Poll: Mid-Card Championship

[Jack-Hammer]

Last week, a report came out that it's "likely" WWE will do a championship unification match between WWE Intercontinental Champion, Big E. Langston, and WWE United States Champion, Dean Ambrose, as part of the Elimination Chamber ppv. IF they do unify these two titles, which I surmise will result in the US title being deactivated, it will leave WWE with four active championships: one main event, one mid-card, one women's & one tag team. It'd be the first time since before Eddie Guerrero won the US title, under WWE ownership, in Late July 2003 that WWE would have only four active titles.

At some point, IF this happens, do you think that WWE will/should/could create a second mid-card title to replace the retired one? If so, what do you think it should be?

 

[Dagger Dias]

No new titles and no bringing back old titles. I'm sure a huge flock of posters will come in here begging for the Cruiserweight Championship's return. If the WWE plans on retiring one of the midcard belts, then why make that decision pointless by bringing in a belt that people would care even less about? Just retire the US Championship and make the Intercontinental Championship more important by having it be the only option other than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship if the wrestler is not in a tag team. I do not want to see the return of the Cruiserweight, European, Hardcore, ECW, or any other old title. There's nothing those titles would do that the US title cannot do, so WWE should only have one midcard title if they do in fact plan on unifying the two midcard belts they currently have. Nothing justifies bringing in any other belts, period.

 

[laodaron]

No new titles and no bringing back old titles. I'm sure a huge flock of posters will come in here begging for the Cruiserweight Championship's return. If the WWE plans on retiring one of the midcard belts, then why make that decision pointless by bringing in a belt that people would care even less about? Just retire the US Championship and make the Intercontinental Championship more important by having it be the only option other than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship if the wrestler is not in a tag team. I do not want to see the return of the Cruiserweight, European, Hardcore, ECW, or any other old title. There's nothing those titles would do that the US title cannot do, so WWE should only have one midcard title if they do in fact plan on unifying the two midcard belts they currently have. Nothing justifies bringing in any other belts, period.

I only disagree on one point. I think that there is one scenario in which they could add another title...the Television Title.

Here me out now, the point of the Television Title could be used to bring guys up from NXT, to put them into low/mid card feuds before they are brought up.

For instance, the condition of the Television Title is that is must be defended on every single televised event, to include NXT. So, someone like Antonio Caesaro wins it on Raw, defends it on Smackdown, and then on NXT TV, gets rolled in a small package or something and then that gives the NXT star a reason to show up on Raw that next week to defend their title. It's a smart way to get some big time exposure to the more experienced and prepared NXT guys without having to really force a feud.

Otherwise, it would be a horrible idea to ever bring back the Cruiserweight, Hardcore, ECW, European (I never understood this, really) or any other championship.

 

[Ubermensch]

No new titles and no bringing back old titles. I'm sure a huge flock of posters will come in here begging for the Cruiserweight Championship's return. If the WWE plans on retiring one of the midcard belts, then why make that decision pointless by bringing in a belt that people would care even less about? Just retire the US Championship and make the Intercontinental Championship more important by having it be the only option other than the WWE World Heavyweight Championship if the wrestler is not in a tag team. I do not want to see the return of the Cruiserweight, European, Hardcore, ECW, or any other old title. There's nothing those titles would do that the US title cannot do, so WWE should only have one midcard title if they do in fact plan on unifying the two midcard belts they currently have. Nothing justifies bringing in any other belts, period.

I agree. The absolutely worst thing that could happen would be to bring back a cruiser/lightweight belt. Weight classes in wrestling have not been a legitimate bracket in the roster since the late 90s. Furthermore, when guys like Mysterio win the heavyweight belt you can a crusierweight title out of the window.

Little man belts were part of an attempt to make wrestling appear more realistic when some still had doubts about how fake it was. It made wrestling look more fair like boxing. However, those days are done and gone.

The only viable midcard title I see is the Hardcore belt. Many younger fans haven't seen the days of hardcore wrestling and it could be reintroduced to spice up the midcard some.

 

[Mr.Fortuna]

I honestly do not believe that after unifying the US Championship with The IC Championship that they would debut a new title. I don't feel there is any point to it. All you need is four championships in WWE. With this unification taking place expect heavier emphasis on tag team wrestling now which might even warrant a tag team Money in the Bank Ladder match in June.

If a new championship does debut I expect it to be a midcard NXT championship as NXT is only going to get bigger and have more stars involved in the show. I was thinking they could debut an NXT Television Championship with a 15 minute time limit rule attatched to it. I remember at FCW they had a FCW 15 Championship based on 15 minute iron man matches. But NXT technically isn't shown on television, so maybe an Internet championship can be brought in or something along those lines.

Four championships for WWE and four championships for NXT totally works out. Of course Im just speculating as a fan on what I would like to see.

 

[$Mr. 100%]

Honestly i hope they don't unify da titles and just elevate both back up da card. Remember da us title has prestige and history 2 w/greats such as Harley race dusty Rhodes ric flair sting Steve Austin etc having long reigns as champion

 

[MattRhys20]

I think they should create a new championship... THE INTERNET CHAMPIONSHIP!!! One that only gets defended on PPV Pre-Shows. Zack Ryder would start off as the inaugural champion (seeing as he already has the belt) and then every PPV on the pre-show instead of flinging together some random match like Ziggler v Sandow... ACTUALLY BUILD A FEUD (small though it will be) and have a title match

 

[justinept]

Why would the WWE deactivate a mid-card title with history only to add a new mid-card title? It kind of seems silly to me...

Personally, I've never been a fan of having two mid-card titles (or two main event titles) because it waters down the scene around the title. I've long been a believer that the champion doesn't make the belt - the contenders do. The more people gunning for the champion, the more guys that desperately want to win that title, the more prestigious it is. In a perfect world, I'd say that a good title scene has 6-8 guys legitimate contenders while a great title scene has more like 8-12 legitimate contenders. Using that logic, the WWE would need 12-16 legitimate mid-card contenders at a minimum to make both the US Title and the IC Title mean anything - and they'd need somewhere in the realm of 16-24 legitimate mid-card talents to make both titles truly great.

...until you can find 16-24 mid-card guys worthy of carrying the belt, then let's just keep it to one mid-card belt.

FWIW, here are guys that I'd currently consider to be worthy of carrying a mid-card title along with guys that could be ready in a month if given the right push...

Big E. Langston, Kofi Kingston, The Miz, Dolph Ziggler, Damien Sandow, Cody Rhodes, Dean Ambrose, Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio, and Bad News Barrett... And that some of these are a reach should tell you how weakened the mid-card title scene truly is...

 

[Wald]

I think there could be a lot of opportunity for creative if they brought back the TV title. You could turn it into the workhorse title quite easily by having it defended every single show against all comers and it could really establish a babyface, a monster heel or a chickensh*t heel quite easily.

It would need time and patience though to get it over and ideally they'd give it to someone like Dolph Ziggler at the start to get over. I'd scrap the US Title if they did bring it in, as four singles titles is too much, but I could easily see it outgrowing the Intercontinental Title in terms of prestige if booked right

 

[LSN80]

When's the last time Dean Ambrose defended his U.S. Title? If you know, you're a better man then I.

The goal of a championship shouldn't be just to make someone look slightly more prestigious because they're wearing it, like it has for Ambrose right now. The goal of a championship should be what Big E. Langston is doing, which is the champion bringing more value to the title by defending it regularly, and doing so against men who had to vie just to be #1 Contender. If you can't find enough time in your shows to make the title seem important because it's being defended or people are vying for a shot at it, it has no purpose in existing. Such is the case with the U.S. Title, as while the I.C. Title has #1 Contender matches and actual Championship matches, the U.S. has neither.

So even if they go the likely route of eliminating the U.S. title, adding another title, unless it was a specialty to some type of demographic, is absurd. If they wanted to do a cruiserweight title, I guess that would be fine, but they turned it into a joke by its end with having Hornswoggle win it. We've seen what happened when TNA had female tag champions, and WWE's current roster of Divas isn't much bigger. I don't think that would work. The Hardcore Title was always a joke, especially with its anything goes mentality. Matches like that should end feuds, not be the normalcy for a division. A TV title would work, I suppose, as long as the person defending it did so a few times a month. But again, they haven't found time to make Ambrose's title one important enough to be defended on TV or PPV, so how would just a TV title work?

The fewer number of titles there are, the more prestigious they are. The more prestigious a title is, of greater importance is the person carrying it. Also, with fewer titles, they're likely to be defended more often and at every PPV, rather then have one like Ambrose's U.S. title, which can't even make it on a pre-show match.

The funny thing is, in a division left for dead a year and a half ago, the tag team division is the only one that carry two titles, and make it work. Unfortunately, the same problem would enter that occured with the World Championship. With no brand split, one would be more valuable then the other, rendering one useless over time as well.

Why eliminate one title only to add another? It seems pretty counterintuitive to the reason the titles are being Unified in the first place.

 

[laodaron]

When's the last time Dean Ambrose defended his U.S. Title? If you know, you're a better man then I.

The goal of a championship shouldn't be just to make someone look slightly more prestigious because they're wearing it, like it has for Ambrose right now. The goal of a championship should be what Big E. Langston is doing, which is the champion bringing more value to the title by defending it regularly, and doing so against men who had to vie just to be #1 Contender. If you can't find enough time in your shows to make the title seem important because it's being defended or people are vying for a shot at it, it has no purpose in existing. Such is the case with the U.S. Title, as while the I.C. Title has #1 Contender matches and actual Championship matches, the U.S. has neither.

So even if they go the likely route of eliminating the U.S. title, adding another title, unless it was a specialty to some type of demographic, is absurd. If they wanted to do a cruiserweight title, I guess that would be fine, but they turned it into a joke by its end with having Hornswoggle win it. We've seen what happened when TNA had female tag champions, and WWE's current roster of Divas isn't much bigger. I don't think that would work. The Hardcore Title was always a joke, especially with its anything goes mentality. Matches like that should end feuds, not be the normalcy for a division. A TV title would work, I suppose, as long as the person defending it did so a few times a month. But again, they haven't found time to make Ambrose's title one important enough to be defended on TV or PPV, so how would just a TV title work?

The fewer number of titles there are, the more prestigious they are. The more prestigious a title is, of greater importance is the person carrying it. Also, with fewer titles, they're likely to be defended more often and at every PPV, rather then have one like Ambrose's U.S. title, which can't even make it on a pre-show match.

The funny thing is, in a division left for dead a year and a half ago, the tag team division is the only one that carry two titles, and make it work. Unfortunately, the same problem would enter that occured with the World Championship. With no brand split, one would be more valuable then the other, rendering one useless over time as well.

Why eliminate one title only to add another? It seems pretty counterintuitive to the reason the titles are being Unified in the first place.

To be fair, the main reason that the US Title is irrelevant right now is because Dean Ambrose is horribly overrated. If it were on Roman Reigns, it would be a different story. Or if it were on anyone besides Ambrose.

 

[LSN80]

To be fair, the main reason that the US Title is irrelevant right now is because Dean Ambrose is horribly overrated. If it were on Roman Reigns, it would be a different story. Or if it were on anyone besides Ambrose.

That's your opinion regarding Ambrose, however right or wrong you may be. But the fact remains, the title hasn't been defended in some time, which devalues it more, especially if it's on someone who is overrated. But it wouldn't matter WHO it is that's holding it, so let's use your Roman Reigns example. If Reigns held the title, yet had gone the length of time between title defenses the way Ambrose has, the title would be just as worthless.

You could give it to Ric Flair in his prime, but if he didn't defend it for over a year(which isn't the case with Ambrose), then it would be very irrelevant. Part of what makes a title relevant is the frequency of which it's defended. Ambrose hasn't defended it since Night of Champions, I believe, which was months ago. Hence, because it's sat around his waist for several months without being defended, and no one, not a commentator or a wrestler has mentioned this fact, it's even more irrelevant. It's not simply because it's around Dean Ambrose's waist.

 

[justinept]

To be fair, the main reason that the US Title is irrelevant right now is because Dean Ambrose is horribly overrated. If it were on Roman Reigns, it would be a different story. Or if it were on anyone besides Ambrose.

Agree completely. Dean Ambrose is to blame. It's all his fault that the WWE writers refuse to even acknowledge that he has the belt by putting him in programs with other wrestlers vying for the Intercontinental Title. That would change if Reigns was the IC Champion because he'd go off-script and demand people challenge him for the title --- just as EVERY other IC Champ has over the past 10 years.

 

[rbv13]

A simple point, more titles equals a lazzy creative team. They become an excuse not to find specific programs for individuals. Perfect example was the E's Hardcore Championship. Can't come up with shit outside two/three main stories so let's just lump twenty people rinning one another left and right.

 

[Ubermensch]

That's your opinion regarding Ambrose, however right or wrong you may be. But the fact remains, the title hasn't been defended in some time, which devalues it more, especially if it's on someone who is overrated. But it wouldn't matter WHO it is that's holding it, so let's use your Roman Reigns example. If Reigns held the title, yet had gone the length of time between title defenses the way Ambrose has, the title would be just as worthless.

You could give it to Ric Flair in his prime, but if he didn't defend it for over a year(which isn't the case with Ambrose), then it would be very irrelevant. Part of what makes a title relevant is the frequency of which it's defended. Ambrose hasn't defended it since Night of Champions, I believe, which was months ago. Hence, because it's sat around his waist for several months without being defended, and no one, not a commentator or a wrestler has mentioned this fact, it's even more irrelevant. It's not simply because it's around Dean Ambrose's waist.

I think that holds true for midcard betls. However, when you get to Heavyweight belt, I think it being the top echelon title and being defended sparingly gives it more clout.

Hollywood Hogan rarely defended his title during the early NWO years. However, on a case by case basis it made the title more prestigious then say when the Undertaker or Hitman defended every other Raw.

 

[Redrum]

Well i am positive at some point down the line if they do unify the IC and US title they will bring back or make a new title. It might be a year it might be four but sooner or later they will do it. I would like them to bring back a TV title that is defended often on Raw and Smackdown with a few bigger feuds having a match on a pre show or PPV card. Lets you have that stepping stone title for new guys.

The IC title should be for those who are between midcard guys and main eventers. You could have former WWE WHC guys drop down and win the title at times and of course hopefully guys who get a shot to carry the IC title will go on to win the big boy at some point.

As for the cruiserweight i dont like it coming back do to i think it will give WWE as excuse to keep smaller guys from even moving into the main event. Its hard enough for guys who arnt built in the image Vince deems what we want to make it.

 

[thebarber]

I like the idea of a TV Title, defended every Monday night on Raw. Only have guys who are good wrestlers, not brawlers or super heavyweights. This beklt could have matches that would steal the show. I like having a World Title, IC Title, TV Title and tagb belts plus a belt for the women. The titles need to be presented as valuable and meaningful as well as having proper storyline arcs and fueds built around said titles. Hell rename the NXT belt as the WWE Television Title and bring up NXT guys and current main roster talent who are floundering. Giove them 10 minute time limits, good way to elevate new stars from NXT over guys like RVD, Jericho, Regal and other veterans who come and go but are still carrying enough name recognition to get Rusev, Dallas etc over.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm not really sure where I stand all in all. There are potential pros & cons for having and not having another mid-card title, if WWE does unify the two they already have.

If they do create another mid-card title, there's always the possibility of them falling back on treating said title as if it's got no real relevance. Which, to be fair, will be a complaint of some fans no matter what. On the other hand, there are always complaints about some of the lower mid-card guys not being relevant as they've nothing to be relevant for; so another mid-card title could possibly be that something.

The reason I included the Cruiserweight Championship is because we all know that there are a good number of posters here and on the internet in general that want to see the title come back. Figured I might as well list it as an option because I knew that several would bring it up in their posts. However, I'm firmly behind the notion that regulating wrestlers based on their weight just doesn't work with the mind set of most American fans. American fans, for the most part, wanna see two guys in the ring to see who the "better man" is regardless of weight differences. Otherwise, it sends a message that "little guys" can't hang with "big guys" and have to have their own little niche.

As for reactivating & renaming the WCW World Television Championship, it just seems like something that makes sense to me. WWE has a very strong television presence with Raw & SmackDown! among the most watched shows on cable television. With the launch of the WWE Network and all the various media hype as to how it'll usher in changes for television itself, it just seemed fitting. Besides, when I think back on the TV title in Mid-Atlantic/WCW, it just seemed like a logical fit. In Mid-Atlantic/WCW, they had the World Championship as the main event strap, the US title as the upper mid-card strap and the TV title as the central & lower mid-card strap. No reason the same formula couldn't be applied now.

As for just keeping a single mid-card championship, I can also see the logic of going that route. If the IC & US titles are unified, it's almost a guarantee that the IC title is the one that'll be kept since it's the WWE creation. At one point, really up until the past several years, the World Heavyweight Championship was on pretty equal ground with the WWE Championship before it was, for all intents & purposes, unofficially relegated to being the new upper mid-card title. As a result, the actual mid-card titles have been left flapping in the breeze at times. As the IC title has such a history, some are worried the addition of another title will take away time that could be kept focused on the IC title.

When it's all said & done, I think that WWE will introduce another mid-card championship later on if the IC & US titles are unified. Maybe it's just because I've gotten used to the idea of two mid-card titles being on the roster. Numerous companies throughout the decades have had more than one. Some have even had two or three at once. After all, WWE itself has had several secondary mid-card titles like the WWE Light Heavyweight & WWE Cruiserweight Championships, the WWE European Championship, the WWE Hardcore Championship and the ECW Championship.

 

[King Patrick Star]

Well, when the WWE recently unified the WWE Championship Title and the World Heavyweight Championship Title, they renamed it the WWE World Heavyweight Championship Title. So when they finally unify the Intercontinental Championship Title and the United States Championship Title, it would only make sense to rename it the United-Continental Championship Title. Create a new Belt, but carry on the lineage of the Intercontinental Title.

 

[TempestH]

I like the idea of a TV Title, defended every Monday night on Raw. Only have guys who are good wrestlers, not brawlers or super heavyweights. This beklt could have matches that would steal the show. I like having a World Title, IC Title, TV Title and tagb belts plus a belt for the women. The titles need to be presented as valuable and meaningful as well as having proper storyline arcs and fueds built around said titles. Hell rename the NXT belt as the WWE Television Title and bring up NXT guys and current main roster talent who are floundering. Giove them 10 minute time limits, good way to elevate new stars from NXT over guys like RVD, Jericho, Regal and other veterans who come and go but are still carrying enough name recognition to get Rusev, Dallas etc over.

I would like a new WWE Television Title, but it should be separate from the NXT Title.

The point of the NXT Title is to give a prospective NXT wrestler a taste of what it's like to be the guy who carries a show. Main roster talents should not be competing for it at all. Even for guys who are currently jobbers or non-entities at the bottom of the barrel, it would be a step down.

If we have more than one midcard title, it should be one for the upper midcard and one for the lower midcard. Guys like RVD and Jericho should not be competing for a TV Title. They should be either boosting the IC belt or helping new World Champions get over.