WWE Revamping Title Feuds?

[SMKM]

So I have no idea if this has been discussed yet, I haven't seen a thread like this yet so Im not sure there is one, but if there is please just move this to the correct thread.

Anyways we all know the tag division is getting revamped. I read in another thread that the cruiserweight division might return (revamp, return, same shit bare with me). One way I definitely see the revamp headed our way was the fact that when Kofi and Bourne won the tag titles we actually had a tag promo about them becoming champions, I think this was the first time in years we got something like that.

Getting on to my point, if I recall correctly when Cody Rhodes won the IC title he cut a promo saying he would revive the title, again something we havent seen in ages, the 2nd tier champion actually talking about his belt.

And dont forget the divas. Sure the divas dont really cut many promos, theyre really just eye candy, but with the current storyline involving Beth, Natalya, Eve and Kelly Kelly, you can tell they want to change the division.

And most recently Alberto Del Rio, this past monday he was in the ring to celebrate his title victory or tried to anyways. This is yet again something we havent seen in forever, granted most of the past champions weve had the past few years have already been champion at one point or another.

Getting to my point, these are things the E seemed to have killed off. Remember when Ziggler and Kofi would feud over the US or IC title? Sure great matchups but NO promos over the title, not once would we see Kofi come out and say "this is MY title, not yours....MINE!" or something along those lines. The titles have been called props over these past few years by the IWC, but lately it seems like the E is trying to bring back prestige to the belts. Dolph is in his what 3rd US title reign? Has he ever once cut a promo about how happy he is to be champion? Hell Evan Bourne showed the most emotion over winning a title Ive seen in years and it was only for the tag title. My question to you guys is do you think this is what the WWE is trying to do, not only revamp the tag division, but revamp the entire brand. And if not then why do you think that

 

[GI Cake]

The WWE can blow oh so much smoke into our pipes before we figure out it is only hot gas. The mid-card titles are still being only used as props. The titles are rarely defended and when they are, their is no build-up or feud to them. Just take a look at Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler. Both great talents and the WWE are building them up to be future world champions. But as of right now, the WWE are just going through the motions with their build up.

How long did it take for Dolph to capture the title from Kofi? Like 2 weeks since he joined the Raw roaster. And did Kofi, also a future world champion, was built up to be upset and constantly working his way back into getting the title? Absolutely not, and another question. When was the last time a Mid-card belt was defended on Pay-Per-View?

Don't get me wrong, the WWE doesn't need to make the title matches exclusively on PPV. But don't just throw in a title match between Rhodes and Jackson last second and expect fans to give any real reaction. It seems like they are stealing the time away from not only the fans, but the champions themselves when they only need to defend the title the month the 'E decides to put it on another guy.

 

[JBK2008]

This weeks Raw was so refreshing in the since that the titles were being talked about. Being a champion, no matter what title used to mean something. Yes, the WWE or WHC are the ultimate goal and the mid and tag titles were just steps to the top of the ladder, but they were still talked about and held in high regard years ago. They meant something and I think that's what Vince or Triple H want to do again.

Kofi and Evan did a nice job to start the tag promo and Del Rio was passionate and so glad we had the WWE Championship. The Cena's and Punk's of the WWE, who've had multiple title reigns has been down our throats for so long. Orton and Batista and Edge have all also held the gold the majoirty of the past 5 years so orcourse they aren't going to show as much passion.

It's just great to see the titles being talked about and hopefully this is the start of something new.

 

[daddyJ_t]

i didnt actually think about it till this thread. the last time someone showed pride in being the champion of anything(and dont laugh) was santino when he was doing the honk-a-meter. it is nice to see some pride with our champions and i have noticed the old school mentality with del rio to actually wear the belt to the ring instead of disgracing it by dragging it around like a security blanket. that title is not a prop and its nice to see people like bourne treat it so specially, cause if u have pride in the title. your title defenses will be better, cause youll defend it like u would your family

 

[closet_fan]

And most recently Alberto Del Rio, this past monday he was in the ring to celebrate his title victory or tried to anyways. This is yet again something we havent seen in forever, granted most of the past champions weve had the past few years have already been champion at one point or another.

The first thing I noticed with ADR was that he wore the belt around his waste. I don't know about Smackdown, but it seems the RAW heavyweight champion hasn't done this in a loooong time.

To me, wearing it around your waste symbolizes importance of that particular title.

I know it's something small and insignificant. Cut me some slack. It's only 8:30 in the morning here lol

 

[triplehbk23]

I have noticed this as well. As far as Dolph Ziggler goes if you noticed, he was saying weeks back about how it didnt matter who the WWE Champ was because the only belt that mattered was The US Title. And lets face it, the guy is a future World Champion. As far as the Tag Titles go. Evan Bourne was excited the second he got to the ring for that match so they truly helped to get those titles back on track and you have to rememeber that for him it is his 1st WWE Tilte rain. The WWE can really pull this off with all the titles if they ad the prestige and celebration like in the old days as they did with Kofi and Evan Monday Night. I love seeing that when someone wins a title. They did it with Mysterio back last month when he beat Miz also. The only thing that kills me is how badly they have buried the I-C Title. I was a huge fan when I was a kid of that Championship because I always thought it was The number 2 guy in Wrestling. I enjoyed watching Tito Santana and Ricky Steamboat battle with Randy Savage, Don Muraco and Greg Valentine because to me those matches stole the show, and later down the road so did the Bret Hart Curt Hennig and Razor Ramon HBK feuds as well. Nowadays I feel that they throw the belt on someone like Ezekial. Then after he beats Barrett have him lose numerous matches to Christian and Cody Rhodes then immediatly drop the Ttile to Cody in his 1st defense. I mean give me a break. Make it where a guy is defending that Title in the 2nd or 3rd to last match at a huge PPV so that people can say Damn that was a great IC Title match. Run a feud for that Ttile 3 or 4 months not 3 weeks. Santana and Savage fought over that Title for about 6 months plus and each match was better then the last. So IMO that is the key Championship that WWE neds to REVAMP!

 

[vampirek]

The first thing I noticed with ADR was that he wore the belt around his waste. I don't know about Smackdown, but it seems the RAW heavyweight champion hasn't done this in a loooong time.

To me, wearing it around your waste symbolizes importance of that particular title.

I know it's something small and insignificant. Cut me some slack. It's only 8:30 in the morning here lol

I guess you missed the little months Punk held the title where he clearly wore the belt around his waist. Then of course last year with the likes of Batista and Sheamus. Only reason for the gap is because Orton (who is champion on Smackdown and doesn't wear it on his waist still) and Cena have been dominating that belt for a long. Apart from those two guys, everyone else has put it around their waist (Rey not counted in this). So I don't see the how this is an improvement of the title holder.

As for revamping title feuds, I havent seen anything in the past couple months that hasn't happened in the past year. The US title is playing second fiddle to Vickie now. The IC title looks like it will just be something added to a feud from the outside. The tag titles are randomly passed on to another team before being passed on again with little build up. Cena is still chasing the WWE title and no one is. They threw Henry in too quicky to job to Orton because they've realised Smackdown has no heels and surprisingly the only title that has had any change is the Divas title... which might as well be the Divas tag team belt because everything seems to be about teams (They had Lay-cool, then the Bellas and now they have K2/Eve and Beth/Nattie)

 

[WorldHeavyweightChampion]

This is what was so great about professional wrestling up until the early 90's was it was (kayfabe) all about titles. Feuds were about titles. Even the reason people were in the business was about titles.

Being all about titles is why the business was so great in the 80's. It's the reason the 4-Horsemen are so legendary. Their goal in life was to hold all the gold and do whatever it takes to keep it. Ric Flair was all about being the World Heavyweight Champion; and the other Horsemen constantly held the U.S. Heavyweight, World Tag-Team, National Heavyweight, National Tag-Team, and World TV titles. Even went after the U.S. Tag-Team belts. If you had a belt, you were a target. And don't even think of taking the belts back.

If they would make it all about being a champion, it will make for a MUCH better product again, and MUCH better feuds.

 

["Cool Guy" Jensen]

I refuse to believe anything about the WWE putting more effort into their title feuds. I won't believe it until I can say they've been doing it for a chunk of time. WWE has a way of making it seem like the championships are starting to mean something again like they used to, and then dropping the ball time and time again.

Remember back in 2009, when Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho were feuding over the Intercontinental Championship? We all thought that having two main eventers in a feud over the IC Title would bring back some prestige to it. The problem was, Jericho was more focused on un-masking Rey Mysterio than he was winning the title. For a few months, those two competitors put on a solid feud over the IC Title. Then you had people like John Morrison, Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, and Ezekiel Jackson win it, but was never booked in a real meaningful feud over it. That is unless you consider the over-done Kingston vs. Ziggler feud meaningful.

With the United States Championship... in my opinion, the last time it was looked at as even remotely meaningful was back during Kofi Kingston's first reign on Raw. Remember when it seemed like every week on Raw, you would see Kofi defend his title against the likes of Jack Swagger, The Miz, Carlito, M.V.P., basically the whole mid-card? While he basically had no feud during his 4-month reign as champion, he still showed he was a fighting champion. Problem is, we see a lot of long title reigns, but no more than maybe 3 title defenses. Why have a championship if it isn't being defended? It was this title reign that got Kofi into his 2010 feud with Randy Orton. Since then, the title hasn't really help anyone other than The Miz.

Now, over to the WWE Tag Team Championships. People seem to be getting hype over the fact that WWE put together two superstars to form a tag team. They seem to think that will help resurrect the tag team division. I remember back in 2009, when WWE decided to team up Chris Jericho and Edge out of nowhere and have them win the tag titles. Now, that was great to see. Of course, it was short-lived due to Edge's injury. Because of this we got the team of Jericho and The Big Show. Around that time, we had the reformation of D-Generation X, The Hart Dynasty, Cryme Tyme, and The Colons were around. Then we had the team of The Miz and The Big Show, while also brought along R-Truth and John Morrison, also Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre. WWE always seems to put teams together, but the tag team title involvement just doesn't also occur.

I like what WWE is doing at the moment, however, I cannot say if it will really revamp the title scenes until we can sit here at this time next year feeling the same way.

 

[Sin Jackal]

I don't think it's going to happen. Even the world title has become a joke lately. It's basically been the property of whoever the top face is on each show for the past 3 years. Roughly, top face gets to have the title for 9 of the 12 months in the year. They have to lose it once or twice to create the illusion that they aren't just being a stale year-long champ like Bret Hart used to be. Of course, as soon as they lose it, they are immediately in the process of getting it back, and usually get it back by the next PPV (see: Randy Orton). Or apparently, with some irritating trolling done by WWE, they are allowed a title shot 8 days later off a guy who he didn't just lose the title to, and only 1 hour after the dude wins his title match. -_- Oh right, then if he loses the title, the guy he loses it to loses it to the MITB winner, then he gets to be the main competitor for the title again. . .the very next day!

So yeah, world title picture has become a joke too. It's the only one that's even talked about, but it's obvious that the top faces are very rarely not going to have it. If they don't have it, it isn't for very long at all. No more heel champions except for the minor titles that they put no emphasis on at all.

I was happy a couple weeks ago when Cody Rhodes said he was going to bring pride back to the Intercontinental title and make it mean something again. . .and then I think either a week later or during the exact same promo maybe, he said that it was merely a stepping stone to go for the world title. Essentially throwing any "pride" over that title right out the window.

I don't see any titles but the WWE and World titles meaning anything. Tag team titles don't mean a thing since there are practically no unique tag teams besides the psuedo headshrinkers who are rarely on tv and the Bellas (and they can't compete for the men's tag titles). The United States championship has never meant anything. The Intercontinental title hasn't meant much in almost a decade now. It doesn't seem like it's going to change. All the show's emphasis is on the top faces like Cena, and WWE seems to just be cycling all the heels through Cena for him to beat rather than letting R Truth and John Morrison fight eachother for the intercontinental title, which imo would be a pretty cool fued.

Long post I guess, but those are my thoughts. Basically I just wish WWE would get their head out of their ass and let the middle-tier wrestlers have a damn title, rather than just use those middle-tier titles as short-term place-holders for their upcoming megafaces or mega heels. I mean really, there's usually at least one boring match per show (two or three on smackdown). How hard is it to instead use that time to have rivalries and fights over the other titles?