Have We Seen The First Sign Of Brand Designated World Championships?

[Jack-Hammer]

During the opening segment of Raw, we saw both graphics for the title match at Battleground refer to the title as the "WWE Championship" rather than the "WWE World Heavyweight Championship." We also heard multiple wrestlers and commentators call it the "WWE Championship" and that has me wondering if it's the first little hint that there will be another World Championship added to the overall roster, whether it's the reactivation of the World Heavyweight Championship or a completely new title altogether.

It's easy to say that I'm just reading too much into things and if it was any other wrestling company, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. However, Vince McMahon is a legendary micromanager who has to have every single little solitary detail exactly the way he wants it; as a result, I don't see any graphic changes or wrestlers given leave to not call the title by it's official designation unless it's an edict from Vince McMahon. We all know that Vince absolutely gets off on nitpicking every single little thing he possibly can because it's simply who he is and what he does.

Of course, that's not to say that I couldn't be reading too much into it, it just strikes me as unlikely given how much of a legendary tight ass Vince is.

 

[Aquaman6686]

The second World title NEEDS to be the World Heavyweight Championship. There's too much prestige there to bother with creating another new title, it would be completely pointless.

And yes, it could be that the graphics were changed in anticipation of the splitting of the title.

The way I'd handle would be Dean Ambrose being the #1 pick for SmackDown, who won the coin toss, while both Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns wind up on RAW. Rollins wins the title by pinning Reigns, and Ambrose is denied a rematch since he's on SmackDown. Rollins and Reigns continue to feud over the WWE Championship, while Ambrose, who was never beaten for the title, is automatically entered into an Elimination Chamber Match at SummerSlam for the reactivated World Heavyweight Championship.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

Exactly.

When John Cena referred to it as the "WWE Championship" I realized at once, "okay, we're going to have two world titles, they're probably implementing the distinction between World Heavyweight and WWE championships".

Since Vince McMahon controls pretty much everything about the WWE, creatively or otherwise, it's pretty evident that the distinction is now being Re-enacted.

During the last 2 years or so, various superstars and commentators have sometimes referred to the championship as "wwe world heavyweight championship" and "wwe world championship" and whatever else, thus rendering the whole thing weird-as-fuck to the listener/spectator.

Hopefully, things will be simpler now.

LOL@ legendary tight ass.

 

[Azane]

It happened too many times to not be a new mandate from Vince above.

the announcers get in so much hot water when they speak English and refer to things as "The WWE championship" "No DAMNIT It's the World Wrestling entertainment sports entertainment world heavyweight intercontinental championship of America, DON'T SHORTEN IT, ITS UNPROFESSIONAL!"

If it was 1 slipup, I wouldn't buy into it, but they're definitely working on calling it a separate title.

 

[Navi]

You are going to have to have some sort of championship belt on SD in order to pull in the viewers. If they don't put another belt on the line, then all the main event talent and upper midcarders we have now, will have to stay on RAW. Who would go over to SD then, and why watch the show? It will just be random matches each week with no end in sight.

Not even the IC or US title would be enough to save it. It will be interesting to see who they draft to what show and who will be the new champion.

 

[rbv13]

I happened to catch LaBar's radio show this afternoon and he had a bit of insight on the subject. According to his sources a design has been put together for a new (second) World Championship caliber title. From the report it sounded as if those who have seen the design are not very impressed with how it looks. Anyway, for those who were hoping for the return of an old design it sounds like a no go.

 

[A11oftheLights]

You are going to have to have some sort of championship belt on SD in order to pull in the viewers. If they don't put another belt on the line, then all the main event talent and upper midcarders we have now, will have to stay on RAW. Who would go over to SD then, and why watch the show? It will just be random matches each week with no end in sight.

Not even the IC or US title would be enough to save it. It will be interesting to see who they draft to what show and who will be the new champion.

if they werent doing a designated PPV a month i would disagree and then you could just have the champion work one month on each show, or just work both simultaneously, but they aren't so we'll likely get two titles and it will lead to undeserving and underwhelming title reigns

 

[Navi]

if they werent doing a designated PPV a month i would disagree and then you could just have the champion work one month on each show, or just work both simultaneously, but they aren't so we'll likely get two titles and it will lead to undeserving and underwhelming title reigns

I totally forgot about the monthly PPV's, and was really hoping they will forgo that idea. Two a month is two too many with the way they are running them right now. They have a great roster but not enough starpower to put on that many each year.

 

[BestSportsEntertainer]

I think Cena said WWE Championship because it's more convenient than saying WWE World Championship. Or maybe it was an accident. I wouldn't read that much into it.

 

[Navi]

I think Cena said WWE Championship because it's more convenient than saying WWE World Championship. Or maybe it was an accident. I wouldn't read that much into it.

Well according to a story on the main page it's not just Cena who is calling it that. The WWE has officially changed the name of the WWE World Championship Belt on the their website to the WWE Championship Belt. That's a clear indication to me anyway that we'll have two titles when they split the brands in July.

The only questions up in the air now is, who will be switching brands, will Ambrose will be WWE champ and who will be holding the new title? Cena out of anyone on the roster, is the one I would think would be voted the least likely to made a mistake. If anything else he is Mr. Consistency and has been for the better part of a decade now.

 

[L@RISANO]

More and more, it is becoming evident that this Brand Split has to be the ultimate in-house 'competition' that WWE can put together(hence the likelihood of a second World title belt).
With not only 'seperate' rosters, but rather, Everything has to be completely exclusive for each brand to the point that it genuinely comes off as two shows competing to see who can wow the audience on a weekly basis.


IF there is so much as an inkling that one show is more important than the other, then the brand split will have been a rousing failure on all counts, lMO. I do sincerely hope that WWE has considered everything thoroughly in order to ensure that the change coming up in WWE can be the boost it so desperately needs.

Stay tuned.

 

[justinsayne]

Perhaps the shortened it because saying "WWE World Heavyweight Championship" is such a mouthful, it also doesn't make much sense to still call it a heavyweight championship since their are no weight classes in WWE. To me this seems like one of those tiny things that everyone reads way too much into, personally I'm still holding out hope that they'll have the WWE, Woman's & tag champs jumping between & defending on both shows.

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Absolutely terrible idea to have another championship.

The WWE title has next to no prestige anyways now, with two 4 minute reigns in the past 6 months or so. Adding another 'top' title that it has to share prestige with would only dilute things further.

Have one top prize that every wrestler is striving for. It's not rocket surgery.

 

[Why Always Me]

I HATE THIS.

Twice in the last 15 years we have had unification matches, only to have the belts split up again. Dilutes the titles.

WWE could have had a floating champion that works Raw and Smackdown, and then when a match for a PPV is signed have the challenger/s also work both shows. This INSTANTLY adds prestige to the WWE title (the only thing in favour of is dropping World Heavyweight from the name, WWE Champion sounds way better).

As LOADS of people have said, IC and US belts could then be positioned as top brand prizes. Have floating Tag and Women's belts and then maybe bring in a tertiary title for each brand (pick two from Hardcore, European, Cruiserweight, Television etc......).

Raw and Smackdown are not separate companies, they are WWE brands. No I will not buy they are competiting against one another ala WWF and WCW. No I will not be happy if Styles/Cesaro/Owens become World champions because of a second World title being created, even if they win the version that Ambrose currently holds. It never meant the same when the titles were split first time, it won't now either. Would it be the same if there were two Superbowls, NBA Championships, Stanley Cups, World Series, FIFA World Cups etc? Would it FUCK. Boxing has loads of World championships, it's crap, grow a set and have one world champion. For fellow Brits, Darts has two organisations, the PDC and BDO, each has a World championship, it dilutes the prize.

Stupid Vince McMahon, stupid WWE, stupid people who actually think two World titles is a good idea. I blame Brexit for all of this.

 

[Navi]

I HATE THIS.

Twice in the last 15 years we have had unification matches, only to have the belts split up again. Dilutes the titles.

WWE could have had a floating champion that works Raw and Smackdown, and then when a match for a PPV is signed have the challenger/s also work both shows. This INSTANTLY adds prestige to the WWE title (the only thing in favour of is dropping World Heavyweight from the name, WWE Champion sounds way better).

As LOADS of people have said, IC and US belts could then be positioned as top brand prizes. Have floating Tag and Women's belts and then maybe bring in a tertiary title for each brand (pick two from Hardcore, European, Cruiserweight, Television etc......).

Raw and Smackdown are not separate companies, they are WWE brands. No I will not buy they are competiting against one another ala WWF and WCW. No I will not be happy if Styles/Cesaro/Owens become World champions because of a second World title being created, even if they win the version that Ambrose currently holds. It never meant the same when the titles were split first time, it won't now either. Would it be the same if there were two Superbowls, NBA Championships, Stanley Cups, World Series, FIFA World Cups etc? Would it FUCK. Boxing has loads of World championships, it's crap, grow a set and have one world champion. For fellow Brits, Darts has two organisations, the PDC and BDO, each has a World championship, it dilutes the prize.

Stupid Vince McMahon, stupid WWE, stupid people who actually think two World titles is a good idea. I blame Brexit for all of this.

I'm willing to give it a chance to see how it works out. No point in getting all twisted out of shape before it even happens. If it bombs then by all means go crazy. See this all the time on the internet with wrestling fans, putting the cart before the horse.

 

[Vanilla Midget]

I wonder how they can make the new world title matter. When they introduced the World Heavyweight title by giving in to Triple H in 2002, it mattered because it looked like the Big Gold Belt. They dropped the WCW and NWA heritage of that title, but it arguably got over despite it's treatment as a secondary title with B-level champions in its later days.

If they are going with a new design with new lineage, why should we care? I suppose being the top prize of a brand will suffice, but will it ever be looked at on the same level no matter which show it lands on?The first World Heavyweight title was given a push by being the top title on Raw. Is future due to repeat itself?

The easiest thing to do would be to simply reactivate the World Heavyweight Title, but history has proven that this is unlikely. They didn't reactivate the original women's title, and when the time came to simplify the Unified Tag Team titles, the older tag titles with the longer and more prestigious lineage were oddly retired. WWE has proven itself time and time again to generally eschew their own title history. The US title is the one odd exception where they've kept the WCW/NWA lineage.

What I'm getting at is we'll get over it. We got over the retirement of the WCW title, as we did the European title, Hardcore title, and the Cruiserweight title. We got over the retirement of the World Tag Team titles, and we're not still complaining about the new WWE Women's title.

The hardcore fans and the casuals alike will embrace the new title. Hopefully it looks like a freaking title. Maybe it'll look like an updated Big Gold Belt? How crazy would a new Winged Eagle be (however unlikely)?

If you're on this forum, you're a hardcore wrestling fan, and as long as the new title doesn't look like hot trash, and the stories told are good, it'll get over.

 

[OYDK]

I'm just really not excited about the prospect of two World titles again to be completely honest. As somebody else mentioned, they only unified the damn things 3 years ago and now they're going to split them again only to eventually unify them down the road (because we all know it will happen). No matter what, most of the fanbase is going to look at the WWE Championship as the title to have, the WHC will likely always be viewed as the B title. I can see the WWE title moving to Smackdown and I'm sure they'll put a lot of effort into building the prestige of the World Title on Raw, but how long until one of them turns into a way to get young guys over again? And that one won't be the WWE Championship.

Until WWE gives me a reason to think that they can pull this shit off over a very long period of time, I'm going to be sceptical. The problem is, they always get lazy with Smackdown. Yeah they may start off strong, but how long until Smackdown, it's roster, and it's title becomes the "B brand" again? I mean, when Smackdown was actually good Vince got angry because it was better than Raw and basically fucked the whole thing up. Why should this time around be any different?

I wonder how they can make the new world title matter. When they introduced the World Heavyweight title by giving in to Triple H in 2002, it mattered because it looked like the Big Gold Belt. They dropped the WCW and NWA heritage of that title, but it arguably got over despite it's treatment as a secondary title with B-level champions in its later days.

It also didn't matter because they just handed the belt to him, ultimately treating the thing like a prop right off the bat. Had they actually had a match between Flair and HHH to decide the new champ, the strap would have mattered a hell of a lot more in my opinion. But I would also argue your point that the Big Gold Belt remained relative or "over". By the middle of it's run, you had guys like a rookie CM Punk winning the thing. By the end of it's run, it was opening Wrestlemania's... a World title match should never be an opener on a PPV card.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm willing to give it a chance to see how it works out. No point in getting all twisted out of shape before it even happens. If it bombs then by all means go crazy. See this all the time on the internet with wrestling fans, putting the cart before the horse.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I see it. I get the skepticism of WWE reintroducing a second World Championship because the World Heavyweight Championship ultimately devolved into the unofficial upper mid-card title and really sort of took the place occupied by the IC title traditionally.

At the same time, I'm willing to give this a shot and hope for the best. If WWE goes with a completely, brand new championship, it does give them the opportunity to start off with a clean slate and with SmackDown going live, Vince is finally going to have to put up or shut up in terms of the show's true relevance.

Again though, I do get the reluctance because there are times in which Vince doesn't seem all that stable. I'd feel a lot less uncertain if he genuinely stepped back from the creative aspect, stuck with the corporate side of the business and actually allowed Triple H to be the genuine head of WWE's creative process. I mean, if NXT is a genuine example of how WWE could be when it comes to consistency and continuity in booking under Trips' watch, I'd feel much more excited than wary.

 

[sMark]

I want to believe that this brand split will have something more than 2 separate rosters and different belts. I hope RAW stays the same style, but SD introduces weight detection, win/loss points system and TV title. So' you'll have 3 different style shows (RAW, SD, NXT) every week and there will be a reason to have 2 PPVs a month.

 

[BaconBits]

I read all the time on these forums that a second world title is great for guys like Ziggler and Cesaro who will never get a sniff of the main title (rightfully so). Now it's actually going to happen and some of you are salty about it?

This is another example of why booking your show to the IWC is really bad idea.

 

[Dysturbed]

I read all the time on these forums that a second world title is great for guys like Ziggler and Cesaro who will never get a sniff of the main title (rightfully so). Now it's actually going to happen and some of you are salty about it?

It isn't beyond certain fans to want something then complain when it actually happens, but overall, the "some of you" that are salty about it could be entirely different people from the ones that stated that it would be a great idea.

 

[Dysturbed]

Why should this time around be any different?

In theory (and hopefully in reality), with SD soon being live and on USA (in the US), expectations to deliver are possibly higher than they were when on other networks and WWE will hopefully feel more compelled to have a consistently/permanently good product compared to feeling in the past like they could eventually get too lax on that. Then again, they should have always felt that way even when it was taped for another network or in the case of Raw live and also on USA.

It also didn't matter because they just handed the belt to him, ultimately treating the thing like a prop right off the bat. Had they actually had a match between Flair and HHH to decide the new champ, the strap would have mattered a hell of a lot more in my opinion.

Even though he was handed the title, I feel like he technically did earn it the week before. I do acknowledge that "technically" doesn't always mean much. One week before being handed the title, he defeated The Undertaker in a number one contenders match for Brock's undisputed championship. Since the belts were then split and Brock was no longer able to go back and forth, Triple H was prevented from having that title match. Due to that, the match against Taker essentially served as a match to decide who would get the new title.

Since WWE didn't present it that way though, I can see why that justification might not matter. Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on that match against Taker, which served as number one contender for nothing?

 

[ShinChan]

If WWE wants us to believe that Smackdown=Raw then there surely needs to be two world titles.

Of course, both brands require an ultimate title for their respective superstars.

I hope that this brand extension helps the talented wrestlers to get on the top. Guys like Sandow & Rhodes were wasted and this extension decreases the chances of wastage of potential stars.

 

[OYDK]

In theory (and hopefully in reality), with SD soon being live and on USA (in the US), expectations to deliver are possibly higher than they were when on other networks and WWE will hopefully feel more compelled to have a consistently/permanently good product compared to feeling in the past like they could eventually get too lax on that. Then again, they should have always felt that way even when it was taped for another network or in the case of Raw live and also on USA.

You make valid points. The biggest thing is that Smackdown is finally going live and that, above all else, should motivate the WWE to present the brand similarly to how they present Raw. I've also thought about how the move to USA is going to effect the SD product, and I do agree that they will be much more demanding than say, Syfy or MyNetwork ever was. Still, the problem I see is that in all the years Smackdown has been around, every time the WWE tries to put it over as fresh, new, or equivalent to Raw, they start out strong, get the ratings up, and than a year or two down the line, they just coast and it goes back to being the B brand. Or it's doing well and Vince gets mad for some reason and tries to water down the product. We've almost been conditioned at this point to view SD as inferior to Raw and that onus falls primarily on Vince McMahon in my opinion. It's going to take a while for me personally to change my pessimistic view, but if they can put on a strong, or at least relevant product week after week, I'll start warming up to the idea.

Don't know if I'll really be happy with the two titles no matter how well they're booked though. If guys like Cesaro, Owens, etc. are going to win the belt, I would much rather they win the top prize in the company the right way and if they can't accomplish that, than they shouldn't be holding a World title at all. Everyone always says it but it's true, two World titles devalues the championships and devalues the people holding that B championship. There will always be an asterisk next to the name of guys like Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger, Christian, etc. mostly because they're viewed as the B guys who held the B title.

Even though he was handed the title, I feel like he technically did earn it the week before. I do acknowledge that "technically" doesn't always mean much. One week before being handed the title, he defeated The Undertaker in a number one contenders match for Brock's undisputed championship. Since the belts were then split and Brock was no longer able to go back and forth, Triple H was prevented from having that title match. Due to that, the match against Taker essentially served as a match to decide who would get the new title.

Since WWE didn't present it that way though, I can see why that justification might not matter. Out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on that match against Taker, which served as number one contender for nothing?

Presentation was key there. If they knew Lesnar was jumping, which I assume they must have known considering it happened that week if I'm not mistaken, the match never should have been presented as a number one contenders match in the first place. The whole thing just came off as bush-league. Had they waited one more week to execute that match, they could have touted it as a World Heavyweight title match, HHH could have gone over, and THAN Taker could have moved to SD and beat Benoit and Angle to become the #1 contender for Brock's WWE title. Or, HHH could have remained #1 contender, Bischoff could have made another #1 contenders match, and than whoever won that bout could have faced HHH for the World title. Basically there needed to be some sort of match to determine the champion.

The way it came off to me was that WWE was just spitting on WCW once again. It made it seem as if that title didn't mean much because it was never won in a real match. HHH and Shawn did the same thing with the European belt (which they viewed as a joke) years earlier.

 

[TheDrix]

as I was reading, idea came to my head.
I am not saying it would be a great idea, but what if it happens?

You all are talking about two world titles, but what if there will be three titles?
Dean is now called "WWE Champion"..so what if RAW and SmackDown! both gets their titles like WWE RAW Champion and WWE SmackDown! Champion and those who hold these titles are then entitled to challenge (are basically number one contenders) for the grandest prize, the WWE Championship. I guess not many thought about that idea, maybe even no one, but think about it, it might be complete garbage, but what if it happens to be true?

again, i am not saying its a great idea and that it should happen, Im just thinking about other options that WWE might have in mind except of two world championships as you all are saying.