ratings. Feuds with a goal are what make titles important.

[Juan]

The United States Championship has been the best booked title in WWE for quite some time now.

[Krimzon7]

Originally Posted by Juan The United States Championship has been the best booked title in WWE for quite some time now.

Very good point Juan. No other title has been as consistently booked over the last year. Now, most of that has to do with the fact that PS was running the show over there and this title flew under the radar. Let's see what he can do with the IC belt. I fully suspect for the streak of quality credibility that the US title has built will be shat away on Raw.

[Jeritron]

Paul London is the reason "Londrick" was broken up.

[screech]

I agree with pretty much everything you've said.

The IC title needs to regain the credibility it once had. As much as I dislike him, Rey is a good guy to start the process. There is good competition for him on Smackdown, with a great list of former champions in Shelton, Morrison, and Kane (though he should be higher on the card in my opinion). There are also newcomers who could create good feuds to boost the belt and themselves such as R-Truth, Dolph Ziggler, and Curt Hawkins (say what you will, it could happen). The tools are there, Vince just has to start giving a shit.

While the US title hasn't been misused as much as the IC title, it could still be booked better. Now that MVP is on RAW with it, he can use it as his springboard to the main event, thereby boosting its credibility. Former champions Ken Kennedy (when healthy) and Matt Hardy could get the ball rolling. Though Matt should be elevated to the main event at this point (it actually should have happened already). New blood in this title hunt who would benefit from a run are Kofi Kingston The Miz, Brian Kendrick and possibly Sim Snuka if he is actually going to be used. As with the IC title, the tools are there. With the abundance of main event talent, the US title could be used as a launching pad to bigger things.

Elevating both titles would make everything else seem better. If people cared enough about the undercard, they'd be even more excited for the main event. And if the main event for some reason doesn't deliver (see WWE title match at WM), they can still be excited for the other title matches.

To keep this from going on too long, I'll break it up into separate posts.

[screech]

Tag team wrestling is all but dead these days, and it's really a shame. The title unification match being pulled from the WM card just proves that it just doesn't matter to Vince anymore. Due to the lack of teams on each show, the best plan would be to have the champions defend the belts across all three shows rather than being exclusive to RAW (are they already doing this?)

As far as the Women's Division goes, one belt should be defended across the brands. There just isn't enough talent to have two titles.

Using the talent exchange with ECW is going to be huge in bringing up the midcard. Evan Bourne's last two matches (with Morrison and Burchill respectively) made it seem like it's beginning. In both matches, the loser looked almost as good as the winner. I am hoping this trend continues because it would be awesome.

[Nicky Fives]

I think Bourne might have single handedly saved Burchill from being "future endeavored" in their match on ECW this week.... it was a solid undercard match and with other midcarders (MVP, Shelton, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Bourne, Mysterio, etc.) the talent is definately there, WWE just has to book them properly

[screech]

Originally Posted by nick55555 I think Bourne might have single handedly saved Burchill from being "future endeavored" in their match on ECW this week.... it was a solid undercard match and with other midcarders (MVP, Shelton, Finlay, Matt Hardy, Bourne, Mysterio, etc.) the talent is definately there, WWE just has to book them properly

You could say Bourne saved Burchill, but I'd make the case that Burchill saved himself as well. He put on a very good showing and proved that he deserves a better push. He not only helped Bourne get over as a solid worker, he helped put himself over as such also.

As I said, the talent is there. WWE just needs to start caring about it again.

[Batista03]

I agree with what has been said so far. The IC and US title should be picked up again on the shows. With those titles and the talent that they have they could do alot with it. As many ppl that they have in that field, the titles can be defended in triple and 4-way matches like they used to in the past. Those kind of matches made those titles the shit and as far as the tag titles go, triple threat tag matches is where its at. I would like to see Cryme Tyme get the titles at least once. The Womens title should be the only solo title unless they brought back the women's tag titles (which I doubt). The only good women that they have is Mickie, Melina, Gail Kim, Natalya, and Beth.

[DAMN iNATOR]

Originally Posted by Batista03 I agree with what has been said so far. The IC and US title should be picked up again on the shows. With those titles and the talent that they have they could do alot with it. As many ppl that they have in that field, the titles can be defended in triple and 4-way matches like they used to in the past. Those kind of matches made those titles the shit and as far as the tag titles go, triple threat tag matches is where its at. I would like to see Cryme Tyme get the titles at least once. The Womens title should be the only solo title unless they brought back the women's tag titles (which I doubt). The only good women that they have is Mickie, Melina, Gail Kim, Natalya, and Beth.

Have you met Maryse Ouellet? Rumor is she's fucking hot*.

*This rumor is totally true. She is also talented in the ring.

For more info see this thread: http://www.tpww.net/forums/showthread.php?t=89268

[The Gold Standard]

The midcard matches are the more athletic and entertaining matches. The thing is that Vince doesn't want athletic ability, he wants star power and all of the guys with star power are in the Main Event picture

[Mr. Nerfect]

I'd love to see a feud between MVP and William Regal over the US Title. Just an old school wrestling feud, with the American defending the title named after his country against the foreigner with some serious skill. I'm a big Chavo Guerrero fan, so I'd like to see his relationship with Vickie allow him to work some solid mid-card matches, too. With Kofi Kingston, The Miz and The Brian Kendrick also hanging around, there is no reason the US Title cannot be fine.

While he may not be a priority, I'd love to see The Brian Kendrick holding the US Title. It can be used to groom him for better things, but hopefully put him into perspective a bit, so he settles the fuck down and starts doing smarter things for his career.

The mid-card on SmackDown! is also looking good. Some successful defenses of the IC Title by Rey Mysterio against the likes of John Morrison, Shelton Benjamin, Dolph Ziggler and Mike Knox should be fun. Eventually, though, I'd like to see the mid-card find itself built around guys like R-Truth, Curt Hawkins, Jesse Gordy and Charlie Haas.

[Tazz Dan]

I agree. Unfortunately I don't see it happening anytime soon. Vince seems to much in love with the current crop of Main Eventers, so the majority of mid carders will probably be on a revolving wheel of future endevourness until he realises that the fans actually give a shit about them.

[Rammsteinmad]

Besides the pathetic Rey/JBL "match" at this years Wrestlemania, the IC title hasn't been defended at Wrestlemania since 2002.

Considering how important this title use to be, it clearly is as low on WWE's priority list as Charlie Haas.

[Mooияakeя™]

[Krimzon7]

I do like the midcard on Raw. I think MVP/Kennedy/Miz/Regal, et all can provide USA with a full two hours of quality programming.

[Krimzon7]

I think the IC strap will be the best thang somking by Summerslam. Can you imagine what we will get out of Haas, Benjamin, Rey, TBK, and Morrison? I literally shudder to think of the possibilities.

[Destor]

I believe the WWE needs to continue to shit on their undercard.

[GD]

I believe that they need more ppv exposure. (post # infinite)

[What Would Kevin Do?]

WWE is getting better... Honestly, for the first time in a long time, I can look at them and see a decent midcard who actually has a chance of doing something. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but looking at guys like MVP, Punk, Kofi, Morrison, Bourne to a lesser extent, Christian, Swagger, etc, I feel like WWE won't implode on itself when some of the older guys go (HBK, Undertaker, HHH to a lesser extent.)

At least I can look at the show and say "Hey, these guys could be pushed into the main event if they had to be." and that's a good thing, because it reflects that they're at least building the midcard up somewhat.

[St. Jimmy]

No, actually they don't. They pay them and can do DAMN WELL whatever they want with their undercard.

[Mr. C]

I’d love to see a feud between CM Punk and Kane over the Intercontinental title.

I would've had a Triple Threat Match for the title on Superstars this past Thursday night with Punk, Kane, and Mysterio, where Kane wins the title and defends it against Punk at Backlash.