How can you make teh Ic title and Us title mean more then a belt?

[Wrestling_No-logicX]

First off everyone can agree that Ic title matches aren't that great anymore and like anyone can win the ic title and then lose it, I want to see the IC title mean something, where another superstar wants to hold that title and will fight to get it. My idea would be if you have 4 great superstars that fit the ic title role, like Kofi Kingston The Miz Evan Born or even Shelton bejamin or mvp you would have some great matchess, But no you hardley see it, i have not seen a wrestler fight his way towards the ic title since i can't even remeber when, All I can say is when will we see it,. Cena and edge keep fighting over the wwe heavyweight title and HHH and Orton are as well. so when can we see someone say Rey i want your title and i won't stop punishing you until i earn a shot. What is with the Us Title it's just a belt, Give it to shelton benjamin and let him hold in lets see the first Us title steel cage match, Give these belts meaning, like when we seen shawn micheals or razor ramon those guys made the titles the way they should have been not what there doing now....Bring Backl The True meaning Of IC..

 

[Age of Orton]

easy unify both belts, Rey/MVP both fan favorites could pull off a good match, but IF WWE played this right, have MVP declare himself as the best mid card champion, have Rey take offense, and build to a ladder match rather then your bog standard title vs title matches.. have say Rey win, and build MVP Rey to rematch, but do a Matt Hardy/MVP storyline of sorts so it builds up over a few month.. that gets the title to mean something, the problem isn't the belt, or the wrestlers it's the fans don't seem to get invested into the champion, CM Punk was shoved down our throats, JBL? please, Rey hasn't been the same since 2005/06, Regal sound wrestler deserves a push but given the belt and jobbed out, the last OC Champion the fans loved was Jeff Hardy

 

[LokiCobain]

Unifying won't do anything if the creative team doesn't actually do anything with it. The problem hasn't been that there's too many belts, it's just been that they haven't been put to use. They're using the titles as a means to an end, rather than an end. People win it as a stepping stone to win "the big one", and that's what hurts their prestige. Put the belt on Shawn Michaels. People can't see the IC as being a step down, even if it is. There needs to be passion behind it, but the creative team would rather put all their efforts into the A-league guys, even if they're not involved in a title picture.

 

[JuviJuiceIsLoose]

They need to turn the I-C and the U.S. Titles into what they were in the past. A showcase for the best wrestlers in the company and future Main Eventers.

I can see a lot of really good Intercontinental Title feuds on Smackdown

Rey vs Punk
Rey vs Jericho
Rey vs Shelton (Depending on whether or not Shelton leaves in the Supplemental Draft)
Rey vs Morrison

I'm not sure what's going to happen to the U.S. Title on Raw. I don't really know who MVP is going to be feuding with.

He could feud with Matt Hardy again. This time the roles are reversed with Hardy as the heel and MVP as the face.

MVP vs Miz could be a good feud.

The fueds won't be as good for the U.S. Title. It's not like it was when Guerrero, Benoit, and Booker T. were feuding for the belt when the WWE brought it back.

The feuds won't be as good as they were last year or earlier this year when M.V.P. was feuding with Matt Hardy. Or when Shelton was defending it against Jeff Hardy, MVP, R-Truth, and Brian Kendrick.

I'm definitely more excited with the possibility of Rey's matches on Smackdown than I am with MVP's matches on Raw.

 

[oheyitsmatt]

Agreed with JuviJuiceIsLoose. Rey's list of possible contenders on SD! is quite a good one, especially with the talent now being assembled on that show. Assuming Cena, Orton, and Michaels all stay on Raw, there's going to to be a lot of room on Smackdown! to show off the IC title competitions.

I think the best thing for SD! right now would be a face GM who promotes competition and entertainment over anything else. Once we determine who is going to be bringing a world-level title over to SD! (Edge or Punk, assuming Cena stays put) then the GM could host a tournament for the number one contender's spot for the top title. Have Rey and Shelton Benjamin both get to the semi-finals, perhaps with each pulling off a miracle victory in the previous round over guys like Kane and Undertaker. Rey goes over, but with Rey about to pull off another miracle victory in the final round over Jericho, Shelton interferes and costs him the match. This sets up a grudge feud between Rey and Shelton and we know that those two guys can put on a hell of a match if given time to develop it.

With the battles getting more and more intense, have our new face GM (Ricky Steamboat, anyone? He'd be the perfect guy to talk about the storied history of the IC title) set up a best-of-seven series with the first to four getting the title. After the sixth match makes it 3-all, make the seventh match a ladder match on a PPV. Give them time to really fight it out, show off their incredible moves, and tell a good story.

I think a program like this would really get both guys over, elevate Shelton to true star status, and get the fans really invested in the IC title. After a few successful title defenses against Jericho, Punk, and Hardy, let the GM applaud Shelton for really impressing him and give him a title shot at the current champion. Shelton can lose here, but then face a challenge from a young guy like DH Smith who would call him out and challenge him for the belt, cutting a promo talking about how his dad was a proud IC champion and how he sees the IC title as his first target on his way to the world championship.

 

[jnmaher]

One world champion that goes on all shows, and the IC belt represents Smackdown, US belt represents RAW and the ECW belt represents ECW. One belt for each show, the shows champion and one world champion

 

[LCShazardous]

simple stipulations amung top contenders on PPV's put like a fatal 4 way cage match or something on the backlash card for one of them and that will help

 

[colalella2891]

Yea I agree, it seems like any random superstar can just win the US/IC titles, especially IC. Examples are Santino and William Regal. Especially Santino, he just randomly won it with Lashley's help. He was a "fan". I think that was stupid. They should really fight for the titles and earn them, like when Matt Hardy fought for the US title. He waited a while until they finally gave it to him.

 

[Jason Riptide]

For starters, long deep, intensely feuding reigns are in order. The title cant change every 2-3 months like clockwork, but every 5-6-7-8 months. And feuds need to be built around it that have massive blow off matches and are high in drama and intensity. Not only will this add credibility and interest to the belts but it will help to restore their original function, which is testing a person's overness with the audience and ability to possibly hold one of the world titles.

Go back to 1996-97 and who will you see holding the IC Title...The Rock, Steve Austin, Triple H, and Owen Hart, 3 of which enjoyed lengthy reigns in the World titles. It would see a dip in credibility in the next few years until...

2000 when Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Kurt Angle, and Eddie Guerrero all had reigns with the title. All 4 of these men would eventually launch into the world title pictures.

Its no longer a means to the Main Event as it is just a midcard accomplishment. Its de-evolved to what it once was back in 98, and has been this way since 2003-04 when RVD, Booker T, and Randy Orton would enjoy reigns with the title on their way to World Titles.

Lets look at the holders of these belts in the last 4 years for the IC title...Heres a list...Since 2005
Ric Flair, Shelton Benjamin, RVD, Shelton Benjamin, Johnny Nitro, Jeff Hardy, Johnny Nitro, Jeff Hardy, Umaga, Santino, Umaga, Jeff Hardy, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, Santino, William Regal, CM Punk, JBL, Rey Mysterio

If we eliminate people who had held the world title before holding this, Flair, Jericho, Punk, JBL, and Mysterio can be eliminated from the list.

In 4 years the only world champ the IC title has produced was Jeff Hardy, and even then his reign lasted a whopping one month. Look at the other names...Nitro, Benjamin, Kingston, Santino, Regal and Umaga...Is any one of these people doing anything meaningful at the moment? The WWE is not capitalizing or utilizing any momentum these people gain from being IC champs in a productive way. If anything, each one of them has downgraded since their reigns and are just being lost in the big scheme of it all.

Putting the belt on world champs will not add cred, in fact it does the opposite. It destroys cred by making the rest of the roster seem unworthy to even hold those belts.

This is merely the IC title however. The US title has had long reigns (very long ones) and since 05, has produced 1 person who won a world title (Booker T if you dont count his WCW titles...) 2 if Lashley's ECW title counts...Its biggest holders in MVP and Shelton Benjamin were never elevated upon losing the belt or during, but merely just there. Heres to hoping MVP's current reign springboards him to the main event.


This post is Tl;dr, but Im off my shpeil (misspelled) now.

 

[Azrael Cain]

The same things you would do to make the WWE & WHC more than belts: invest in the people that hold them; give the wrestlers feuds that drag out and reigns that mean something.

Of course, bringing back the old clause from the WCW days of the US Title would also add to the prestige. Remember? When the US Champ was the "#2 guy," in a way, and could challenge for the World Title? You can't tell me that a clause like that wouldn't make the US Title more valuable to whoever is holding it, as well as make creative think long and hard about who they put it on.

I think that that is what is missing from the wrestling business these days: depth and meaning to the title victories and reigns. The WHC gets passed around, so does the WWE Title. The lesser titles are downplayed, though, because everyone is so busy trying to go for the World Titles, so when a guy wins the US or IC, they're nothing but Mid-Carder, and so that title is seen as lesser.

When Regal won the IC, he talked about bringing prestige back to it, and what did they do? Nothing. When Santino had it, even, who did he feud over the belt with, and how involved was it? No one and not at all. It seems to me that the writers think up of story-lines for the "big boys," leaving everyone else to fend for themselves, or worse (and let's be honest, even the ideas for the WHC and WWE Title changes suck).

But even longer reigns and feuds may not solve the problem. The average wrestling fan (AWF) has the attention span of what, seven seconds, at best? And if a character holds a title "too long," suddenly the fans turn on him and he is a Superman (albeit, again, it's in HOW he holds on to the title and the depth and investment in the character and story, so in some ways it is justified if both of those are missing (a la "Cena's Reign")).

My solution would be to not be afraid to invest in the people that hold the titles, provide them with feuds that mean something, get the people to care... emotional roller coasters are not only for the Main Eventers, amazing victories are not only for the Main Eventers.

 

[kotg]

My obvious answer has always been to reunify the World Title... have the world champion travel from show to show... then have each show have their own top belt...

raw - IC, smackdown - US, ecw - ECW title

then I think to allow for more storylines and belts in particular have each brand have a gimmick or themed belt.

raw - womens title, smackdown - cruiserweight title, and ecw - hardcore title.

Then quarterly move the world champion from show to show, so royal rumble he is set up to defend against a top contender on raw, when their program is over... build up with a smackdown character and play it out till WM, then move to an ecw character, play it out till SummerSlam... meanwhile the 3 mid-card belts are actually the top titles on their respective brands and thus vied for by everyone.