World Titles

[nbieclkl91]

Ok so yesturday I made a thread titled "Who will be the first to reach or break Ric Flair's record?" which is currently in the Wrestling Spam Zone section because we got off topic. Anyways, the reason we got off topic is because we began to research which "World Titles" are and were considered World Titles, which brings me to this thread. My question simply is, which titles do you actually considered and recognize as World Titles? The list I have as the "Main 10" are.

Active:
1. WWE Championship
2. World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
3. TNA World Heavyweight Championship
4. NWA World Heavyweight Championship
5. ROH World Heavyweight Championship
6. IWPG Heavyweight Championship (Still under debate)

Defunct:
1. AWA World Heavyweight Championship
2. ECW World Heavyweight Championship (All the way up to it's last holder, Ezekiel Jackson)
3. WCW World Heavyweight Championship
4. WCW International World Heavyweight Championship

 

[Find'er Woo'er Ryder]

Ok so yesturday I made a thread titled "Who will be the first to reach or break Ric Flair's record?" which is currently in the Wrestling Spam Zone section because we got off topic. Anyways, the reason we got off topic is because we began to research which "World Titles" are and were considered World Titles, which brings me to this thread. My question simply is, which titles do you actually considered and recognize as World Titles? The list I have as the "Main 10" are.

Active:
1. WWE Championship
2. World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
3. TNA World Heavyweight Championship
4. NWA World Heavyweight Championship
5. ROH World Heavyweight Championship
6. IWPG Heavyweight Championship (Still under debate)


those are the ones i believe are world titles because they are still active and can be won. the rest that you listed however are not to me but they were.

 

[wrestlingfan]

Honestly I would consider most titles world titles but the ECW World Title (WWE). for 1 it wa sput on a thir drate brand that was a one hour show competed only by rookies and jobbers. And the ECW Title in WWE didnt liv eup to its name. hardly any extremem matches.

 

[kris8524]

The EVW world title is definetly a world title, because not only rookies but established stars competed for it, Big Show, Angle, and christian all competed for that title.

 

[nbieclkl91]

Explain to me how the ECW title itself can't be considered a World Title? Here's the list of reigns since the WWE brought it back.

1. RVD-An ECW original and very over with the fans. Was also WWE champ at the time.
2. Big Show-A veteran of the sport. Former world champion too.
3. Bobby Lashley-Very over with the fans and the "new brock lesnar" at the time.
4. Vince McMahon-The chairman of the board. Don't give me this shit about Vince's reign ruined the title because he also won the WWF title back in the day and that's still fine.
5. Bobby Lashley-Same as before.
6. John Morrison-He was around in WWE long before this title win. Brought a new feel to the title divison.
7. CM Punk-Everyone loved Punk as champ and he represented the syle of ECW.
8. Chavo Guerrero-He's been in wrestling forever and is part of the Guerrero linage.
9. Kane-Debuted in WWF in the 90's and is a huge name in wrestling. Former WWF champ at the time.
10. Mark Henry-Same as Big Show minus the world title reign. Debut of new title belt.
11. Matt Hardy-Was in the WWE forever. Half of one of the greatest tag teams ever.
12. Jack Swagger-The first "rookie" to win the title. Helped him get over.
13. Christian-Another long time wrestler. Again, was half of one of the greatest teams ever and held multiple titles before this. Carried and helped get new stars over during his reigns as champion too.
14. Tommy Dreamer-Another ECW original who everyone wanted to see win the title.
15. Christian-Same as before.
16. Ezekiel Jackson-The second "rookie" and last person to hold the title. Since winning the title, he is on his way to becoming a star.

As you can see, only 2 people in this list could be considered "rookies" when they won the title. Every single person that held that title since Vince brought it back had a good storyline and reign with it. (Even Vince) To say that the ECW title could not be considered a World Title would be disrespectful to all those guys who won it since 2006/2007. The ECW Title is a World Title. Get it? Got it? Good.

Ok so I did some more research and now I'm not entirely sure if the IWPG Heavyweight Title is considered a World Title.

My next point is that while I was doing research I discovered that the current active and prominent World Titles are:

1. WWE Championship
2. World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
3. TNA World Heavyweight Championship
4. NWA World Heavyweight Championship
5. ROH World Heavyweight Championship

This goes to show that the ROH World Heavyweight Title is infact recognized as a World Title. This means that for example, CM Punk is considered a 5 time world champion (ROH-1, ECW-1, WWE's World Title-3). It also means Daniel Bryan (Danielson), Kaval (Low Ki) Homicide, Desmond Wolfe (Nigel McGuiness) and Seth Rollins (Tyler Black) are all former World Champions.

I also found that that ECW World Title is considered a world title from August 27, 1994-February 16, 2010 (Ezekiel Jackson wins and retires title).

The defunct titles that are recognized as World Titles are:

1. AWA World Heavyweight Championship
2. ECW World Heavyweight Championship
3. WCW World Heavyweight Championship
4. WCW International World Heavyweight Championship

Really, I'm pretty confused on what is actually considered a World Title but what I got out of all this is that these 9 titles are the main recognized World Titles in proffessional wrestling. Here's the link (I got most from wikipedia) if you want to look at it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_title

 

[realoldskoolfan]

to me it was as always be the big 3 belts. AWA, NWA, and WWF. they were true "World" titles as they were defended all over the globe against every top wrestler in the world. to me the AWA was truly a world title as it was defended in the most countries against the international competition in the 70s and 80s. to me, a world title has to be defended all over, and not just against competition associated with your promotion. this is what made the AWA and NWA belts great in there prime. companies that just named there belt a World title and never had it defended outside of that promotion always bothered me.

 

[nbieclkl91]

This is why I like TNA. They go to japan and defend their titles against NJPW once or twice a year and NJPW does the same. That's why I include TNA and NJPW as World Titles.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

The thing about a World Championship is that it's really all just a matter of perception and point of view when you get right down to it. When you get down to the rock bottom basics, a championship is basically a piece of property that ultimately belongs to a certain company, organization or governing body. For example, how often have you heard the team what wins the World Series or the NBA Finals referred to as World Champions? Quite a bit, even though the World Series isn't exactly a "world series" as it's open to only pro baseball teams in the United States & Canada. It can be applied to the NBA World Championship as well because it only involves teams here in the United States. In the minds of most Americans, even if they're not fans of either baseball or basketball, they will almost universally consider the teams that wins the World Series and NBA Finals World Champions.

In wrestling, it might very well hinge on perception to an even greater degree. Unlike Major League Baseball or the NBA, professional wrestling isn't controlled by a single governing entity, organization or body. If you want to be technical about it, any little rinky dink wrestling company that's just getting started and is lucky to have an audience of 20 people during its shows can call their top title a "World Championship". Why? Because the owner of the little rinky dink promotion also owns the championship. It's just that simple. Besides having the term "World" as part of a championship name just have a far more impressive ring to it. Many people might role their eyes at the notion of a barely existing wrestling company naming its chief singles title a "World Championship" but, as I said, it's all about perception.

As for the titles listed, any or all of them could be considered viable World Championships depending upon perception. Among just about every wrestling fan out there, the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships are going to be thought of as World Championships. They're the two top singles titles of the largest and most successful wrestling company in the world. The sheer audience the WWE draws has a lot to do with it. I'd have to similarly say that applies as well to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship, especially beginning in the mid 90s.

For me, a championship has to belong to a company with a nationally, or internationally, televised audience in order to give it that real look of prestige. If you run a small but well respected company on the indy scene and have a great World Championship that's been held by a lot of well respected and known guys on the indy circuit, it's just not going to have that much of an impact. You can have the best roster and put on the best shows but it means nothing in the long run if nobody sees them.

As of right now, I'd have to consider the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, TNA World Heavyweight Championship, ROH World Championship, IWGP Heavyweight Championship, AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship & the AAA World Heavyweight Championship as having the most credibility to be World Championships at this particular time. Not necessarily in that order or anything.

The NWA World Heavyweight Championship pretty much disappeared from public view after WCW & the NWA officially went their seperate ways. Shane Douglas dropping the belt in a trash can, saying that he didn't want to be the champion of an organization that's been dead for years already all but destroyed the title's credibility. I'd say probably from about 2005 up until TNA finally created its owl title that the NWA World Heavyweight Championship was probably legit enough to be considered a "World Championship" again. However, the title has pretty much slipped into oblivion among most fans since TNA stopped using it. Off the top of my head, I couldn't tell you who the current NWA Champion is.

As for the ECW Championship, I can't see it as being a World Championship the entire length of its existence. For its first 5 years of its existence, the ECW Championship was only defended in Pennsylvania. If anything, I'd have called it as little more than a regional title at the time. When ECW started to tour and put on its ppvs in 1997, the title started to become more well known. After ECW got itself a nationally televised deal with TNN in 1999, it definitely did become a more visible company. But, to long time ECW fans, it'd probably be considered a World Championship in their minds no matter what. I think that when the WWE reactivated ECW as a brand and the ECW Championship in 2006, they intended it to be the company's third World Championship. You know, a World Championship for each brand. This is just my opinion remember, but I personally think that the WWE abandoned that idea right around the time John Morrison, AKA Johnny Nitro at the time, won the title. After late 1997, I'd say that the title was ultimately thought of as a mid-card title. Let's face it, to most people, the idea of Chavo Guerrero, Mark Henry & Matt Hardy as being actual World Champions is kind of ridiculous. These three aren't main eventers, they've never been main eventers and they probably never will be main eventers.

 

[kris8524]

This is why I like TNA. They go to japan and defend their titles against NJPW once or twice a year and NJPW does the same. That's why I include TNA and NJPW as World Titles.

All the research that I did, every where I looked considered NJPW world title to be legit. So it is considered a major world title I belive even in Ric's dwindled down 16 titles New Japan is still considered.

 

[Trill Co$by]

In my opinion, the world title is technically any top title that's defended internationally. Titles like PWG, Chikara, DragonGate, ROH, NWA, CMLL, and AAA who aren't on television are still technically world titles. Even WWE has acknowledged Daniel Bryan as a "World Champion in other places" which means that they must respect the lineage of world titles. It really is kind of unique how the perception of it changes, but when it comes down to it, I really just stick with internationally defended top title from a promotion.

Then again, that's just me.

 

[Trance Metaphor]

It's up to perception and debate whether or not some "World" titles on the indy circuit really are World titles or not.

First of all, the ROH title has been defended in countries other than America and it's currently owned by the third biggest promotion in America. People (not all or many) know about ROH, but they're still advertised on TV, because of the PPVs. On top of that, the ROH World title is recognized by PWI, so that gives it more legitimacy.

A lot of people think the ECW title isn't a world title, but I will firmly believe that it is to the end of my days. The title may have not been seen as such outside of ECW prior to 1999, but when Taz held the title, it was defended in Japan and since then it has been credited well enough for that world title status recognition by PWI. Just like ROH, ECW was the third biggest promotion in America at the time and it had finally reached a TV deal just like TNA. Stars from around the world would also do talent exchanges (mostly Japan), so ECW itself felt more internationally-influenced than anything else.

While its revival in WWE may have given it proper credibility upon resurrecting it, overtime it gradually sank into obscurity. I still, however believe that it became a world title for mid-carders later on. When it first started, it was the third world title in the WWE. It even had its own Championship Scramble match. There's no denying that much. Of course, I'm not saying the title was as prestigious as the other world titles, but I think it had some good history to go with it and some real competition throughout the years. Last, but not least there's still that NWA lineage.