When where they last important?

[GOOZEKING]

With the news that dean Ambrose was about to become one of the longest reigning u.s title holder ever. It got me thinking when was the last time a mid card title meant something..

World heavyweight title- cm punk in 09- after his feud with hardy I just felt like the title meant far less than it should have.

Intercontinental title- Chris Jericho/ Rey mysterio in 09

U.s title- MVP in 07

How about you guys?

 

[TheOneAndOnlyGOAT]

My opinion:

-The last time the World Heavyweight Championship was important:
Kurt Angle in 2006.

-The last time the IC Championship was important:
The Rock in 1998.

-The last time US Championship was important:
John Cena in 2004.

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

I would not call the WHC title a "mid-card" title. When the brand extension ended, it may have been featured on the mid-card on RAW, but I still never considered that a "mid-card" title. It was 1b to the WWE title (1a).

U.S. title, maybe when Ryder won it. I don't even like Ryder, but that at least felt like someone "accomplished" something by winning that title. Prior to that, Matt Hardy as US champ. Which was quite a long time ago.

The I.C. title, I'd say when Cody Rhodes had it a few years back. It was being defended often and Cody was on an upswing.

 

[The Eighties]

For me the last time the IC title really felt like it mattered was when Randy Orton had it back in 2004. His run had some defenses that were well booked, he didn't job in non title matches all the time and the final feud he had where he dropped the title to Edge was the best IC title feud culmination WWE had done since The Rock vs Triple H back at Summerslam 1998 IMO.

I actually can't think of the last time the US title felt like it mattered, I guess the Benoit/MVP feud is as close as anything given the decent series of matches they had over it, although actually I think The Miz did a good job as US champion, so his was probably the last time the title felt like it had some shine to me.

 

[Dragon Chief]

The last time the World Title felt important to me was when Sheamus had his last reign as champion. Everyone who won it after him before John Cena, felt undeserving of it and made the title feel like a mid-card title to me. Especially during Alberto Del Rio's reigns as a champion.

The IC title stopped being relevant to me I believe in 2008, the last feud I cared about was the one between Jeff Hardy and Umaga. Ever since then it just felt lack luster to me, just being passed around to random mid-carders.

The US Title stopped mattering to me, somewhere between the feud between Chris Benoit and Booker T and the one between Chris Benoit and MVP. Once again it turned into a title being passed around to random mid-carders.

 

[Kris Benwa]

The WHC title while I also wouldn't call it a mid card title really went down the drain around the time Edge retired. He was the one keeping that belt at a high level but when he left that was it.

The IC title I agree with Jericho vs Mysterio two top guys like that putting on great matches in a great feud for the title. We haven't had that since then IMO Rhodes did a little bit but it was counteracted by going from Kingston to Barrett to Miz with no real direction or feuds IMO.

US title I also agree with Benoit and MVP feud-MVP Matt Hardy feud.

 

[Macho Mans Beard]

The only reason Ambrose has been champ for this long is because he NEVER defends it.

US Title: Has it truely been reconized in the WWE since it came over from WCW. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!

Intercontinental Title: Used to be a great championship to win up unitl the very early 2000's. Kinda fell off the map.

Tag Titles: Not since Hardys, Dudleys, E&C have those titles meant anything. Mainly cause once there is an established team, WWE breaks them up.

Divas Title: WORST TITLE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It completely diminishes the Womens division. In fact the word 'Diva' should be dropped all together. The Womans division has been absolute garbage since Lita and Trish retired. Why not get a spark by reintroducing the Womens Title?

 

[OYDK]

US Title: When John Cena had it. That feud between him and The Big Show was awesome. Like watching a World Title angle.

IC Title: When Rhodes had it, consequentially losing it to aforementioned Big Show who made it a joke again.

 

[Hakushi]

The IC title was headed to Resurrection during Cody Rhodes last run, heading into the match he lost it in with Big Show. Hopefully this tournament jump starts it.

The US Title has been meaningless since, I'd say 1996.

Tag Titles.....don't get me started here! There are a million ways to improve this division, but they always seemed to get side tracked. I'd say the last time they actually meant something was mid-late 80's. You could have 2-3 tag matches on a card, most would be great.

 

[OYDK]

Tag Titles.....don't get me started here! There are a million ways to improve this division, but they always seemed to get side tracked. I'd say the last time they actually meant something was mid-late 80's. You could have 2-3 tag matches on a card, most would be great.

Did you miss the entire Attitude Era? How about E+C, The Hardy's, The Dudley's. Too Cool, the NAO, The APA. That was the greatest tag team period of all time.

 

[Hakushi]

Did you miss the entire Attitude Era? How about E+C, The Hardy's, The Dudley's. Too Cool, the NAO, The APA. That was the greatest tag team period of all time.

Totally disagree. While I was a fan of E/C, Hardy's ect. There was NOT that important emphasis placed on the titles. plus, a division consisting of 6-7 teams, can hardly hold a candle to the division in the mid-late 80's.

 

[Attitude_Era_Guy]

This my opinion, not yours.

World Title - Hasn't been relevant since Ziggler got that concussion.

U.S. Title - Hasn't been relevant since Chris Benoit/MVP in 2007.

IC Title - Hasn't been relevant since Cody Rhodes lost it to Big Show.

WWE Tag Titles - Hasn't been relevant the Brotherhood vs. The Shield on Raw in late 2013.
_______________________________________________________________
RVD, CM Punk, and Chris Jericho.

 

[DarksideEric]

Totally disagree. While I was a fan of E/C, Hardy's ect. There was NOT that important emphasis placed on the titles. plus, a division consisting of 6-7 teams, can hardly hold a candle to the division in the mid-late 80's.

"No important emphasis."

And yet... so many Ladder and TLC matches for those unimportant combinations of gold and leather.

Weird.

 

[OYDK]

Totally disagree. While I was a fan of E/C, Hardy's ect. There was NOT that important emphasis placed on the titles. plus, a division consisting of 6-7 teams, can hardly hold a candle to the division in the mid-late 80's.

I can see the point you're making. Maybe the titles were MORE relevant in the 80's but I think we should agree that the A.E redefined tag team wrestling and made many people tune in specifically to watch their matches. They made the entire tag division relevant again after a short dead period.

 

[Hakushi]

"No important emphasis."

And yet... so many Ladder and TLC matches for those unimportant combinations of gold and leather.

Weird.

A handful of matches, maybe two handfuls, over a 4-5 year period cannot do the justice that having 2-3 meaningful tag matches PER CARD did. That was the norm from 84-92/3. Plus you're talking the same teams OVER and OVER.

 

[Hakushi]

I can see the point you're making. Maybe the titles were MORE relevant in the 80's but I think we should agree that the A.E redefined tag team wrestling and made many people tune in specifically to watch their matches. They made the entire tag division relevant again after a short dead period.

I can agree that there was a Resurrection. No Doubt there were some great teams/Matches. I guess, for the context of this thread - "When was the last time they were important?" - I can admit, I answered it as, IMO, "When were they MOST important?" Again, just an opinion.

 

[DarksideEric]

A handful of matches, maybe two handfuls, over a 4-5 year period cannot do the justice that having 2-3 meaningful tag matches PER CARD did. That was the norm from 84-92/3. Plus you're talking the same teams OVER and OVER.

'84-'93 isn't "mid-late 80s."

Tag team wrestling exploded in the Attitude Era, how in the world can you suggest they weren't important then?

 

[HBK89Bill]

I really dislike the idea of the titles being meaningless because a TON of how "important" it is happens to be based directly to how you personally feel about the feud, or title. The title constantly mean something to me because I work hard to make sure that they are always important to me. This thread however is about the last time it really felt big from my perspective. More specifically, how much you personally cared about it. For me:

US Title: I have liked a lot of these reigns. The Miz brought a lot of prestige to it. However, the last time it had serious momentum in my eyes was when Antonio Cesaro took it from Santino and went for almost 300 days with it. Losing to on Raw to Kofi just so it could be dropped to Ambrose was a waste of a great reign from Cesaro. We never got the ending payoff and that is why few mention how good he was with that title.

Intercontinental: I really believe it had serious momentum when Cody Rhodes had it. It hurts me to say it because there is no denying how it has been passed around since. It also happens to be my favorite title, but Langston just doesnt do it for me.

World Title: The Ziggler/Del Rio feud is the last time I really cared about it. Unfortunately, Del Rio has never had the aura to carry a title in the WWE. THAT is his probelm. Not the in ring work, or his personality like so many people blame it on. His issue has been that once he gets a title, he has no idea how to elevate it to be important. Prime example is this feud with Ziggler. Regardless, that was the last time before they used it as a step ladder to unite the titles.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

Given the recent streamlining of titles over the last few years, and the fact Dean Ambrose has defended his title I think once on tv in the last four months (would never be allowed under Jack Tunney and his 30-day rule!!), I feel the WWE should just put the US title out to pasture.

I'll probably get heat for saying this, though in not trying to be controversial, but I feel the US title has become obsolete. Whereas in the past, the big two companies would tour North America for 48 weeks a year, and 90% of the roster were Americans or Canadians, that has drastically changed now. Obviously in a business based in the US, the majority of stars are home grown, but there are a hell of a lot of international talent and countries represented in the WWE now, more so than ever before, and they do a LOT more international touring. Simply put, a United States Heavyweight Championship has lost it's relevance.

Put it this way: as a European (well, an Englishman), if I was a wrestler (let's assume it's real for a second), I would have no interest whatsoever in becoming the champion of the United States. I would target first the Intercontinental and then the World belts. Sometimes, wrestling should take the easier, more logical route.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

World Heavyweight Championship: Randy Orton/Christian feud in 2011 - Not only was that feud awesome & really made the title feel like it had some worth but that was the last time there was a true face of the Smackdown brand & the last time it felt like a real "A+ Player" was holding the belt. Henry's title reign after was solid but his feud with Orton never got personal enough to mean much & after a few matches with Big Slow he got hurt & we went into the Daniel Bryan cash-in, 18 Second lost, Del Rio dominating the title scene era/mess that we were in until the titles were unified. Now the final step is for the WWE to just retire the "big gold" belt, it's had a great run & we will all remember it's better days hopefully.

I.C. Championship: Rey Mysterio's reign in 2009 - After the big Y2J/Rey Rey feud, Mysterio went on a killer run having great matches against the likes of Dolph Ziggler at Summerslam 2009 & finally losing the title to John Morrison in the last really great IC Title match IMO. The title still had promise after that but the WWE went nowhere with JoMo & the title eventually went to "The Chosen One" Drew McIntyre & we all know how that turned out... It almost started to mean something again in 2011 when Cody Rhodes won the title & re-introduced the old white I.C. Title belt but his reign was kind of bad & he ended up losing the title to an undeserving Big Show at WM 28 instead of facing off with Goldust in the dream match we will probably never get to witness now.

U.S. Championship: Dean Ambrose's current reign - Would I like to see Ambrose's title reign be a bigger deal & see him defend the title more? Of course but I'm a HUGE fan of Ambrose & him simply holding the title makes it mean a heck of a lot more to me. To be honest I don't think the title has ever really meant anything before now while in the WWE. At least now Ambrose is front & center at nearly ever single show with the title whether he actually defends it or not. & many have even mentioned on WWE TV that he needs to defend it more. So hopefully he will get more title defenses in soon but as long as it's around Ambrose's waist & he is featured regularly on TV/PPV's along with the other members of The Shield, then the U.S. Title is the best it has ever been in my eyes.

 

[ohh you didnt know]

I used to love the feuds between Y2J,Benoit and Angle in the early 2000's for the IC title.
It ment so much for them guys back in the day.

 

[pipebomber]

to me there was never a time that the world heavyweight didn't matter.

I will agree that it didn't matter as much as a world championship should matter but I don't think there was a time in it's history that it didn't matter.

the Intercontinental title I would say was last important was when Randy Orton held it in 2003-2004

I'd say the US title was last important with the Miz and Daniel bryans reigns, but before that it was during Cena's reigns as champion.

the more recent importance of the US title makes me hope that if/when they unify the US and intercontinental championship that they will keep the US championship instead of the intercontinental championship. I feel that the term intercontinental is redundant for a championship. intercontinental means "ever continent" which essentialy makes it a world championship.

WWE tag titles are relatively new and I don't think they have ever been important. They take the lineage of 2 different championships and I would say haven't really been important since the days of Los guerreros in the WWE tag title picture, and La Resistance in the World Tag Team title picture.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Intercontinental Championship
The only reign in recent years that meant anything was Cody Rhodes' lengthy reign when he held it from August 9, 2011 up until April 1, 2012. The reigns that followed have all been lackluster. Big E's has been nothing to write home about and whether it's RVD or Barrett defeating him at Extreme Rules, or someone else if he retains, I hope we get a decent reign out of whoever will be next.


Tag Team Championship
The belt started out having a strong year in 2013 with Team Hell No as well as The Shield's Reigns & Rollins. Then things went downhill after it was won by Goldust & Rhodes. The New Age Outlaws should never have won the belts either, and I won't even start on The Usos.


US Championship
Sadly, Dean Ambrose's reign has not been what it could have been and thus should have been. Cesaro's reign from August 19, 2012 up until its horribly anticlimactic end on April 15, 2013 comes close.... but this belt has gone the longest out of any title in WWE without a reign that meant something. I'd argue the last meaningful one was Dolph Ziggler in 2011. When Ryder defeated him it was the last title change for this belt that felt like a big deal, then we have gotten several lackluster reigns ever since.


Divas Championship
The belt is the strongest it has ever been right now. Between Paige, AJ, and Kaitlyn, the belt has seen its three best champions ever in the recent string of reigns. Before Kaitlyn though, the belt was utterly useless. The last title reign that meant anything before Kaitlyn was Beth Phoenix in 2011. This title has increased in importance significantly.


World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena and Randy Orton as the final champions before this got unified made it finally feel important again during the belt's last leg of its run. Before them, however, it had been lacking in importance since the Randy Orton VS Christian feud in the summer of 2011.