**MERGED** All Championship Prestige Discussion

[BeastFromTheEast]

I want to say IMO that all WWE titles have lost prestige since they divided it into two brands. Honestly, why have a WWE Champion and a World Heavy Weight Champion? Aren't they really the same thing? Same goes for the IC title and US title, can't we just have one or the other? I think they need to drop the idea of two brands and go back to having a single prestigious championship for each division. Just simply merge the two major titles into the WWE World Heavyweight Championship having all the "big dogs" with their sights aimed on it. As far as the IC and US titles are concerned we really only need one mid-card champ as well. The US title is a bogus fabrication that they should be done with and just stick with the IC title since it has been around for decades. This, again IMO, would make the show more interesting and bring prestige back to the titles.

 

[FitFinlay4Life]

Hmmm, I seem to remember having an ongoing debate about the prestige (or lack thereof) of the WHC... if only I could remember the name of the guy I was debating with...

My feelings on the two belts since Easy E created the WHC for Triple H was for a long time very simple - whichever one was on RAW was regarded the premium belt and whichever one was on SmackDown was the secondary title.

Why? Pretty simple really, RAW has always had the far superior ratings and this has been reflected in who was allowed to hold the belt of the brand. Let me break it down from both belts existing (to keep it relatively brief, I haven't repeated Wrestlers names in each individual stint on the program in the spotlight)...

WHC
RAW
Triple H; HBK; Goldberg; Benoit; Orton; Batista (moved to SD)
SmackDown
Angle; Rey; Booker; Batista; Taker; Khali; Edge; Punk (moved to RAW)
RAW
Y2J; Batista; Cena; Edge (moved back to SD)
SmackDown
Hardy; Punk; Taker; Y2J; Swagger; Mysterio; Kane; Ziggler; Christian; Orton; Henry; Show; Bryan; Sheamus; Del Rio

WWe
SmackDown
Lesnar; Show; Angle; Guerrero; JBL; Cena (moved to RAW)
RAW
Edge, Cena, RVD (moved to ECW, quickly returned to RAW); Orton; Triple H (moved to SD)
SmackDown
Edge; Hardy; Triple H (moved to RAW)
RAW
Orton; Batista; Cena; Sheamus; Miz; Punk; Mysterio (kinda); Del Rio; Rock

What the above shows is that the RAW brand was always more prone to go with the established names whichever belt was 'Exclusive' to it at that time, the risks where always taken on the blue brand to see if that guy was worthy of the RAW belt. Despite the fact that the NWA / WCW link isn't meant to apply to the WHC, (because it is the physical old WCW Belt) it has been stated by those in the know that it was decided to be the SD (hence secondary) title back in 2009.

Now, while the WWe Title is the better regarded, very recent history indicates that even it only matters when it's around the waist of a headliner like Cena or the Rock. For the majority of CM Punk's historic reign, the belt was considered secondary to whatever John Cena was doing and only really rose to prominence again when it got near time for the Rock to take it from him.

So, in answer to your question LSN, the WHC officially became the secondary belt when it returned to SmackDown on April 26th, 2009 as their premier title.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

Good thing this thread was merged my Apple IIe couldn't handle another thread.

I'd say for me it was when I heard it opened WM 27. It just felt like a slap in the face (or gut in this case) to the belt. There was decent hype surrounding Del Rio/Edge and this kind of put the belt in it's place as being a prop. Putting it on Swagger and all these stupid MITB cash-ins have not helped the prestige of either title as well. MiTB creates some cool moments but it doesn't necessarily get guys over enough.

Gold is still selling at a high price, WWE should burn the thing and sell the gold or give it Flair to pay off some debts or use as collateral to borrow more money.

 

[Dagger Dias]

When do you believe the once prestigious World Heavyweight Championship was relegated to the "B" title?

It was a slow process that began in summer of 2005 when John Cena and Batista traded brands. During its initial years when it was Raw exclusive it felt like a top tier prize completely on par with the WWE Championship and even appeared to be more important at times. Then Cena became the face of the federation and they changed it to where the WWE Championship was Raw exclusive instead with the World Heavyweight Championship going over to the blue brand with Batista. For the next 3 years it felt like the lesser title of the two, but still felt important enough to still be considered a world title.

Summer of 2008 saw the World Heavyweight Championship become exclusive to the red brand again when CM Punk brought it back to Raw following Triple H being drafted to Smackdown with the WWE Championship. During this time its importance skyrocketed and it felt like the top belt again, until the aftermath of Wrestlemania 25 when the belts traded brands once again. The WWE Championship seemed more important with guys like Cena/Orton/Trips/Batista constantly feuding over it while Edge/Punk/Hardy fought over the World Heavyweight Championship on Smackdown. The gap in between the belts' importance grew during this time.

Then by the end of 2010 the gap had grown further. The last time the World Heavyweight Championship closed a PPV event took place during this time. Then we have the horrendous decision of having the World Heavyweight Championship OPEN two consecutive Wrestlemania events at 27 and 28. This was the point of no return in my opinion. If it is meant to be as prestigious within kayfabe as the WWE Championship then why did they slowly stop treating it that way? For the last few years the World Heavyweight Championship has felt more like a way for WWE to see what a wrestler would be like as a world title holder and the WWE Champion being the "real" world champion within the federation. Yet they still consider a World Heavyweight Championship reign to be equal to a WWE Championship reign such as when they refer to Cena as a 13 time champion, 2 of those were with the World Heavyweight Championship.

So the short version.... It started when they made it Smackdown exclusive in 2005 but it was a slow process that took about 6 years, and the final nail in the coffin was opening two consecutive Wrestlemania events. By then without a shadow of a doubt it was far below the WWE Championship in importance. It will never regain its former importance at this point. A fan can dream though. The memories of the days where the two world titles were booked to be of equal importance AND treated as such will live on forever.

Should it be on the same level as the WWE Title, or is it fine where it is?

It depends. If they want to treat it as an upper midcard belt, then they need to stop proclaiming it to be on par with the WWE Championship. When they call Triple H a 13 time World Champion 5 of those were from the World Heavyweight Championship. Another great example is Edge. 7 of his 11 world title reigns were from the World Heavyweight Championship, more than half of them! Either treat it on par with the WWE Championship or stop proclaiming it as such. They could always get rid of it and make the Intercontinental Championship the #2 belt again. Goodness knows THAT belt could use the rub of being the second most important prize again. Without the brand extention we do not need two world titles anymore, especially if one is going to unfairly be treated as the favorite. I like the WWE Championship more out of the two, but I like the World Heavyweight Championship also. It needs to close more shows. Why not have it close the next string of PPV events until it feels more important again when it can take turns closing with the WWE Championship again? If the two belts are meant to be on par then WWE should do something about it and act like they care about them BOTH. Making only one of the two close every show for almost 3 years and having the other OPEN the biggest show of the year TWICE? This is NOT the way you treat a world title. If WWE want two world titles then they need to be treated equally across the board.