Wrestling Rumblings #103
December 24, 2010
By: Jose Marrero of Wrestleview.com
Titles, its funny how we can get so worked up as fans over something that isn’t legit but we do. Titles are basically the point of a wrestling show and even though wrestlers don’t “win” titles in a way they do. They are a pat on the back, a way to help a guy achieve the next level and should always be considered a way to make money. For any wrestler to say they have held a title should be considered something of an honor even in today’s wrestling. However it just feels that titles have become diluted over the years as they just mean less and less in the eyes of fans. Which is why I am saying it is time to start unifying some titles in wrestling? You’re reading “Wrestling Rumblings.”
There was talk some time ago that WWE was considering unifying all of its main titles by Wrestlemania and had even started with the tag team and women’s championships now being unified. It would seem that talk has now been tabled as the mid card and heavyweight championships of each brand have yet to be unified and don’t look to be anytime soon but I tell you all this is an error of epic proportions. We just had a PPV that saw Edge become champion for the 10th time in less than 5 years. The reaction of that title win was sort of lackluster in my opinion to the reactions of major title wins when I first came up as a wrestling fan and part of the reason for this is because the title changes hands so much. With a brand exclusive title and not much depth to main event rosters I think it is safe to say Ric Flairs mark for championships will be passed by more than one person as it is hard to keep a title on a main event performer in the current model of WWE with two world champions. One world champion would make that a bit easier.
Can you imagine one world championship in WWE? I can that would mean John Cena, Randy Orton, The Miz, Edge, Chris Jericho, Sheamus, HHH, Wade Barrett, Kane, The Big Show, Rey Misterio and others who you can maybe imagine coming back into the mix at some point such as Batista and Chris Jericho all competing for this title. That’s a main event tier that could really hang with any era when you think about it. Main events will never be stale because it would sort of freshen things up in time for newer stars to be created. Plus the mid card feuds would be stronger as some of these guys may have to step back down a bit to Intercontinental/United States championship level or even tag team championship level and their interactions with each other would have to be meaningful to help elevate them in the future for runs with the champion. But what of the guys underneath these main eventers who still have two championships to compete for?
You can guess where this is going; the Intercontinental and United States Championships need to be unified as well. If the main event situation feels stagnant can you imagine the mid card right now? I can only see Kofi Kingston get so many Intercontinental Championship matches and while Daniel Bryan has rotated challengers his challengers are not really built up well so it doesn’t feel like he is getting wins over credible opponents which sort of hurts him as a champion. Dolph Ziggler has been champion for five months and yet you would never know it because his title reign has been one of the dullest in years. It’s not his fault but when a guy gets title shot after title shot at several champions because there just isn’t much of a scene and finally lucks into one and just keeps wrestling the same guys over again who were not built up at all it’s no wonder you can’t take him seriously. Can you imagine if those titles were unified and you had more of a mid card to contest for that championship? Think about it, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Kofi Kingston, R Truth, John Morrison, Jack Swagger, William Regal, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase Jr., Drew Mcintyre and others could all sort of interact with each other and get in the mix and be elevated properly to that mid card elite status and by doing that when those guys do have strong runs with the title they can be further elevated to main event status and look like they belong and are not a “weak challenger” which is what I heard John Morrison referred to as earlier this week.
I don’t want everyone to think I am just picking on WWE as I think TNA at this point has too many titles also. For years fans were clamoring for a secondary title in TNA and for years I kept pointing out to fans how the X Division title should have been that title. The whole gimmick of that title was “no limits” and it should have been that way instead of becoming relegated to being a cruiserweight championship in a company that has slowly deemphasized those competitors. The title has become so poorly thought of that Jay Lethal just tied AJ Styles for most X Division title reigns and no one even took the time out to mention it, because no one really cared. Bear in mind when I say no one I am not just talking about TNA, even other websites didn’t mention it because again they didn’t care However TNA fans and eventually TNA management created that other title in what was originally known as the TNA Legends Championship, became the TNA Global Championship and is now known as the TNA TV Championship. It should be pointed out that the title isn’t even three years old yet and has already gone through three name changes so it’s no wonder how no one really takes that championship seriously either. This was to be the big second tier championship that would help take guys to main event level and who is it on right now? Doug Williams a guy who may be a spectacular wrestler but is never going to be a world champion. Especially if he holds a title that it seems at times no one is interested in going for. Have you ever seen a serious angle that maintained interest that was built around that title? The current feud between Wiilliams and Styles has the most potential to be the first but in three years to not have one at this point says a lot about the way that title is portrayed.
Do we really need both this title and the X Division title? I mean did anyone really get into Robbie E. as X Division Champion? Does anyone even know Jay Lethal is the champion? I think that if you had a singular mid card championship it would give that title a bit more prestige as it is counting the TNA World Championship I don’t think TNA needs 3 men’s championships in the promotion. They have the same 2 hours as Raw and Smackdown and WWE puts on a better product and they don’t have 3 mens championships why should TNA? It is time to put one of these titles out of its misery.
Less is more in my opinion. One of the things I liked about ROH for years was that it only really had one championship. It meant everyone in the promotion had to strive to be the world champion or the world tag team champion or just not bother coming to work. It made every ROH title match mean more to me and it made every ROH match mean more to me since everyone was climbing down or up the ladder to that title. Now in saying this I recognize that ROH now has a TV Championship and I don’t see anything wrong with that either but I still think it only works if everyone on the card is fighting to hold either of those two titles. If you don’t care about one or both of the championships then there is just no need for them. In my opinion one of the reasons WWE creatively just stinks at the moment is because no one cares about the championships to the point where it is the be all and end all of things. I remember when I was a child and a guy lost a title it meant so much because he made you feel like he didn’t know if he would ever get a chance to be a champion again, these days it’s a “oh well” moment. Now I understand that with cable T.V and so many hours of programming to fill those feelings are hard to recreate as title matches run rampant on T.V where back in that day you never saw a world title match on T.V but still titles need to be better protected and more cherished and to me if you don’t have a ton, guys will do more to have one. If no one cares about the titles or if there are just too many of them than your wrestling show has lost a purpose. Think about it, what are these guys beating each other up for? A title with ten challengers means more and is worth more than a title with five challengers, simple mathematics.
OK, on that note let’s wrap up this week. I have to give you all something to do and that’s just have a Merry Christmas, I sincerely appreciated everyone who emailed and wrote me last week wishing me a happy birthday Ring of Honor’s Final Battle show was great and if you haven’t seen it already I recommend checking that out as replays are still available on the Go Fight Live website. Of course you can email me at wrestlingrumblings@hotmail.com and well that it for this week, next week I will try to do better, and until then I am out.