WWE titles becoming less prestigious?

[shattered dreams]

By having a belt on each brand the wwe has already made it at least somewhat less of an accomplishment to be the main champion. Now they have guys without much experience or established characters winning those belts in Sheamus and Swagger. My question is does this signal another step in the downgrade of what it means to hold those belts?

Equally interesting is the TNA championship becoming a little more prestigious? Last 5 champion reigns for WWE championship: Cena, Sheamus, Cena, Batista, Cena; for World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Hardy (now in TNA), CM Punk, Undertaker, Jericho, Swagger; for TNA Championship: Sting, Foley, Angle, Styles, RVD. The name power is there for TNA and they have been putting a lot of work into their top division lately.

Obviously, on a global sense it means a lot more to be a Champion in WWE because of the size of the company but simply looking at how the title is being used within each company it is interesting. Is too much too soon going to hurt the WWE in the long run if they keep using the belt in an attempt to fast-track younger talent instead of building them up beforehand like traditionally it has been done?

 

[Undar8d]

Meh, not really. WWE is going to lose some of their main stars in the next coming years. They were already late with building up younger talent, so now they have to build up everyone pretty quickly. It's not losing any prestige or gaining.

I can't really speak about TNA because I haven't watched it in a long time, but TNA needs a champion that is well recognized at the moment, to get their viewers tuning in. Why else did RVD become champion after debuting a few months ago?

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I think a lot of the WWE titles have become more prestigious rather than lose prestige. The tag titles, and the tag team situation in the WWE in and of itself, is more interesting now than it's been in years. Not that there's still some work to do, but the tag titles have really gotten a boost overall since the inception of JeriShow. They lost some steam when they went to DX but they recovered nicely with ShowMiz now they're held by a completely fresh young team in the Hart Dynasty.

As for the United States Championship, while it's true that The Miz hasn't defended it in a while, The Miz has still been a very visual star on WWE television since winning the title. Up until last Monday, the Miz walked around for several months in the WWE carrying three championship belts. That in and of itself can lend prestige and credibility to every title and wrestler involved. Now that The Miz is without the tag titles, I expect the WWE will shift his focus back to the United States Championship.

As for the Intercontinental Championship, it's also stronger than it has been and a lot of the credit for that has to lie with Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho and John Morrison. Between these three, the title was really elevated last year. While the jury is ultimately still out on Drew McIntyre, he's been a pretty decent IC champ and has held the belt for about 5 months now and defended it successfully against John Morrison, Kane and Matt Hardy.

The WWE and World Championships are both more interesting now than they've been in a while. When Sheamus was injected into the WWE Championship scene, it got people talking and interested in the main event picture on Raw. Whether some like him or hate him, John Cena has been an overall good and dominant WWE Champion. The World Heavyweight Championship went through several hot potato reigns in 2008 and 2009. However, the Undertaker added some much needed stability to the title and helped to restore some real credibility to the title. With the title on Jack Swagger, we'll just have to wait and see. He's a young guy and a young champ, he hasn't been made to look overly dominant and I think that's been a plus thus far as he's managed to redeem himself by winning matches against two of the three opponents he lost to since winning the title.

If any titles are losing credibility, it has to be many of the TNA titles.

The TNA World Tag Team Championships have lost a lot of steam right along with the TNA tag team division in and of itself. Morgan and Hernandez were an awful team from the beginning and now the title is little more than a prop used to accentuate Matt Morgan's heel turn. An actual team needs to get the titles soon, in my view.

The X Division is a shadow of what it once was and the X Division title really hasn't meant a lot in close to a year and a half now I think. Throughout 2009, X Division champions were poorly booked, often times made to look weak in reigns that were lame ducks from the beginning, sometimes the champ would go for weeks upon weeks without being seen on iMPACT! and would be brought back suddenly and fans were expected to be excited about it. Now, in the past month or so, there have been more X Division title matches on iMPACT! but they just don't have the same feel. There aren't really any standouts in the X Division right now.

The Knockout Division has virtually no purpose right now. The Knockout title changes hands seemingly every other week, many of the best female wrestlers in the company have left, are in the process of leaving or are kept of TNA television for months at a time. The Knockout tag titles are virtually useless at this point and have been for a while. The Beautiful People are really the only ones even keeping the Knockout Division afloat and it mostly has to do with the fact that they're hot rather than what they can do as wrestlers.

The TNA Legends Championship is just something nobody really cares about. A lot of people have disliked the title from the beginning because it started out as little more than a toy to help get Booker T over. Even more started to dislike it when emphasis was being taken from the X Division and being place on the Legends title. Nobody cares about the title now and Rob Terry hasn't really improved that position, in my view at least. Walking out with the title and working 2 minute squash matches every week simply aren't going to cut it.

The only title in TNA right now that really seems to matter is the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. More emphasis has been placed on the TNA main event scene and the world title in general since the last few months of last year. That's only increased since the beginning of the Hogan/Bischoff Era. AJ Styles just finished a nice long reign with the title and the plan now is for RVD to hold the title through the summer.

 

[cmistrot1990]

I think titles are becoming less prestigious. Look at the Intercontinental Championship for example, in the 80's and 90's, it was known as the "workhorse title", with holders such as Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Steve Austin, Rocky, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude and Honky Tonk Man. When guys like Drew McIntyre or Carlito are champion, it is clearly a slap in the face to every single one of those guys who held it with honor.

 

[Burdmanindaclub]

The WWE titles already meant nothing they change hands every month.

 

[Samurai Executioner]

I think titles are becoming less prestigious. Look at the Intercontinental Championship for example, in the 80's and 90's, it was known as the "workhorse title", with holders such as Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Steve Austin, Rocky, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude and Honky Tonk Man. When guys like Drew McIntyre or Carlito are champion, it is clearly a slap in the face to every single one of those guys who held it with honor.

IC title is for mid-carders. Please tell me who should hold the titles according to you. Once you hold a world title going back to IC or US title is definitely a downgrade.

McIntyre has been a good champion. And he will be given a push when WWE thinks he is ready. Look at The Miz. I know he hasn't defended it a lot lately but he has been the mix of things and never lets us forget that he is the champion.

 

[Optimist Prime]

I think titles are becoming less prestigious. Look at the Intercontinental Championship for example, in the 80's and 90's, it was known as the "workhorse title", with holders such as Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Steve Austin, Rocky, Hunter Hearst Helmsley, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect, Ricky Steamboat, Rick Rude and Honky Tonk Man. When guys like Drew McIntyre or Carlito are champion, it is clearly a slap in the face to every single one of those guys who held it with honor.

Couldn't agree more. Who is even the IC champ right now? Does the title even still exist? The Miz has the US Title but never defends it. He just carried it around with him during his ENTIRE tag team title reign. Now he lost the tag belts and still has the same US title he had before it...having never really defended it. What's the point?

The World Titles on the other hand are ridiculous. Triple H has been a top tier wrestler for a little over 10 years and he's already been world champion about the same amount of times (13) as Ric Flair (16). John Cena has won the title more times (9) than he's been a main event wrestler (5) as well.

They pass the more "prestigious" belts around like it's an STD and the intercontinental belt...which never had been passed around nearly as quickly as the World Title now...used to be slightly passed around more than the World Title then...today it's hardly ever even talked about. People just carry it around with them like the million dollar title...like a prop. As if it were Damian, Jake's snake.

The titles have absolutely lost their prestige without a doubt. Nobody cares about them anymore. It's hardly a struggle for anybody to get them anymore. Before you had Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, etc. crying in the ring with the title...fulfilling a boyhood dream or being lifted above other wrestlers shoulders...today it's passed around so much...you don't get any feel whatsoever of it being a challenge. They just get it...and if they lose it...you're just waiting around until they get it right back real soon.

It's worthless. You're almost better off NOT having the title because it overexposes you to some level...where people get sick of you.

 

[Gabriiel07]

The WWE titles already meant nothing they change hands every month.

What? I mean...like...really? John Cena has been the champ since Wrestlemania 26, Swagger since March 30, The Miz since October 5, 2009, Drew since December 13, 2009, the ones that are just new champions defeated persons that endured at least more than a month being champion.

 

[mikeyboy]

personaly i think all titles in wrestling have become less prestigious, being the world champ does not mean what it used to, imo there are to many people in the title picture and the belts change hands to often, im more of an old school fan i liked it when guys held the title for months even years but wrestling has changed in the last 20 to 30 years its a whole different animal than it used to be.

 

[CenaSux4Life78]

IC title is for mid-carders. Please tell me who should hold the titles according to you. Once you hold a world title going back to IC or US title is definitely a downgrade.

When HHH went back to the IC title during his "2 Man Power Trip" angle with Austin, would you call that a downgrade?

 

[CenaSux4Life78]

To answer the question though, the World Title and WWE title are not what they used to be. I remember when the World Title was the WCW title. Say what you will, but that title had allot of prestige. Ric Flair, Sting, Ricky Steamboat, thats just to name a few. WWE had GREAT names to its title to.

Now what they could do, best thing to do is at Night of Champions, is have a match pitting WWE Champ and World Champ. Go back to the Undisputed Champ era, where the champ goes show to show. It was when the brands decided to have there own titles, that the belt lost prestige. Example, a couple of years ago how many times did the title change hands on Smackdown? I think just about every month. Where is credibility in that, yet alone any prestige?

 

[Samurai Executioner]

IC title is for mid-carders. Please tell me who should hold the titles according to you. Once you hold a world title going back to IC or US title is definitely a downgrade.

When HHH went back to the IC title during his "2 Man Power Trip" angle with Austin, would you call that a downgrade?

Aren't u forgetting something.. convinient.

They were the "golden team". Also there was only one major title. So as a faction they wanted to hold all primary titles. For this purpose HHH became IC champion as Austin was already wwf champion.

 

[Big Sexy]

Is too much too soon going to hurt the WWE in the long run if they keep using the belt in an attempt to fast-track younger talent instead of building them up beforehand like traditionally it has been done?

Sheamus is really the only one who got the title without much build up. Swagger had been in the WWE for a couple years and had a great run on ECW as the champion feuding with Christian. His pushed slowed a little on RAW and they even had him lose to Santino a couple times, but he started getting built up again on the road to Wrestlemania. Although him winning MITB wasn't expected he still had a character and a decent build up before winning the title.