X-Division, the main-event title on TNA

[Joker ' Ferreira]

Well, lets just clear this up, X-Division championship is right now the most important title on TNA, and I'll explain my opinion.

First thing to say is that TNA World HeavyWeight Championship is pointless by now, Sting is carrying the belt since Bound for Glory like he always does after BfG every single year and like every single year he is doing nothing with it.

He was pretty much beated by Hernandez, I'm not crazy about him but lets be fair, he is one of the top faces in the company right now and will soon receive a push to go with it.

On the other hand you got a Legends Belt that doesn't mean anything at all, Booker T is carrying it pretty much like his buddie Sting, so after defending the belt one single time against the Christian if Im correct the next contender for that title is ... Shane Sewell, that would be enough to prove my point.

X-Division is right now the top singles championship in the company, and that is definitely TNA's fault, Alex Shelley is right now the champion but you can say that his defending the title more than Sting and he is champion for a week or so, Shelley is in my honest opinion better in-ring that Booker or Sting but that doesn't necessarily means that his title is better too...

So, X-Division is the main-event title on TNA, the single one of singles championship that is credible enough to make me watch a match for that belt.

Your toughts...

 

[Uncle Sam]

Hmm, I actually agree. Well, not that the X Division title is the main event title in TNA. Judging by Genesis's main event, the main event is title-less. But the X Division title does seem the most important.

This is despite the tournament that crowned the new champion being kind of pointless when a Young/Bashir match would have made the most sense. It's despite the current champion winning the title with a cheap roll-up. It's despite the current champion having done nothing with the belt. Yes, Alex Shelley is truly magnificent, but fact of the matter is, the belt he's carrying around means little until he's allowed to actually do something with it. A feud with Homicide would be nice. Now when the championship belt I just described is the most important in your company, you're in trouble.

The tag team titles have been proven worthless by an odd-couple winning them for five minutes on free TV, with the heel team (which lost the belts) coming off looking superior. Otherwise, Beer Money are decent champions, they're just appallingly booked.

The Legends title was defended against Christian. He promptly left the company. It's just a made up belt and it's never been explained why TNA recognises it as an official belt. And since when was Booker T a legend? Since when was he even a main eventer? Upper carder, at best.

And yeah, the heavyweight title is a joke with that husk of a once great wrestler pretty much being crushed under its weight. Joe fucked him up, but was defeated by Kevin Nash's sloppy interference. I seem to remember AJ being screwed too. A bloodied Rhino only just lost and Hernandez should be the world champion right now.

So pretty much, all the titles in TNA are worthless right now. Alex Shelley's just the best champion - mostly because he's done nothing with it, thus not doing anything to fuck it up.

 

[Joker ' Ferreira]

Yeah, I didn't mean actually that X-Division was the main-event title but the main-event caliber title.

It makes more sense I guess. And yes, I do agree that Shelley was an odd champion at least, they did all the work to put Bashir and Young together and then suddenly they just drop the ball as they almost everytime do.

It's TNA's booking team fault of course, Legends Title came up at TNA HD Event and was suddenly recognized as a championship... what a joke, and the joke it's not only about the title but also about the champion, and I do agree with you, Booker isn't a Legend and wont be soon, and feuding for the belt with Shane Sewell, well that makes a lot of sense...

 

[awesomecactus]

Yeah sounds about right.
I'm hoping Shelley will be allowed to carry the belt for a good long while, putting on nice long matches like at genesis (perhaps with sliiiiiightly more selling ). He's the perfect choice as he's as close to a tweener as tna has at the minute, so that opens up pretty much the whole of the xdivision for feuds.

its been so long since we had a strong x-div champ, i really hope that let this most able of wrestlers rebuild what should be the cornerstone of tna.

 

[klunderbunker]

Very true indeed. Sting's reign is making me long for Joe to take the title and make it boring as hell again because Sting's reign is an embarassment to it. The worst part is Sting is only partially to blame for this. Take Genesis for example. The title is put on next to last to make way for a cluster fuck of a 6 man? And for what, Foley to be in the ring one time? Sting's title match for no explicable reason has the added Rhyno is hurt storyline. Had Sting beaten a healthy Rhyno, it would at least make sense. He had a hard fought match with a fully healthy former world champion. That sounds good right? But he can barely beat a beaten up former champion when he's at full strength, then a week later he almost loses to Hernandez? Bullshit.

Enter the X division. At Genesis they put on a damn fine match for the title that was arguably the MOTN. Competitive, just came off a decent tournament and you have a tag team feuding over the belt. That sounds much better to me. It's reminiscent of the TV Title in ECW, but at least the WOrld title was respectable in that case. This is just bad for TNA.

 

[Uncle Sam]

But he can barely beat a beaten up former champion when he's at full strength, then a week later he almost loses to Hernandez? Bullshit.

Actually he did lose to Hernandez. Not only did Hernandez have him at the point where he could have grabbed Sting's arms and done "Quit hitting yourself! Quit hitting yourself!" (i.e. had him up for the Border Toss), but he won the match by disqualification. By old TNA rules - y'know, before they inexplicably changed them so they could do WWE-style screwing us out of a proper ending - Hernandez would have been crowned the world heavyweight champion there and then. At least Sting got a pinfall victory over the others. In no way did Sting win that match, he just didn't lose the belt.

 

[Uncle Sam]

See the Issue is today fans think a Title changing hands at Every PPV make it Important But let take a look at WWE and it Title

Not really, no. We're just glad that Alex Shelley has the X title - he's a spectacular wrestler and all-rounder, being a highly promising talent and a man great at technical wrestling and on the microphone, a rare combo not seen since the days of, well, Kurt Angle. Not to mention that he's been denied gold for years.

The problem we have with Sting is not that he doesn't lose the title, it's that he comes out of every match looking like a pussy but with his title intact. Not much a problem if he weren't a face-leaning tweener ("this is my guilty face, do you like it?"), but he is.

When a wrestler when the World title on Raw nobody care because it change hands all the time and has not been held longer then 5 months but When Edge beat HHH at the PPV in November it meant something because HHH held it longer then 5 days.

That's actually our precise problem with the tag team titles. Creed and Lethal held them for a total of, I dunno, four hours. Hyperbole, of course. They won them on iMPACT! (just) then lose them straight away at the PPV. Hardly makes the belts look prestigious, as you pointed out.

See Sting not even suppose to be on Impact he should only appear at the PPV like

I think he'd rather not be. But hey, these aren't the days of...

Buddy Rogers

Well, yeah.

said you want to see me defend my world title you have to pay to see me you

I don't think many people would pay to watch Sting pussy out again.

 

[Uncle Sam]

you can still a pussy because of what he doing but if I remember AJ style does the samething and he a face

Does he? I dunno, I haven't caught TNA for the past few weeks. There are a few notable differences between Sting and AJ thought.

First and foremost, AJ's a cruiserweight. Sting may not be massive but he's definitely bigger than AJ. Cruiserweights are meant to take a beating - their style is usually based on resilience, making a fast comeback and stealing the match. They normally come out for shirt bursts and don't control the match, simply due to the pace they go at.

Secondly, Sting's a legend. The only true legend in TNA. AJ may be way over, but he's not a legend. You have one of your legends acting as a face (or at least pulling his sad face) and looking like anyone could stroll in and take the belt away, they lose a lot of their value.

Thirdly, Sting is the champion. Unless he's a full-fledged heel, he shouldn't be having to steal matches. Even if he was a full-fledged heel, he shouldn't have to be just about scraping by a beaten and bloodied Rhino. It's just silly - he's meant to be the face of the company.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

I think the World Heavyweight Championship is still TNA's crowning jewel. Furthermore, arguing that the X-Division is now the most important belt in TNA ignores its recent history.

Let's look at the three X-Division champions preceding the Tournament for the X-Division (which, I will admit, culminated in an excellent match between Shelley and Sabin):

1) Petey Williams - Excellent choice for an X-Division Champion. But, as the champion, he was underutilized. When TNA finally decided to concentrate more on competition over the X-Division title (instead of letting the Angle/Styles and Samoa Joe/Booker T feuds hog up all of their airtime), it seemed that they had something promising with Consequences Creed chasing after Williams' belt. However, this angle was totally blown when Sheik Abdul Bashir was awkwardly added into the mix. Which leads us to...

2) Sheik Abdul Bashir - While his winning the belt definitely seemed anti-climactic, there was still a chance that he could do good with the X-Division title (as he is a sound wrestler and has a great grasp of heel psychology). However, his title reign took a backseat to his curtain-jerker feud with Shane Sewell.

3) Eric Young - All right, so Sheik drops the title to Eric Young on two different occasions due to Shane Sewell's interference. However, these turn out to be "Dusty finishes," as Jim Cornette calls back the title on both occasions, the first time giving it back to Bashir, the second time calling for a tournament.

Thus, while the X-Division title now has the potential to be TNA's most well-reputed title (given the success of the tournament), it must still recover from its past six months, which were, in my opinion, abominable.

On the other hand, the TNA World Heavyweight Championship actually serves a purpose. You may feel that Sting's reign is boring and unjustifiable, seeing as how he can never seem to squeak out a sound victory. But, it is my opinion that this is exactly what TNA's bookers want you to think, as I predict that Sting's reign will be called into question by his counterparts in the MEM because of the way his matches have been since his win at Bound for Glory. And, as hinted at by Brother Ray's promo last night on iMPACT!, Sting's counterparts in the MEM will also come to question whether he really does sympathize with and believe in the MEM's cause.

 

[klunderbunker]

It's not that Sting's reign is boring or unjustified. He's one of the top two draws in the company along with Angle but he's being made to look very weak and therefore the title looks weak. He barely squeaked by Rhyno who was beaten up and was beaten into the ground by Supermex. Let's say for argument's sake that what you predict is exactly what happens. Alright, that's fine. If that's where TNA wants to go then that's fine. The problem is with the belt and what its value is. If the belt looks like nothing by the time it gets there and Sting turns face again, it's more trouble than it's worth.