*MERGED* [OFFICIAL] WWE Title Unification/Possible Brand Unification Discussion

[Jack-Hammer]

http://www.wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2010/0831/531436/

According to this article that I read a couple of minutes ago, as of right now, the plan is indeed to unify all the existing championships in the WWE. According to Ryan Clark, the WWE/World Championships will be unified at WM 27.

So, if the plans are as this article alleges and things keep going in this direction, I wouldn't be surprised to see the exclusive brand extension format come to an end sometime just after WrestleMania next year. As the WWE Draft takes place not long after WM, I wouldn't be surprised to see the announcement come on that Raw instead of having the WWE Draft.

If the WWE does continue with the brand extension, however, then it really won't make much sense in my view. Overall, I think that this could potentially lead to an increase in the prestige of the titles themselves and the overall importance of title feuds.

 

[KitInaka]

I'll say this. I really hope that the wwe keeps the two World titles Seprate. However, I really hope the two brands become one and the other titles get merged.

It's only logical really. When did the start of WWE's decline happen? Right when the split the brands.

Now however, with both main shows being on non-broadcast networks. Maybe what we're seeing is the resurgence of the old WWE. All we need is Linda McMahon to lose the Senate Race (No Offense I just think that that is a huge reason for WWE's PG shift.)

 

[daniel bryan mark]

I, for one, half agree with this idea. The Tag titles are already unified and the Women's and Diva's titles need to be unified. My problem is the World titles and US/IC titles. There are too many midcarders for one belt. Raw has Bourne, Bryan, Morrison, Truth, Dibiase, and the Miz is US champ. SD! has Kofi, Hardy, Christian, Rhodes, McIntyre, and Ziggler is IC champ. Raw has six guys competing for the WWE title at NOC. SD! has Kane, and Taker. Mysterio and Swagger were champs recently. Big Show and Punk are upper mid carders. Now, how can WWE give everyone a chance when every time Taker returns, he becomes champion?

 

[AAPTSLTS]

I couldn't care less about unifying any of the belts. WWE has too many championships as it is. The Intercontinental Championship used to mean something. Now it's sparsely defended and I can't even name the current champion without going to Google. That's how little I pay attention to the midcard anymore. The only reason I know the Miz is US Champion is because he is also the current MITB winner and thus he gets more screen time on Raw. The Divas division is a joke. We haven't really needed two World Championships since they ended brand exclusive pay-per-views.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

One thing that people need to take note of is that not everything has to revolve around Championships. What's missing in the WWE are those high quality feuds and matches that Shawn Michaels partook in. If WWE correctly built storylines, they'd easily be as competitive and as good as Championship matches. Also, not EVERY mid-card wrestler should win the IC/US title. Not EVERY wrestler should win a Championship either. Back in the old days, there were plenty of great wrestlers that never got to hold titles in the WWE. I'd rather see highly competitive matches than how many Championships one has stacked in his resume. Championship feuds can continue for months and they can interject an extra opponent into the mix if they chose to get real creative, thus providing stipulation angles. With the focus on the IC Championship as the true secondary title, they could have former World Champions redeem its credibility. There may be tons of mid-carders, but only a handful are top tier performers. Those who aren't can always form Tag Teams or do other things until they're ready. Bring back the KOTR or create tournaments for the sake of competition.

 

[nightmare]

unification makes sense with the tag titles & womens\divas title because of the current lack of talent in those divisions. very few tag teams & alot of random divas matches. seems like the womens titles just get passed around down the line so everyone gets a turn. kinda makes it lose meaning for the champ.

now as far as the other titles? it makes more sense to keep them seperated. if they go from 4 to 2 it seriously cramps the mid-card & the guys in the middle will get shoved down further into nothing, eventually leaving for tna or quitting outright. some great wrestlers are already clinging to life in the midcard & if the 2 main titles are unified then things will get stale quick. plus, the world title is the last glimmer of actual wrestling history wwe still has b\c they have wiped the minds of fans everywhere. if it didnt happen in wwe they dont really want the younger kids to know about it. keep the 2 main & 2 midcard titles & use them to make champions & grow contenders instead of joining the titles & pushing guys to the bottom.

 

[Ferbian]

I'm already bummed that they're unifying the divas and women's championship. The division isn't at it's greatest, and there's way too many divas for it to work with one championship right now. There's divas on both shows, and all would want to be used in a way to challenge for the belts one way or another. This closes the potential for it.

That goes for pretty much every damn championship on the current WWE roster. Way too many people to fight over it, and way too many people in each division. They shouldn't unify any of them, with exception of the tag team championships because the division is low on contenders. The rest of them will leave out the possibility of having a lot of people getting title shots, and it wouldn't add much to their prestige really. Because this way you're gonna have a lot shorter feuds, or a lot less people challenging for the belts. And that's not what I want to see, I want to see people get a decent feud going, while giving more and more people the chance to actually challenge for it.

The world title, the mid-card championships, all of them have way too many people that are potential to challenge for a championship in their division. Why would WWE want to bottle it all up? I seriously do not see it. Sure Jack-Hammer pointed out the potential of a WWE / WHC unification match, but holy fuck the match will rule, but the main event will be a cluster-fuck afterwards.

Main event: Randy Orton, Edge, John Cena, Triple H, Sheamus, Undertaker, partially Chris Jericho, Rey Mysterio and Big Show. That's 6 firm main eventers, and 3 extra available ones. And that's not counting 4 obvious ones for the future - Miz, Punk, Wade and Alberto Del Rio (Yeah I see it happening). Which means way too many people to challenge for 1 championship, there's 13 people to challenge for it. And you can't possibly discredit them all at once every now and then. Especially spread across two shows.

No, I'm not liking it. The mid-card, and world titles should remain split.

 

[Takerfan93]

Something that just occured to me, as The Whole F'n Show said, if the world titles are unified, guys like Swagger and Punk might not get as many runs, but in a way is that a good thing? Because if they feud for the Intercontinental title it could cause it to become almost as prestigious as it was before 2003, making it a great way to push unestablished guys again. And they might also be given world title runs, but just not as many as the guys get now, but that might be a good thing, because for example Edge and Cena are 9 time world champions in the space of 5 years since they won their first world titles, so maybe it would stop the ridiculous amounts of world title reigns for each person.

And also, does anyone think that maybe they might be planning to end the brand split along with this?

 

[Zeven_Zion]

Something that just occured to me, as The Whole F'n Show said, if the world titles are unified, guys like Swagger and Punk might not get as many runs, but in a way is that a good thing? Because if they feud for the Intercontinental title it could cause it to become almost as prestigious as it was before 2003, making it a great way to push unestablished guys again. And they might also be given world title runs, but just not as many as the guys get now, but that might be a good thing, because for example Edge and Cena are 9 time world champions in the space of 5 years since they won their first world titles, so maybe it would stop the ridiculous amounts of world title reigns for each person.

And also, does anyone think that maybe they might be planning to end the brand split along with this?

You nailed it. I also smell a brand split.

I mean, I just read a report that the plans are to have ONE IC title and ONE World Heavyweight title in the company. That means that there will be no Tag Team Division and no Barbie Doll Cheerleader Fashion **** Preppy Gymnastics Highschool Reject That Can't Talk And Has A Scarily Empty Look In Her Eyes But Not An Empty Bra division. And before everyone freaks out...relax. It's not like WWE has them now, is it?

But, with 2 belts in the company there has to be only one brand. I mean, their roster is huge. One brand with two titles seems to be quite a healthy decision. They can chop a big load of crap off their roster, eliminate all the guys who do nothing, leaving only the more talented ones. With all the main eventers on one brand, some of them will battle for the world title ( the more established ones that can carry the company ) and the rest of the Main Eventers who are not that experienced can go ahead and add prestige to the IC title. Meanwhile, the up and comers who are neither here nor there would have a chance to be "there" as they fight for that IC title. The IC title will be dropped by whoever's holding it once he's ready to go to the next level. Lenghty title reigns with a few storylines and good title defenses in the mix - prestige. Same goes for the world title. A non-title related storyline or two involving the mid-carders and maybe some of the low-card guys and there you have it.

...but it's WWE, so fuck me that ain't happenin'.

 

[Rampage Bentley]

If the 2 main shows are going to continue to be seperate then I don't see a reason to unify the World Titles or us/Inter Titles. Each show needs their reasons to keep these guys fighting. I am happy to see the Divas Title on the way out. That was just a bad idea from the start. A Butterfly belt? Serious?

I guarantee you that the diva's title is the one that's sticking around, probably why they had no problem splitting the women's title in two (although I don't believe that's the actual title, as far as kayf goes it is)

On to my opinion....

It's definitely a two headed coin, on one hand unifying the titles will close off the main event picture a little bit, we won't have anymore premature champions. While I'm all for Swagger and Sheamus title reigns, they probably won't be thrust in the spotlight quicker than they're ready for the sake of having viable main eventers.

On the other hand, it means that guys like CM Punk and Jericho will have no hope of ever becoming world champion, the division is going to be dominated by Orton, Cena, Triple H, and The Undertaker.

But how badass would it be if the unification of the world title's was done by a giant one night tournament ala Wrestlemania 4

 

[LigerBomb]

I feel bad for the boys and girls in the back this'll eventually bury. Too many people on this roster and with even less championships guys are going to get pushed down the line, forcing those below them completely off. Granted a thinning of the herd may be the way to go to streamline the product but this will hurt peoples earnings. The cream, as they say, will rise to the top. This has the potential to be a real turning point or a relatively mid-sized mistake.

If the brand split is done with, then yes, unify it all. If not, I'd consider 1 top title and keeping the two mid-card titles just so the bloated middle of the bell curve will have two competing bread lines.

 

[Rayne]

Well, this will certainly make the titles in the WWE much more meaningful, which is something that has been lacking for a long time.

One thing I like about this is it gives room for those lost titles to reappear; like the Cruiserweight/Light Heavyweight championship. The WWE has a much better selection of lighter guys than they did 2 years ago; they now have the option of keeping guys like Evan Bourne busy outside of the occasional 10 o'clock lead segment jobbing spot.

No question the women's titles needed to be unified. It was a noble experiment, but the division wasn't booked well, and interest in the Divas wasn't high enough to justify more exposure. The tag titles have been unified since last year's Wrestlemania. On the topic of the tag titles, this would make them much more important; without an easy series of US/Intercontinental titles for the ascendant midcarder to count on, tag title reigns for midcarders give that much more exposure.

On the other hand, look for this to be a cue for roster cuts. You quite simply cannot expect there to be that many hot person vs. person feuds without something on the line. It's a hook, and it's the reason there are seven titles in the WWE right now. You'll start seeing the WWE title get one segment each on Raw + Smackdown, and quite possibly the same for the IC champion. That's less TV time to go around, and the roster will tighten because of it. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the obvious way you'd schedule the two shows means you won't need all the talent you have now.

 

[Ming]

I don't like the idea of unifying the I.C and U.S championships and I REALLY don't like the idea of unifying the World Heavyweight Championship with the WWE Championship. If this happens then that means that a lot of worthy wrestlers (Punk, Swagger, Miz, Del Rio, Christian and Mcintyre) will very much struggle to win a championship. I agree that the Tag Titles should've been unified because of the lack of tag teams. The women's titles don't really need to be unified because there's enough divas in my opinion. I'm certainly hoping that the WHC and the WWE Championship don't get unified because that means a lot of worthy contenders will get shoved down into the mid card and end up as future Matt Hardys and Christians. I hope the I.C and U.S titles don't get unified because they're both prestigious and help mid carders get some titles to their name.

 

[|RealityCheck]

Me and my friend have been saying this for a long time now....TOO MANY TITLES! The Miz, one of my favorite wrestlers, is US Champ...and I DO NOT CARE..it means almost nothing. He never defends it. Getting rid of a few of these titles would be great. I would like to see it as this...

WWE Champion
Intercontinental Champion
LOWER MID CARD TITLE HERE - Television Champ or even keep the US Title for this
Cruiserweight Champion - Needs to be brought back
Tag Champions
Womens Champion

Too many titles OF THE SAME CALIBER (World/WWE, US/IC) ruin the importance of being a champ. Lets hope they can fix this

 

[Ellila]

I like the idea because then maybe we would get the brand warfare restarted. you know when SD and Raw commentators would try to bash the other show. And the awesome feuds between brands

 

[JBK2008]

I agree with the United Tag Team Championship and the Women's and Diva's titles being unified. The United State and Intercontinental titles should stay as they are for the mid cards sake. I can see the WWE and WHC being unified that way there is one TRUE WWE Champion and that Raw and SmackDown don't have to have their shows dominated by the top title.

 

[Spitfire]

I agree with almost everyone about this. This is 1 huge clusterfuck waiting to happen. With guys like Cena, Captain "I must bury" Orton, HHH, Edge, Jericho, Undertaker and Kane all in the Main Event scene, Vince would have no time for guys like Miz & Swagger. The reason I mention those 2 is because after Wrestlemaina, the Miz & Jack Swagger were the only 2 young guys being built on heavily for the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships with Swagger going over Captain "I must bury" Orton and tapping out Mysterio and Miz cutting promos with Main Eventers every week.

If this does indeed happen, expect alot of tag teams to be formed. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked if the cruiserweight championship or the Television Championship were brought back. How can I forget this 1, expect alot of guys and divas released if this takes place.

 

[xX Awesome Action Xx]

I like the idea of unifying The World/WWE and The US/IC titles as well as the Womens/Divas. Look at it this way even if there are too many Main Eventers/ Mid-Carders for 1 World/Mid-Crard Title, They can create non-title fueds that can establish a superstar. Besides the Titles dont have prestige now anyways, the only time the Midcard titles are both defended on a ppv is NOC, sometimes neither Mid-Card Title is defened on a ppv.

 

[Rckstrtmmy]

You people seem to forget that they never defend these titles anyway. There are just too many titles for them all to get the time they require to build up the champions. The unification is a GREAT thing. They no longer will have to force feed us half rate champions to try and get them over. Now they can create meaningful feuds without titles involved to build superstars and then when they're ready they can go after the title. Also, there will be more people going for each title now which opens interesting doors to new refreshing matches. I just hope they are doing away with the brand split as well. They might as well...and for the people that bitch about the WWE losing money, the WWE can still do the split house shows if they wanted to. They should keep the TV stuff as one unified brand though like it used to be.

 

[WRESTLINGFREAK]

This Guy is bang on!
Don't Unify the World Titles, The WHC Lets guys like Swagger, Punk, Kane get World Title runs, I doubt they would if they were contending with Orton, Cena, HHH. The WWE Title now is more for experienced main eventers like Cena, HHH, Edge, Orton. The WHC is more for catapulting young main eventers like Punk & Swagger to the main event scene and be taken more seriously.

Keep The US Title on RAW, The IC On SD. Unifying them would make it even more of a clusterfuck than it already is. On RAW there's Miz, Bryan, Bourne, Truth, JoMo all in that upper mid card US Title slot. On SD!, there's Kofi, Ziggles, Rhodes, McIntyre, Hardy, Christian, if they all were contending for 1 Title, like the main eventers if they had 1 title, alot of top superstars would not get the belt.

The Tag Team Unification is good because of the lack of teams, The Women's/Divas Unification is good becayse of the lack of top Divas, There is enough Main Eventers & Enough Upper Mid Carders to Have 2 Titles.

Is something i've been thinking about for like a year ago, the brand split no longer works that well, back in 2002 it was cool it was fresh and we all liked it, but 8 years later it really doesn't make much sense.

Having one world title is what wrestling tradition calls for, it means the company will have ONE MAN at the time, not all these young no polished stars carrying a world title pretending to be champs. This will force vince to really push stars slowly and patiently just like in the past, and of course will give us true main eventers.

One thing non of you mentioned was the fact that with the unification, the wwe draft will disappear, as stars will be stars of wwe, not exclusive to raw or smackdown so it is pretty good, when you go to a house show you'll see wwe, not raw or smackdown and when you watch either smackdown or raw you'll see all the wrestlers.

I agree with the unification, it is good for business and for the wrestling fans, not the entertainment wwe-hollywood style company, but for us the rasslin-wrestling traditionalists, as we're going to see better non title feuds like in the good ol' days and more mature performers holding the world's title. of course the title lineage should be the one of the wwe title that dates back to 1962 buddy roger's title reign.

 

[RIPRKO1005]

Firts of all thank god they are unifying there womens and divas title, making the divas title was a mistake in the first place. Secong of all the tag titles are already unified and its good they are beause the wwe doesnt have enough legit tag teams to have two tag titles. Third of all definitely inify the world and wwe titles. I like the idea of having one champ of the entire WWE universe who defends his title on both shows to prove he's the man. But, dont unify the IC and US title because once you inify the two major titles you have the US on raw and the IC on smackdown. Then all superstars can begin to work harder for those titles and use them as a stepping stone to get there own shot at the true WWE champ. It helps bring back prestige to the US and IC titles!

 

[martin]

Enjoyed reading all replies to the thread and agree what is being said about unifying the titles. I do hope that WWE retains the histories of their 4 original titles (WWE, IC, World Tag, Women's) due to their longevity and it makes the titles seem like the most important in the sport. We will need to wait until Hart Dynasty lose the Tag title to see which title history WWE.com updates now with one set of belts, unless they keep both lineages going (likely the World Tag as Benoit is the first WWE Tag Champ).

 

[boodydag]

i have been a fan for the last 20 years. in recent history there has been more undeserving champions than i can remember and the reason being is to facilitate 2 world champions in one company. it has been very unclear the last few years who the number one guy is. that is to say that the number one guy is the world champion, but he should be. the brand extension and separate world titles should end. the single champion should be showcased on both shows to exemplify the number one guy. it seems that to create depth in the individual rosters, that young blossoming talent is given the world title before they are really ever ready. not to say that punk and sheamus arent deserving, but rather thay probably needed more time to catch on with the fans and develop there skills rather than being thrown into the number one position as quickly as they are. another big problem is putting the title on guys who obviously arent huge company guys, like lesnar and lashley, etc. this needs to stop to give more honor and legacy to the belt. two world titles has always felt cheap. i have never liked the idea. id take one flair or austin over 10 sheamus or barrets any day of the week. i do believe both of these guys will be huge in the years to come.

 

[Davi323]

About freaking time! I hated the split titles from day one. I hope this also means unified rosters, too. One company, one roster, one title per catagory. Even without completely unifying the rosters, there should be 5 total championships, World, Tag, IC or US (don't care which one) womens, and the reintroduction of a lightweight/cruiserweight belt. Champions appear on both shows, as needed.

 

[Archrival]

As I see it, the only reason that many of the titles have lost their importance is because of bad booking and writing from WWE Creative Team. If they continue down that path with somewhat lazy and uninspired storytelling, no unifications in the world will help to get the belts important again.