WWE made a mistake getting rid of the two titles.

[d_henderson1810]

People have accused WWE of making a lot of mistakes over the last few months.

Well, in hindsight, the biggest one, for me, was to unify the WWE and World Title.

If they hadn't done that, WWE could have had Batista win the Rumble, and fight Orton, one-on-one, for one title, and Daniel Bryan fighting the champion of the other title. Bryan gets his title shot, and WWE get Orton-Batista.

They could have had Bryan main-event and fighting the WWE Champion, whereas Batista v Orton could have been third-last on the card, (with a lesser match bracketing it).

I also think that Batista wouldn't have been booed and turned heel, because fans would have reasoned that, just because Batista won the Rumble, it doesn't stop Bryan winning a title in the main event at Wrestlemania.

Hell, have Bryan fight Cena again (who was champion before the Unification) in a rematch of their Summerslam epic, and have Bryan win again, or put Bryan against someone in the Authority who is champion (other than Orton, who is defending the other belt).

So, do you think two titles would have helped the current situation, and made things more pleasant for everyone (since both the fans and WWE get the matches they want).

 

[oldschool123]

It was actually a great decision to combine the titles. The World title was getting to the point where it wasn't a big deal anymore. More importantly there should only be one World champion in a promotion.

 

[chicagokmc]

The problem is, there were two titles in name only. The World title had long descended into that other world title the the upper mid card folks ran with. Cena didn't even feud for it. He came back from injury, they threw him into the PPV match with Del Rio (on 2 weeks notice) only so that Cena would win and the unification could have more meaning with Orton and Cena battling it out.

I think if the titles weren't unified, Batista would have been brought in still to feud for the WWE title, along with Orton and Bryan. They weren't going to hype Batista for weeks only to have him fight for a title that was often overlooked. I think, given the options, Del Rio would be the World champion and he'd be feuding with someone like Sheamus or Ziggler for that title at WM.

I agree with the notion that I liked unification at first but now I'm not so sure. But my hesitation is only because it makes those upper mid card wrestlers flounder even more.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Well first off I think all of the "reasoning" why the titles shouldn't have been unified is completely off base. No one wants to see Batista vs. Orton in a one on one match at Mania, that's partly why the fans have been going crazy over this whole YES! Movement thing & is the basically the entire reason why the WWE changed the match to a triple threat in the first place. WWE has obviously been set on Batista/Orton for a World Title for awhile now & there is no way Bryan would have left the secondary world title for Orton to carry & gotten to headline Mania XXX over their title match. So actually I think Mania would have been much worse & more convoluted with two world titles. Not to mention the World Heavyweight Championship was almost meaningless & there should only ever be one world title anyways.

As for why the singluar world title hasn't exactly been working, it's because of two main reasons IMO...
1.) There is still two physical title belts. Until the champion either introduces a new unifed belt or declares one of the current title belts the end all be all, then the WWE World Title is never going to be worth as much as it could. It makes people think the change to one world title isn't permanent & that the belts could split again at any second. Also carrying around two physical belts for only holding one championship title is just plain stupid.
2.) The Title Picture. The only person that people really care about right now that is involved in the title picture is Daniel Bryan. Orton has been a complete afterthought as champion, nobody wants Batista anywhere near the title & Triple H being champion again is just a nightmare to some at this point. That's it. There isn't even two real viable competitors for the belt at this point. & the only guys involved in the title picture prior to mania was John Cena which is beyong played out, Lesnar who only randomly talked about wanting to get into the title picture & the three guys who got a one off title shot inside the chamber match (Cesaro, Sheamus & Christian). That is every single competitor for the World Titles since Del Rio at Hell in a Cell 2013 & Mark Henry at MitB 2013.

 

[TheICChampion]

I think they should split the two titles again, give the WWE champion an "Undisputed" type of belt (Frankly, I liked the one they had before that stupid spinner belt) and keep the big gold belt and rename it (Like WCW, they called it their International Championship when Flair brought it back with him). Maybe not necessarily "International Championship", but something that might give it meaning (Legend's title, maybe? TV title? I don't know, just a few thoughts) and give people a reason to care. Hold a tournament or something like that, only this time have young up-and-comers on one side of the bracket and have established veterans (guys who have and haven't held that specific belt yet) on the other side. 16 man single-elimination tournament. That's what I would do, anyway. Just a few thoughts.

 

[billmac]

If they hadn't done that, WWE could have had Batista win the Rumble, and fight Orton, one-on-one, for one title, and Daniel Bryan fighting the champion of the other title. Bryan gets his title shot, and WWE get Orton-Batista.

I think hokey stuff like this is exactly why they were CORRECT in combining the belts. The way everything other than the main title is losing value continuing with two championships was causing the Rumble to lose importance. Sheamus and Del Rio's wins basically didn't matter, they both ended up with matches opening up WrestleMania instead of headlining. The Rumble is supposed to be one of the biggest pushes a guy could ever get, but as long as there is the back up plan of a secondary title to award them it would've slowly become less and less important.

I'm glad they got rid of the WHC before it had a chance to water down my favorite match and favorite event of the year.

 

[GameOver]

They needed to combine the titles for a long time now same with the IC and US titles they are useless on a combined roster to have 4 titles representing 2 tiers

But as i see it it should've been WrestleMania 30 the time to end the seperation, it seemed rushed having it on a throw away ppv at the end of last year for no apparent reason other then to say it's happened.

WrestleMania "Where it all ends and begins again" could've been Title vs Title The Ultimate Challenge II either a combined title match or have 2 title matches and then the winners go onto a 2nd match to combine the titles

 

[kadroan]

It was actually a great decision to combine the titles. The World title was getting to the point where it wasn't a big deal anymore. More importantly there should only be one World champion in a promotion.

I agree. Last thing I want to see is the WHC defended as the opening match at a PPV.

I'd like to see the WWE WHC defended on free TV. Orton's a full time superstar unlike how The Rock was, shouldn't be anywhere why not.

 

[billmac]

They needed to combine the titles for a long time now same with the IC and US titles they are useless on a combined roster

That I'm not so sure about. It's only been a few months since the two big belts became one. With time (and some actual defenses) the two mid card titles will grow. They each represent something different, it's not like the WHC and WWE in the respect that they're both supposed to be on top. In fact you could argue that the titles names rank them by location with the US being one country, Intercontinental being multiple parts of the globe, and the World being... well the world.

A little patience and true belief in the belts will let them grow down the line. Combining them would definitely bring some sudden importance that would really put the one belt over the top, but it would hurt the lower mid-card that can't sell a story line without something superficial to fight over.

 

[LODemolition]

I believe it was the right decision, just the wrong timing. It should be happening now at WrestleMania to make it feel as important as it should be, rather than a random ppv like TLC. They only built it up for 1 month. Something like that deserves a much longer story to, again, make it feel important.

Plus, it's supposed to make the IC Title matter more, and they've certainly failed there. Here we are, a week from WM30, and it appears we won't even have an IC Title match. At least not one with any actual feud and storyline to go along with it.

 

[Rampage Bentley]

I simultaneously agree and disagree....

The two titles absolutely had to be merged, but WrestleMania should have been the time to do it. You could have had Orton and Batista as the authority picked heel champions and the winner of The Royal Rumble (CM Punk) and the winner of The Elimination Chamber (Daniel Bryan) compete in a small four man tournament to unify the titles.

That way Triple H could stroke he and Batista's egos, Punk most likely would have stuck around and Bryan could still have his WrestleMania payoff. Win/win/win.

 

[GameOver]

That I'm not so sure about. It's only been a few months since the two big belts became one. With time (and some actual defenses) the two mid card titles will grow. They each represent something different, it's not like the WHC and WWE in the respect that they're both supposed to be on top. In fact you could argue that the titles names rank them by location with the US being one country, Intercontinental being multiple parts of the globe, and the World being... well the world.

A little patience and true belief in the belts will let them grow down the line. Combining them would definitely bring some sudden importance that would really put the one belt over the top, but it would hurt the lower mid-card that can't sell a story line without something superficial to fight over.

then by your logic the IC and World titles are the same thing. All places in the world are parts of Continents/islands, name one place that doesn't exist on an island or a continent? therefore the whole world is Intercontinental. The US title is pointless that was just the WCW's version of the IC title the title granted to those that were almost at the World Title level wheras the IC title represents the second tier world champ but the same idea, someone that was next in line for a push to the world title.

 

[billmac]

then by your logic the IC and World titles are the same thing. All places in the world are parts of Continents/islands, name one place that doesn't exist on an island or a continent? therefore the whole world is Intercontinental. The US title is pointless that was just the WCW's version of the IC title the title granted to those that were almost at the World Title level wheras the IC title represents the second tier world champ but the same idea, someone that was next in line for a push to the world title.

Haha, You're right. I remember as a kid asking my dad over and over what the difference between intercontinental and world was.

My ranking system may be flawed, but the real point is keeping the lower card guys busy. It gives guys on the rise a chance to climb, as you said. But it'll give guys who are on the way down somewhere to fall which is just as important.

 

[JJ15776]

This wouldn't change much, I don't think. Daniel Bryan still wouldn't have won the Royal Rumble, which means he still wouldn't have gotten his title shot right away, which means they still would've used the Yes Movement to get Daniel Bryan his title shot, which means the storylines would've been more or less the same...which means the same completely idiotic clueless morons on here who think Daniel Bryan wasn't going to be in the title match all along would still think he wasn't going to be in the title match all along.

This whole idea seems to be based on the notion that WWE didn't want Bryan in the title match but were forced to do it, which, again, is absolutely asininely foolish and makes no sense whatsoever. They started the Yes Movement before the Royal Rumble. They started the storyline of The Authority holding him back months ago, but it really started in full force right before the Royal Rumble. If that wasn't leading to him forcing his way into the title match, where was it going? Was Bryan going to hijack Raw to force The Authority to give him the match with Sheamus they refused to give him? Please. If you think WWE didn't want Bryan in the title match, you're being a mark, pure and simple.

So everything has worked out just fine. WrestleMania will culminate with the conclusion of one of the most well built runs at the title in the history of the company. The fact that he'll beat Triple H, and the win the triple threat to win THE title just makes it even better.

 

[MMA Mark]

They should have saved it for Wrestlemania, it seems obvious to me. Make a 4-man, one night tournament between the WWE, WHC, Rumble winner and winner of an Elimination Chamber match. It could have been Batista or Punk vs Orton and Cena vs Bryan.

 

[Pearljamming72]

Merge the IC & US titles and have that title as something for upper mid carders to shoot for. Then create a WWE TV title that gets defended on Raw one week, then Smackdown the following week. The TV title would be for lower midcarders and NXT graduates. To make things interesting, at Night Of Champions, have a match between the TV champion and IC champion at the beginning of the card, with the winner facing the World champion in the main event for his title.

 

[AegonTargaryen]

I don't think the WWE made a mistake with the decision of unifying the titles, but the mistake was unifying them randomly at TLC. The Survivor Series encounter between John Cena and Randy Orton didn't really have that Epic feeling of an Austin-Rock meeting before Wrestlemania 17, or on the final Raw before Survivor Series '01 , or a Punk-Cena meeting before Summerslam 2011. It seemed forced.

As far as the WHC, with the end of brand extension, and numerous superstars having either permanently retired or gone as full-timers(including Chris Jericho, Edge, Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, Batista), the Smackdown brand and the WHC was essentially a boredomfest for the rest of its stint because frankly, Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus being the WHC and trading victories was not good enough for the WHC and its legacy. The Randy Orton-Christian feud was very good, however. But then, again the Raw side became weak and lacklustre with John Cena and CM Punk being the same superstars feuding for the WWE title and you can only bring back The Rock so many times.

With not many stars, and the unification, the WWE WHC seems much more credible now and the IC/US titles will only increase in importance from that point on. To be honest, I was really bored of the whole concept of a secondary world championship where the contenders are Damien Sandow, Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus, Christian and Alberto Del Rio. It'd have worked for all these superstars, but without the brand extension, the WHC storylines appear no better than IC/US title storylines and the main feature was always going to be the WWE title.

 

[SharpShooter083]

I think WWE made the right choice in unifying the WWE and World Titles. I too am a believer in one promotion, one World Champion. Most of the guys that held the World Championship over the last couple of years were mid card guys that WWE tried to push by giving them the title but ultimately failed and they feel right back down the card (Ziggler, Swagger, Del Rio).

I believe that if you're good enough then you don't need for there to be 2 World Championships in order to be a champion. All that shows is that you don't have what it takes to lead the company on your own, and at the end of the day thats what a World Champ is supposed to do.

 

[Judah's Lion]

i'll echo what others have already said; right choice but wrong timing. Mania 30 is absolutely the most obvious choice. biggest stage in the history of wrestling. have the one belt hanging over the ring, not because it's a ladder match, but because only one belt is needed.

the tournament idea of having the WWE Champion, the World Heavyweight Champion, the Royal Rumble winner and the Elimination Chamber winner all fight in a four-man tournament at Mania is a decent idea. i can only think of one other scenario...

Punk enters Mania as the WWE Champion. Bryan enters as both the World Heavyweight Champion and Royal Rumble winner. that way, the main event for Mania 30 is Punk/Bryan for the Undisputed Unified WWE World Heavyweight Champion of the World, or whatever name they give it.

to be honest, Punk and Bryan both deserved this honor. currently, i'm quite a bit pissed at Punk and think he's being a bit of a literal punk/baby, but i get it. Punk earned the right to be in the main event of WrestleMania. and this was the show to do it. and Bryan has earned it by organically getting fans around the world to love him.

forget Batista/Orton. they can have a match at Mania or not. but there's no way that Batista should have won his second Rumble or be in the World Title hunt for Mania.

i also think the IC/US Titles should have been unified by now. either at Survivor Series or the Royal Rumble. but that might be for a different thread for a different time...

 

[resignedknight]

then by your logic the IC and World titles are the same thing. All places in the world are parts of Continents/islands, name one place that doesn't exist on an island or a continent? therefore the whole world is Intercontinental. The US title is pointless that was just the WCW's version of the IC title the title granted to those that were almost at the World Title level wheras the IC title represents the second tier world champ but the same idea, someone that was next in line for a push to the world title.

I think, historically, the intercontinental represented the two continents of North and South America since it started when Pat Patterson was the North American Heavyweight champion and won a tournament for the vacant South American Heavyweight Championship. So he unified those and called it the IC Title. It gets a little fuzzier when you consider RVD beat Jeff Hardy to unify the IC Title and the European Title, but it's still only 3 continents represented, keeping it less than the world.

 

[Attitude_Era_Guy]

I disagree. Unifying the titles was mandatory. The World Championship was becoming useless. For example, Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus won the Royal Rumble but didn't headline WM. In fact, they were the first matches on the show. Besides, even if they had two titles, Bryan or HHH-Batista-Orton would have still happened. The World Championship would have been defended between Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, or Christian.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RVD, Chris Jericho, & CM Punk.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

As others have pointed out, the World Heavyweight Championship seemed to be a World Championship in name only for most of the past several years of its existence. It hadn't been booked as being on equal or near equal footing as the WWE Championship in quite some time; unofficially, it'd taken on the role of the IC title as the traditional upper mid-card title. They've already got two mid-card championships, so if you're not going to book or treat both championships as if they're equal, then there shouldn't be two World Championships.

During WrestleMania season, most of the company's attention goes towards the programs and wrestlers Vince fills will make the most money. The problem is that it often leaves the two mid-card titles in the cold because, a good deal of the time, most of the top guys in the company aren't carrying those titles. It's something that's easily fixable, but he doesn't do it for whatever reason. The champs haven't been buried like they were last year, so that's one improvement. In the post WrestleMania season, now that the WHC is gone, I think there'll be an uptick on the relevance bestowed on the mid-card champs.

 

[Softcore Holly]

Judging by the thread I'm guess I'm in the vast minority but I liked having the WHC around. IMO if used right it can have a lot of benefits even if it obviously wasn't as important as the WWE title, the problem was it was being used poorly much like....well every title not named the WWEHC today. Like a ton of people talked about how the other titles would get better with the WHC gone, but as we all know that hasn't been the case. And that was before WM season, and I don't really have confidence it'll get much better afterwards. (here's hoping though)

Like really when both US/IC is unlikely to get defended at WM I can't see the benefits of the WHC being gone. Because even as far as it has fallen at the very least it would've gotten a WM match. Speaking of WM a few things probably would've been booked differently if the WHC was still around, although I would imagine that the Cena Bray match would only benefit from being a WHC match.

 

[lil steroid meat]

It was actually a great decision to combine the titles. The World title was getting to the point where it wasn't a big deal anymore. More importantly there should only be one World champion in a promotion.

This.

Short term it may cause for a strange Wrestlemania XXX build up, but in the long term, it adds more prestige to the World Title and reigns will really start to mean something. Both titles mean less when there are two world titles.

 

[resignedknight]

Now we're getting way to technical

Haha, yea, probably true. I have always been kind of interested in the history of the titles though. I think it's cool that historically people couldn't just make up a title and call it whatever they wanted. If you wanted a world title, you had to unify your title with promotions in other places in the world. Or you could have a guy win your title and an existing world title, which creates awesome things like Shane Douglas and the ECW.

I guess in the 70s the WWF wanted a midcard title that fit with their brand (they were the WORLD Wrestling Federation), so they had to make a deal for Patterson to go down and win a title from a South American promoter. It still fits with their brand and desperately need to elevate it. I can't wait to see who Big E drops it to.

Anyway, the point was just that I was agreeing with the poster who said there is a built in hierarchy from World to IC to US.