W.W.E. Heavyweight Hot Potato

[TheOneBigWill]

With Edge's Championship victory last night at the Royal Rumble, making him a 7-time Heavyweight Champion, it also gives the W.W.E. Championship a new owner for the 3rd time in as many monthes.

Are all of the rapidly changing Champions making the W.W.E. Championship decrease in value? If you look on paper, the W.W.E. Championship has changed hands in the past 3 monthes, almost as many times as the E.C.W. Championship changed all of last year. (4)

Furthermore, those Champions have been Edge & Jeff Hardy. Edge won the title in November, only to drop it in December just to once again regain it in January. What was the purpose of that? To add to Edge's reigns, making him one step closer to catching Triple H.?

In my opinion, long reigns (like year long) aren't good for the company with the ever-growing younger fan base. Children aren't patient, and neither are Wrestling fans in general. They don't want year long reigns, but I'm sure they'd be fine with 4-7 month long reigns. And single month long reigns almost make any Champion who holds it that short of a time seem weak and undeserving.

So I ask why are they playing hot potato with the Heavyweight Championship? What are everyone's thoughts on the title changing hands as we change monthes? Do you believe this is decreasing the value of the title, or do you believe rapid title changes are what we need, to keep new audiences staying tuned in, for fear they'll miss another title change? Please give your full detailed opinion, thank you.

 

[Yrrab]

I really don't know what the point is either, but as of right now it doesn't bother me too much. A situation like this (title changing hands after only a month, 3 times) does NOT happen all the time, so I can tolerate it a bit. I really, really wish it would have been Edge vs. Jeff at WM though. Just given their history and whatnot... but I'm sure Matt vs. Jeff can do just as well. It's been a while since we've seen them fight.

I did laugh a bit at all the "Welcome back Christian" signs in the audience last night though man. I bet they were pissed.

 

[Kane666]

It's become ridiculus how many times both heavyweight titles have changed hands over the last few months.why even bother putting a title on someone only for them to lose it a few weeks or a month later?this is the kind of lame booking that will slowly but surely turn people to TNA.

 

[Joehaha]

yeah because rememmber that god awful feud between rock and mankind when the title kept changing hands...wow i was so glad when that feud ended! i almost started watching wcw religiously.

 

[NSL]

I am definitely not a fan of the short title reigns. In 5 or 6 years, are we really going to have Edge, the 22 time champion? Seriously, it's getting lame.

I'd love to see a title reign go for a year or so, but Will is right, kids these days don't have the attention span. The mid-card belts would be aided by a bit of longevity, and the wrestlers that have them would be helped more.

The 4-7 month reigns would be a good idea, if they were booked right. I don't want to see a champion ultimately do what Regal did with the IC belt, and hold it for a few months, and never defend it. If it is Edge v. Triple H at Wrestlemania, they could have Edge win, and then lose the belt at Summerslam, and then maybe let it go to someone else at Survivor Series. The reason these PPVs aren't as revered as they used to be, is because there's no reason for them to be any different than No Way Out, Armageddon, Backlash, or any other WWE PPV.

I'm pretty sure Edge will have the belt until Wrestlemania, but if he doesn't, I'll watch TNA a little more faithfully than I have lately...

 

[Mr. TM]

I actually do not think that the short reigns between the champions on Smackdown does dilute the WWE Championship. I don't think anyone has done that to a belt on Smackdown since Khali held the World Heavyweight Championship belt. Snce that moment, those belts has been battled for by Edge, Undertaker, Batista, then Triple H, Edge and Jeff Hardy. All five of those stars have been putting on great shows, always ready for the win and proving themselves as champions Pay Per View after Pay Per View. How does having three guys fight their hearts out to win a title dilute it? I think it just adds prestige, and makes it so there are multi people who can win the title at anytime.

 

[Tenta]

I don't buy that kids are too impatient for a long reigning champion.

Remember the Hulkster? Train, Say Your Prayers, Eat Your Vitamins, right? He was all of the kids' favorites. He mainly catered to the "Little Hulkamaniacs", back before the WWE got "Attitude". He also regularly held the title for a good six months to a year. I think before he left for Ted's money.... err... I mean, WCW.... His shortest reign with the belt was three months, when he was certain he was going to quit wrestling. The Hulkster always held on to the belt, leaving many deserving individuals in the cold (See, Roddy Piper, Ted Dibiase, and Jake Roberts). But the kids never lost interest in him. They kept watching, up until the Hulkster left.

Look at John Cena now. Within all hopes, he's going to lose the title at Wrestlemania (PLEEEEEASE, Vince). That means that when his reign's over, he'll have held the title for about 5-6 months at the least. Ratings have stayed the same.... Kids are still watching him.... It may not be what some wrestling fans want to see, but it's what the kids want to see. And right now, the WWE is catering to the kids. And thy want Cena, so Cena is getting a fairly long reign (by our standards) with the strap.

Kids can take a long reign by a champion as long as he caters to them. Jeff, nor Edge truly do, so it's almost like they have to change the title holder just to keep them interested. Kind of sad, in a way...

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

*sigh*

Let's take a trip down memory lane...shall we?


10 years ago...we were forced to endure title change after title change in a feud that surely watered down the WWF Title. The person who won that sucker always seemed weak and couldn't really compare to the other talent on the roster. Who was this feud between?

The Rock and Mankind

Yeah, you all know what I was talking about. And I know what you are thinking:

"Oh crap. There were a lot of title changes during that feud....but golly gee willickers...it was ENTERTAINING!"

So, after you all take your feet out of your mouths for putting out some blanket dissing of short title reigns, just remember that feud and how it totally pushed The Rock AND Mick Foley into superstardom...and helped build up to the most anticipated match ever at a Wrestlemania.

I'm not saying I like what they are doing with the title right now...but let's not all get out our Tom Smykowski "Jump to Conclusions" Mats and freaking rip WWE a new one before we see where they are even going to go with this.



*Edit: Just noticed Joehaha's tongue in cheek reference to the feud...cheers on beating me to the reference.*

 

[klunderbunker]

I love it. Think about it. Name one other reason to care about Armageddon. The other big match was Cena squashing Jericho and then you had Batista and Orton which did nothing. Vince is doing a masterful job of making each PPV seem like can't miss television which is exactly what he should be doing. We all spent months and months complaining that nothing ever happens at PPVs and now a lot is happening there. Sure Edge is racking up title reigns, but who hasn't? Hogan had a two day reign, HHH had a one night reign, Foley's longest was a month and a half. Doing this makes the shows look like they mean something which is great. Sure Edge is stealing a lot of cheap reigns, but that's his character: the opportunist. Finally, think back to your reaction when Edge ran in at Survivor Series, when Jeff won, and when Matt turned heel to give Edge the belt. You freaked. We all did, and we did it because it was exciting. That's what a PPV is supposed to do: make you want to watch the next show. Brilliant.

 

[Shocky]

Sorry Ricky, but Mick Foley was made a superstar by getting thrown off of a Cage threw a table, and the Wrestlemania 15 main event may possibly be the worst main event of Wrestlemania the last ten years...

Onto the Hot potato situation. Really I don't mind it. I've made this statement in the Edge a Credible Champion thread, the Character of edge simply adds a wild card into the whole title situation, which makes people have to pay attention because they could miss somethign.

This Edge character has been one helluvan experiment by the WWE. This character, as I said from the otehr thread, can attack and win the belt off of an uberface literally at any time. The Character adds such an unpredicatablity, that it does add value to the title because of that situation. People despise Edge, he's probably one of the two most over heels in the company, and people want to see him take the belt off of him, and it works. In the process, it brings a ton of attention to that title.

 

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

I really don't really mind really long or really short title reigns, all depending on they are booked. Since WM23, the World Heavyweight Championship has been played with many, many times when it was on SD! From Batista to Undertaker to Edge to vacant to Great Khali back to Batista back to Edge back to Undertaker back to vacant back to Edge. Now that sounds like a lot of title changes for a year-and-a-half, but the good thing is that they kept it interesting.

As for the WWE Championship playing ''hot potato'' right now, I really don't mind it. With Edge now as a 7-time World Champion, he deserves some type of long title reign (atleast 4 months), but I don't see it happening. When you have the WWE Championship going from Randy Orton to Triple H with a combined title reign of 13 months, a short reign can be good. Edge held the gold for 3 weeks, while Jeff held it for 6. History will show you that Edge will most likely not have a long reign, as he will probably lose the title to Triple H at Wrestlemania 25.

If the champion is booked in a way that does not make the WWE Universe feel like they are an undeserving champ, then short title reigns and many reigns within a year shouldn't be a problem.

 

[klunderbunker]

Edge has rapidly become one of the best heel characters of all and it's because of the title changing hands so rapidly. Edge is now a 7 time champion which puts him equal to the Rock and above Austin and Hogan for WWF. Think about that for a minute. Hogan, Austin, and Rock. Are there any bigger names in company history? Edge has more or equal to the amount of WWF/E title reigns that they do. Now of all those title reigns, how many has he won in what would be considered a clean fashion? To the best of my knowledge, zero. It's such a great move and it has elevated Edge to superstardom, all thanks to the hot potato situation.

 

[realblackhart]

I completely disagree with the title changing hands so often. It doesn't make sense. In the 80's and early to mid 90's it was unheard of for a wrestler to hold the tiltle more than 5 times. Other than Ric Flair of course nobosdy had a world title moren than 6 or 7 times. It was a big deal to be 3-time WWF/E champion. Having a guy win it and loose it to then win it again has no meaning. It decreases the value of the title. Mcmahon is only making Ric Flair's multiple reigns be less significant. Based on Edge's age, he could very well be 20 time WWE Champion. With the likes of Cena, HHH, Edge, combined they could be 60 time champions. That is just ridiculous. Common Sense tells you that this is not good for the business.

 

[klunderbunker]

It's not as big of a deal as you're making it out to be. Rhodes was a three time champion, as was Thesz. Back then television was such a different thing as there were no PPVs to build up to. WWE had one PPV in 1986 and two in 87. Other than that you only had superstars and SNME. Now you get 5 new hours a week, 8 in weeks of television. It only makes sense that so many title reigns happen. With the higher amount of exposure today, how could it not happen more often?

 

[CenaSux4Life78]

I never really thought about the title changing hands so fast. I did hear that Edge was going to win last night, but under slightly different circumstances. But as we all know SD is the training feild for RAW, or the ones that RAW bookers dont really want to deal with. Not to say there isnt talent on SD...Undertaker...come on!!! But I think it adds some excitement to it. Unlike on RAW where Cena holds the title pretty much ALL the time, SD keeps it moving. Now as far as why giving it back to Edge again, I heard a reason for it.

Jeff Hardy was tapped to win Royal Rumble. But due to some injuries he was going to take time off. So he and Vince came up with a win at Armegeddon over Edge and HHH. They just fast forward Jeffs WrestleMania a few months. Im not sure if it is true or not. But with all the things that have been happening concerning Jeff, it does make some sense.

 

[justinsayne]

I am definitely not a fan of the short title reigns. In 5 or 6 years, are we really going to have Edge, the 22 time champion? Seriously, it's getting lame.

There is a very easy way to solve this problem while still keeping reigns in the 4-7 month range, build up more ME talent, think about with 2 and a half brands (ECW doesn't count as a full brand IMO) you should be able to get enough air time to build up a bigger ME scene, and with more ME talent you would be able to keep title reigns down to 4-7 months and just spread the titles over a wider pool of talent, you wouldn't have to rely and passing the title between 5-6 guys between the two major brands, problem is for some reason either WWE can't figure this out or just doesn't want to, which is a shame casue with guys like Punk, MVP, Kennedy, Swagger, Kozlov, Morrison, Miz, Kofi, etc. the future looks very bright, right now it's time for guys like Trips, HBK, JBL, Rey, Taker, and to a lesser extent Jericho to step aside and let the future shine

 

[Khalifa]

With Edge's Championship victory last night at the Royal Rumble, making him a 7-time Heavyweight Champion, it also gives the W.W.E. Championship a new owner for the 3rd time in as many monthes.

Are all of the rapidly changing Champions making the W.W.E. Championship decrease in value? If you look on paper, the W.W.E. Championship has changed hands in the past 3 monthes, almost as many times as the E.C.W. Championship changed all of last year. (4)

Furthermore, those Champions have been Edge & Jeff Hardy. Edge won the title in November, only to drop it in December just to once again regain it in January. What was the purpose of that? To add to Edge's reigns, making him one step closer to catching Triple H.?

In my opinion, long reigns (like year long) aren't good for the company with the ever-growing younger fan base. Children aren't patient, and neither are Wrestling fans in general. They don't want year long reigns, but I'm sure they'd be fine with 4-7 month long reigns. And single month long reigns almost make any Champion who holds it that short of a time seem weak and undeserving.

So I ask why are they playing hot potato with the Heavyweight Championship? What are everyone's thoughts on the title changing hands as we change monthes? Do you believe this is decreasing the value of the title, or do you believe rapid title changes are what we need, to keep new audiences staying tuned in, for fear they'll miss another title change? Please give your full detailed opinion, thank you.

I don't know about this. I thought that the kids were really happy with John Cena's long title reign. But that is because he was the biggest face in the company. If you have some one like Jeff Hardy or Batista then Kids want them to have the title as long as possible. But if you have Randy have it for a year then they will get annoyed and hate it. Apparently WWE is for the kids now so yeah.

Anyways on topic. I seriously didn't see the point of this. Jeff Hardy and Edge changing titles was pointless. They shouldn't of given Jeff the belt only to loose it in 1 month to further the feud of Matt and Jeff. It would of been better if it was like the US because they wasted the special moment now. This is what should of happened;

Jeff looses at Armageddon getting pinned by Edge. Jeff Hardy wants his rematch but he cant get it because Edge says that Jeff has to earn it. THus making him vs Benjiman in a title bout to prove why he should have his rematch again. He wins but Edge isn't satisfied. He says that Jeff has to do it again but this time if he doesn't win he will never get a shot at the belt while Edge is champion. After a long bout for the title Benjiman regains the title after Matt Hardy comes in and hits Jeff with a chair. Thus making some one else new face Edge for the belt and setting up the Jeff Hardy and Matt hardy feud with out wasting the special moment for Jeff's first reign when he could of had it at Summerslam or something and also letting Edge have that long reign he deserves.

If you ask me this is just bullshit and i didn't see the point of it and WWE just fucked up 2 good things.

 

[Steamboat Ricky]

Sorry Ricky, but Mick Foley was made a superstar by getting thrown off of a Cage threw a table, and the Wrestlemania 15 main event may possibly be the worst main event of Wrestlemania the last ten years...

Foley was not made a superstar because of that. No. He was made a superstar who could be seen as THE MAN in the business because of that feud. The HIAC spot was part of the reason he was in that spot to begin with...but what he and Rocky did was what turned his pretty respectable career into a Hall of Fame career. FACT.

And I said helped to build up to the most anticipated match ever at a Wrestlemania. I thought the match was good, but most people whine and say that their rematch at Backlash was better. Meh. It was a good freaking match with an even better and highly promoted build-up. Why?
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Because of the constant title changes between Mankind and The Rock during January and February of 1999. Hence...title changes aren't automatically the devil.

 

[ad21k]

I think everyone is missing the point here, the reason for the title changes are that WWE didn't trust Jeff Hardy for the main event. The orginal plan was for Hardy to win the title at mania but they decided against it.

However Hardy was red hot at this point, so they decided to cash in on a short Hardy reign to cool him off a bit by appeasing the fans so that a HHH/Edge main event seems a little bit more acceptable- while giving Hardy a decent feud for his fans to support him through. Basically they needed Jeff out of the main event scene but was so hot that they had to give him the title in order to write him out of his underdog chasing the title storyline (at least for the time being).

 

[ad21k]

I think everyone is missing the point here, the reason for the title changes are that WWE didn't trust Jeff Hardy for the main event. The orginal plan was for Hardy to win the title at mania but they decided against it.

However Hardy was red hot at this point, so they decided to cash in on a short Hardy reign to cool him off a bit by appeasing the fans so that a HHH/Edge main event seems a little bit more acceptable- while giving Hardy a decent feud for his fans to support him through. Basically they needed Jeff out of the main event scene but was so hot that they had to give him the title in order to write him out of his underdog chasing the title storyline (at least for the time being).

 

[Super Crazy]

and the Wrestlemania 15 main event may possibly be the worst main event of Wrestlemania the last ten years...

That main event happened to be the main event that got me into WWF/E at the time. I happened to love seeing it. Seeing E&C come down to the Cell and hang Bossman was classic. Seeing Stone Cold beat the Rock and how he rebelled against everything , it made me love wrestling.

But onto the topic at hand, I personally love the fact that the title has changed hands so much on Smackdown. Although the same champions are repeated, it helps to keep things fresh. Besides, I'd have to say , giving Jeff the title, it was just to please the fans, they were more then like using him in a feud with Edge because Trips wanted to save his feud with Edge for Wrestlemania. Now, the fact that the title constantly changes hands, it's a good thing and a bad thing.

It's a good thing to see, because as other people have stated, it keeps everything going fresh unlike Raw , where Cena is either out of action or the Champion. Besides, after seeing Triple H's awfully long reign as Champion, i'm glad to see shorter ones. Triple H did not deserve to hold the title for that long at all. In fact, he shouldn't even be in a main event at Wrestlemania, but again that's besides the point. More Champions means for people have a chance to win the belt, just like people said they were testing the waters with Hardy, it'd be a good way to test the waters with other upcoming SD! stars.

Now it's a bad thing, because as many people feel, it looks like it devalues the meaning of the championship. It makes it look like anyone at all can win the belt at any time, and just typing that reminds me of the stupid 24/7 rule for the ol' HC Championship, now I know that belt was joke, but up until that rule occured, it had some value. And doing this with the WWE Championship, it seems devaluing. I mean Edge deserves to hold the title for a least a few months, not 3 weeks. Edge is a great champion, and the way he keeps constantly losing it to only come back and skin his way into winning it again, it's great wrestling and great entertainment.

Also a side note here, everyone knows, the only man who will ever come close to or surpass Ric Flair is Trips because he feels he damn well deserves it, however, I don't, but that's for another thread.

 

[2012isbs]

Edge had a 1 month riegn because HHH won't lie dow for Jeff. Jeff had a one month reign because WWE realized how unreliable he was/is. Edge will probably hold the title till WM or later.
WWE is probaby going to straighten this WWE titlte thign thing. In fact it's alreasdy fixed. But short reigns don't destroy the prestige of a title unless they're less than one month i.e. Cena/Batista tag title reign. As for kids not having the attention span as long as the charecter is face and aims his aspect at kids.

 

[Jane]

The problem is that the fans will get ticked off if the titles are never changing hands. It seems as if people enjoy pay-per-views more if the title changes hands, because it creates possibilities and unpredicability. Maybe the current title situation is pushing it, but it's not that bad. The thing about Edge's title loss and regain is that it was all about Jeff. He got it, lost it, then, at the Royal Rumble, lost it after Matt's chair shot. It meant so much more for Matt to screw his brother, who had been built up for soooo long, to make him lose the title. Edge could have simply kept the title, but it helped out the Hardys and it and wasted time so Triple H could be in the Rumble, and they wouldn't need to waste the WWE Championship match on someone who didn't deserve it, which is pretty much exactly what RAW did.

 

[Danmen001]

They should play hot potato with it one more time before Wrestlemania. If the title changes hands again in the WWE Championship match, then everything will be fresh before Wrestlemania. People will say "why change the title again", but really, why not? They've already done it, and if it changes ands again (to one of the other 5 EC participants) then it will show the titles can change hands everywhere.

After No Way Out, with a new champion, Vicki can come out and say "EXCUSE ME, 'SCUSE ME. As you may have noticed, the title has changes hands many times during the last few WWE PPVs. To rectify this, at Wrestlemania, we will crown a strong champion." Or some random crap. Anyway, add the current champ, plus 3 others in a fatal 4 way.

Something like that, except more thought through, I suppose.

 

[klunderbunker]

I've always been a fan of changing the belt around a lot like this. It keeps things interesting. What happened when Cena had the title for a year? Most of us got sick of him for never dropping it, now a fair few of you are criticizing the company for doing the opposite? I like Dan's idea of changing it up one more time. We've seen Edge against pretty much every face on SD right now. There's nothing there for him right now unless something big changes over from Raw. One more switch would be great to open some doors. However, I'm not quite sure who that person is.