What in the World? Too Many Champions

In the week leading up to WWE’s annual Hell in a Cell Pay Per View, a large number of fans are dreading the return of wrestling’s biggest draw, John Cena. Not only is Cena’s return far ahead of schedule but his reintroduction into the product is inserting him straight into feud with the World Heavyweight Champion, Alberto Del Rio. This situation has drawn the ire of many fans due to an incrediblly similar event 5 years ago at Survivor Series - John Cena returned from injury (ahead of schedule) to win the World Heavyweight Championship from Chris Jericho. Some of the complaints can be valid, as it’s inconsistent booking to award a title shot to someone who hasn’t had a match since August. On the other side of the coin, many will argue that this set up is actually a benefit. I’ve heard people claim “This will give the World Heavyweight Championship some much needed credibility.”

Because the champion of the world isn’t credible enough?

But the argument isn’t irrational at all; it emphasizes the already obvious problem that WWE’s second World title has struggled for relevance in recent years. The fact that there is a positive buzz over a supposed main event championship getting main event exposure leaves me scratching my head. I remember browsing a few forums around the time that Punk was announced to come back from hiatus; there were many ideas suggesting that Punk should pursue the World Heavyweight Championship for 2013. Some fans flinched at the idea, declaring it a “step down” for CM Punk. Something that I noticed over the recent years were my disparate reactions to certain title wins. For example, when CM Punk won the World Championship in ’08 and ’09 it was a good moment but not spectacular. While it showed that management were fond of the Second City Saint it didn’t really bill him as a top guy. Fast forward to Money in the Bank 2011 where we see Punk winning his first WWE Championship from John Cena – THAT was a spectacular moment and I genuinely felt like Punk won ‘the big one’. The same situation applies to Daniel Bryan’s main event accomplishments: his first World Championship at TLC was a nice boost to promote Bryan. The magnitude of it’s significance however is completely squashed by Bryan’s first WWE Championship at Summerslam. The former felt like the IWC were just being handed a bone to chew on, whereas the latter actually showed a positive step forward in the booking of talents. Guys like Dolph Ziggler, despite a former World title run, still seem to be struggling to break out of the upper mid-card.

When looking at the record book, it seems that WWE mostly use the World Championship either as a test run for possible future main eventers (Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan) or a “Thank You” reign to commend a veteran who never got their moment in the sun (Mark Henry, Big Show, Kane). As they become more fond of said talent and want to really cement their legacy, it’s time to transcend them to the WWE Championship which is (Let’s be honest) WWE’s apex title. It may sound OK in theory but it can dilute the importance of championship reigns. Looking at it from WWE’s perspective, why have one top dog when you can have two? But a wrestler’s championship status is dwarfed if you have another wrestler who is holding another title that, in name, is entirely equal to the former. Non-Wrestling fans may chuckle out of having two top champions on the same roster and I can’t say I blame them because in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really make any sense. Juggling two world champions is something that WWE have clearly struggled with in recent years. Wrestlemania 27, 28 and 29’s World Championship matches have all been lacklustre in both story content and build up. 28 being a particularly blatant example, with the match being relegated to an abhorrent 18 second bout, making it clear that WWE just didn’t give a shit at the time. Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger was an undercooked story despite featuring good talent. There’s a problem when the biggest aspect of the feud was wondering whether Ziggler was going to interfere at the end or not. 

In recent months, Del Rio himself has also been trundling along without much material to work with – he’s just kind of there. Oh yes, he’s a champion but that’s the problem, he’s not THE champion. His match with Christian at Summerslam felt empty regarding it’s purpose, other than to just have a something for the two of them to do. This was entailed by a series of matches with RVD and to be fair that did have a story: it was just completely boring. His manager was Del Rio’s old manager, har har. It got funny after the second week, WWE. I am by no means ranting on Del Rio. Despite my qualms with his overall character his workrate is superb and those matches he had with Christian and RVD were also good. But again, they were just….there. Alberto Del Rio is just a guy with a belt that some other guys might want but hey, they can just get another singles belt. See what I mean? There’s two world champions, just go for the other one, dude.

The concept of two champions did work at one point. In 2002, after acquiring ECW and WCW, WWE had an issue regarding their bloated roster. The solution? Create two separate brands with their two main television shows (RAW and Smackdown!) and promote both of them as entirely different. Simply put, this was a good idea as it helped divide the roster at the time which had a large portion of huge talent from the 90’s wrestling boom. The idea of the two champions interacting made for an exciting premise, which is amusing when nowadays we get “Champion vs Champion” matches on free TV. Since 2011, we’ve had the brand split informally extinguished where wrestlers can jump between both shows because they’re free to do so. Again, this was a good idea as WWE’s star power has been lacking and merging the rosters kept a stronger focus on both shows. The roster doesn’t have enough star power to house two world champions and this is something the higher ups really need to recognise because everyone else pretty much knows it at this point. The top storyline on RAW is continued on Smackdown! the following Friday. We don't need a second World Championship because neither show has a separate identity anymore.

Just to clarify, I’m not entirely negative on this situation. Earlier I mentioned how the World Championship is basically a way to build up a guy to a higher position at some point if they’re happy with their performance; a test run if you will. It’s clear that the World Championship is a number 2 title but that’s exactly what a promotion needs. There should be a lower tier championship that still holds some weight to it and when a contender wins the championship, fans should think to themselves “I wonder if one day they'll win the WWE title”. In the past, this need was filled by the Intercontinental Championship. Yes, one time the IC title actually had a purpose instead of being as valid as a nipple tassle. But the end of the 20^th century saw it’s importance wind down greatly and things got even more awkward when another second midcard title became introduced. My main problem with the World Championship is that it's declared to be a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. The name itself is erroneous and ignorant to the fact that it's nothing more than an upper mid card title. 

Under the WWE title, you have 3 other singles championships eligible to obtain and WWE’s roster isn’t vast enough to properly showcase them all in a grand light. Our current U.S. champion is Dean Ambrose which should be a big deal but he also has to share time with Curtis Axel (The I.C. Champion) and Alberto Del Rio. How much more significant would Ambrose be if he was the only midcard champion underneath the top guy? There aren’t enough minutes in the WWE’s programming to properly establish these champions as they also have to share screen time with other main eventers and a blooming tag team division. Don’t forget Triple H’s 20 minute promos, he’ll break into spontaneous combustion if he doesn’t get his precious opening promo.

I think it’s time to start sending some titles to the retirement home. The World Championship served it’s purpose and has given us many great moments and matches but we’re stuck with the same problem we had in the aftermath of the Invasion. We don’t have enough star power to stick with another brand split though. At the moment, it may be appropriate to declare an Undisputed Champion of the world - a move like this could really solidify Daniel Bryan’s push. Underneath the grand champion, a second tier title (Combining the U.S and I.C belts) can be used to groom your future top stars. It's not the only thing you have to do to make a title important. There's also factors like logical booking, meaningful title reigns etc. but it's a good first step to making a decent number 2 belt that actually means something and doesn't cause contradictions. All in all, I’m sure Del Rio vs Cena will be a fun match despite Cena’s premature return. Hey, maybe it will even close out the show. When was the last time that happened? The fact that I said that and have heard that phrase before sort of highlights the problem we have here.