Please note that this took me about 3 days to think/write this out so feedback would be great.
To fully understand the pros and even the cons of bringing back the
Undisputed Title. You have to comprehend how we got to this point that we are currently at in the World Wrestling Entertainment. So let me take you back many, many years ago.
As we all know, the WWE Championship wasn't always the WWE Championship. It was originally known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Championship. Almost 35 years ago back in 1971, the WWWF rejoined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the Title was downgraded in status to become simply the WWWF Heavyweight Title. After almost a decade in 1979 the company became known as the World Wrestling Federation. The WWF left the NWA in 1983 as they began to expand and the Title was refereed to as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
The first WWWF Champion was the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. Then it moved to the well known Bruno Sammartino who held it for a record that still stands today; 2308 days. It went through such competitors as Ivan Koloff, Pedro Morales and various others before eventually reaching the hands of Hulk Hogan. Hogan helped the World Wrestling Federation to expand through the Nation and took the WWF Title with him. Hogan was seen as "larger than life" and "immortal". He held the Title for a long time and added (despite claims to the contrary) a lot of prestige and credibility to the Title. It was be-noted as the Title to win. If you won the WWF Title, you were a made man in the world of professional wrestling.
It soon switched between various challengers of Hogan ranging from Ultimate Warrior to the Undertaker. Then in 1992, Ric Flair came along and won the Royal Rumble after more than an hour long match. He was sweaty. He was tired. But he was proud. The emotion that Flair had after being handed the WWF Title and the look on his face added instant prestige to the belt. Because when you see this man, with his legacy, winning this Title and getting that emotional over it. Not only do the fans see it as something big and more than a prop. The wrestlers begin to say, "Hey, I want that." Then you have all this competition swirling around the Title and it adds instant credibility and prestige to that Title. As I said, it becomes more than a prop. It becomes more than just a statistic. It becomes an achievement. It becomes real.
Then the Title went to a wrestling purist in Bret Hart. Once again, you had that emotional victory that made the Title mean that much more. It was special commodity. Then a few bad things happened to sort of bring the credibility and prestige of the WWF Championship down a bit. Not to say that Yokozuna was a bad choice as Champion, but the way in which he lost the Title to Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania really brought the Title down and took it to a different direction. You had the future of professional wrestling and a new image in Bret Hart and then they switched it back to Hulk Hogan for a quick fix that wasn't really successful at all.
Eventually though, the Title found its way back to Bret Hart and he carried it for a while for a while and lost it to Backlund who lost it to Diesel and then lost it back to Hart who kept it for around a year. Hart was able to garner so much credibility and prestige to the WWF Championship because he was the best wrestler at that time. So it made since to have him as the WWF Championship. He exuded what the WWF Champion was suppose to portray. Then another great spectacle happened at WrestleMania 12. Bret lost the Title to HBK in an epic Iron man match. HBK was the future and the new image. As Vince would say, "The boyhood dream had come true." The way in which HBK celebrated also added a lot of credibility and prestige to the Title. It's a common trend here with winning the WWF Title. It's all about making it mean something. Making it more than a prop. Making it real.
Then the Title would go on to switch hands between HBK, Sid and Hart on a number of occasions before finding the hands of the Deadman at WrestleMania 13. The Undertaker had finally won the big thing and it was important again because here you had this Deadman who had busted his ass for years and years to finally get that Title back. If he is making it the most important aspect in his wrestling career; then others want to as well. Thus once again, creating more competition. A point I'll touch on after I get through my round about story telling here.
Then another catastrophe occurred. Bret Hart (the then WWF Champion) was screwed out of the Title in Montreal and the Title was basically given to Shawn Michaels. I believe this to be a rather low point of prestige for the WWF Title. It lost a lot that night. It seemed more like a prop again. Once again though, there was a filler for that void of lost prestige and it came in the form of a Texas Rattlesnake named Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin was becoming very over with the fans and was on the fast track to greatness or as some announcers like to say, "Immortality."
The stage was set for WrestleMania 14 in Boston and Austin's opponent and the WWF Champion, Shawn Michaels. Truth be told, neither man was 100%. Austin had that neck injury from a horribly took piledriver at a previous Summerslam against Owen Hart. HBK had a back problem going into the match to. However, the will that these men fought for the Title even injured was amazing and then Austin captured the Title at the win after Mike Tyson counted the 3. "The Austin Era has begun!" says JR with such enthusiasm. And not only had the Austin Era begun, but a new batch of prestige and credibility was regained to that WWF Title.
Now I'm not going to run down every emotional Title run and every Title switch and every bad Title moment that has occurred in the illustrious history of the World Wrestling Entertainment. But I want a one key point to be noted here. Basically put, even with ups and downs, the WWF Title had prestige and it had credibility. It lost some here and there, but there was always that pivotal time in which it garnered back the lost prestige and credibility. So now we can move on.
The World Wrestling Federation Title soon then (skipping ahead as I said, a few years) was unified with the World Championship (most commonly referred to as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship), on December 9, 2001. Chris Jericho had won the Undisputed Title by defeating both the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night at Vengeance. That was instant credibility to that Undisputed Title. The Title was defended on both Raw and Smackdown of course. Then during the Hogan reign, the company came under some legal issues and the name of the Title was soon changed to the WWE Undisputed Championship (the company obviously was known as WWE instead of WWF now).
The Undertaker soon then had a reign with the Title. It lasted only about a month before he lost it to the Rock in a Triple Threat (also involving Kurt Angle) at the Vengeance PPV. However, in the weeks before that, the Undertaker added instant credibility to that Title. He had a fantastic showing against Jeff Hardy and made it seem like Hardy could actually defeat him. Then the same week, he has a Title match on Smackdown against Kurt Angle in another classic match. Of course then, the Vengeance match with Rock and Angle.
Now this is where it begins to decline from my perspective. The brand split has occurred and Raw and Smackdown were treated as separate entities. Brock Lesner as the then WWE Undisputed Champion was exclusive to Smackdown. So Raw was left without a Champion. So Eric Bischoff (then General Manager of Raw) came out and awarded HHH the World Heavyweight Championship on September 2, 2002. Brock then dropped the Undisputed part and became the WWE Champion. We have one more pit stop on the round about before I make my point. Just bare with me.
John Cena. Unlike many, many people I do not have an issue with John Cena.I think he is overrated but I don't want to go into a tangent, just wanted to state this fact for the record. Now John Cena had introduced a spinner when he won the United States Championship on Smackdown. I was fine with that. It was innovative and it was cool actually. Then when he won the WWE Title and eventually came over to Raw. He had a spinner put on it as well. Again, I didn't exactly have a problem with this. I loved Austin's Smoking Skull belt he used. So I didn't have an issue with this. I understand that as the years have gone by, the WWE Title has evolved and changed to fit with the times. A spinner belt fits with the times. Now that I got the spinner part out of my way, I can come full circle.
However, now as I make my full rotation here. That does not mean the WWE Title has not lost prestige. The main point in which I believe it really lost prestige and began its decline was after the Undertaker lost the Title. Now this has nothing to do with the Rock or Brock Lesner being bad Champions or anything of the sort. It is just a good point in time. The Rock only had it for a short while before losing it to Lesner and Lesner became exclusive to Smackdown. So this leaves us with Two Titles that are apart of the World Wrestling Entertainment. The main reason that this isn't good is because you do not have a clear cut defiant "top dog" in the WWE (especially with the addition of the ECW World Champ). You do not know who it is. You also don't have much of any (actual its basically extinct) competition revolving around the WWE Title or the World Heavyweight Title. The WWE Title (once known as the Title to win) is no longer full of prestige or credibility.
It now has become just a prop you win on television. Now some people may say (ignorantly) that the WWE Title has always been a prop. "This is fake." "It's just a prop." If you have ever cared about the art of professional wrestling, it wouldn't be known as a prop to you. A little side rant there. Anyhow, I feel, along with countless others that I have seen confess it on numerous boards, the Undisputed Title is the way to bring back this prestige and this credibility that the WWE Title once had and should have.
Now how is that you may be asking? Elimination Chamber instantly comes to mind. You do this at Survivor Series. The best place to have an Elimination Chamber and especially one of such importance. You take 3 Raw wrestlers and 3 Smackdown wrestlers (chosen however you want to do that, possibly through qualifying). Not too sure what you do with ECW though. You stick them in this Elimination Chamber. You add that the winner will become the Undisputed Champion of the World Wrestling Entertainment and take the Title to either show he wishes and you have instant credibility and prestige. Because you will have these 6 men (plus those that tried to get into the Chamber) fighting for this Title. They will get bloody. They will sweat. They will get bruised. They will get battered. But in the end, it is all worth it for that Title because it means that much. Of course you should have the announcers playing it up as much as possible and the wrestlers mentioning it in promos and whatnot.
So now you have your Undisputed Champion. Now what? Now you have guys on two rosters fighting for that Title. No matter which way you look at it; you have instant credibility coming to the Title. You will always have fresh opponents. You will always have fresh competition and battles to decide who faces the Undisputed Champion. And you of course, have your "top dog".
Now yes, there are some kinks to work out. As there are with any new idea or change or really anything in wrestling or in life. But those kinks can get worked out because the Title is important. When John Cena and Batista both won their respective Titles at WrestleMania 21, it didn't feel special. It didn't feel must see television. It didn't feel like it meant something. We need more moments like Benoit and Eddie. Not too much or it becomes overplayed, but more emotional and mean something Title wins. That passion needs to come back. The WWE Title needs credibility. It needs it to strive.
Also, at WrestleMania you don't have two Main Events. And in the case of WrestleMania 21 or even WrestleMania 22, you can have one big closing moment instead of two. You also don't have to decide and worry about which Title gets booked above the other (even though we know which one that is). And finally the most important aspect other than it gaining credibility back is that Smackdown can once again regain prestige by having the top dog in the Undisputed Champion coming over to that show and doing whatever they do.
Like I said, there is flaws with the concept of the Undisputed Title coming back. But we can overcome these flaws and work them out because we need the honor of being the WWE Champion to come back. Yes, winning the WWE Title is probably still seen as "making it", but that's because of the Title's history, not current prestige. It needs the prestige of today to make it even more important and to gain back credibility. Winning the WWE Title (or Undisputed Title if it were to happen) needs to be seen as winning the "big one" and something of honor. No longer should it be seen as a "statistic" or the winning of some television prop. Because then, this wacky and crazy entertainment we call professional wrestling becomes reality.
I know that, that piece was really long, but I guess for simplistic reasons. What I am saying is: Do you want the Undisputed Title to come back? This doesn't necessary (as I eluded to) a brand split. Just ONE Title (again not too sure about ECW).
Thoughts?
To fully understand the pros and even the cons of bringing back the
Undisputed Title. You have to comprehend how we got to this point that we are currently at in the World Wrestling Entertainment. So let me take you back many, many years ago.
As we all know, the WWE Championship wasn't always the WWE Championship. It was originally known as the World Wide Wrestling Federation World Heavyweight Championship. Almost 35 years ago back in 1971, the WWWF rejoined the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and the Title was downgraded in status to become simply the WWWF Heavyweight Title. After almost a decade in 1979 the company became known as the World Wrestling Federation. The WWF left the NWA in 1983 as they began to expand and the Title was refereed to as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship.
The first WWWF Champion was the original "Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers. Then it moved to the well known Bruno Sammartino who held it for a record that still stands today; 2308 days. It went through such competitors as Ivan Koloff, Pedro Morales and various others before eventually reaching the hands of Hulk Hogan. Hogan helped the World Wrestling Federation to expand through the Nation and took the WWF Title with him. Hogan was seen as "larger than life" and "immortal". He held the Title for a long time and added (despite claims to the contrary) a lot of prestige and credibility to the Title. It was be-noted as the Title to win. If you won the WWF Title, you were a made man in the world of professional wrestling.
It soon switched between various challengers of Hogan ranging from Ultimate Warrior to the Undertaker. Then in 1992, Ric Flair came along and won the Royal Rumble after more than an hour long match. He was sweaty. He was tired. But he was proud. The emotion that Flair had after being handed the WWF Title and the look on his face added instant prestige to the belt. Because when you see this man, with his legacy, winning this Title and getting that emotional over it. Not only do the fans see it as something big and more than a prop. The wrestlers begin to say, "Hey, I want that." Then you have all this competition swirling around the Title and it adds instant credibility and prestige to that Title. As I said, it becomes more than a prop. It becomes more than just a statistic. It becomes an achievement. It becomes real.
Then the Title went to a wrestling purist in Bret Hart. Once again, you had that emotional victory that made the Title mean that much more. It was special commodity. Then a few bad things happened to sort of bring the credibility and prestige of the WWF Championship down a bit. Not to say that Yokozuna was a bad choice as Champion, but the way in which he lost the Title to Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania really brought the Title down and took it to a different direction. You had the future of professional wrestling and a new image in Bret Hart and then they switched it back to Hulk Hogan for a quick fix that wasn't really successful at all.
Eventually though, the Title found its way back to Bret Hart and he carried it for a while for a while and lost it to Backlund who lost it to Diesel and then lost it back to Hart who kept it for around a year. Hart was able to garner so much credibility and prestige to the WWF Championship because he was the best wrestler at that time. So it made since to have him as the WWF Championship. He exuded what the WWF Champion was suppose to portray. Then another great spectacle happened at WrestleMania 12. Bret lost the Title to HBK in an epic Iron man match. HBK was the future and the new image. As Vince would say, "The boyhood dream had come true." The way in which HBK celebrated also added a lot of credibility and prestige to the Title. It's a common trend here with winning the WWF Title. It's all about making it mean something. Making it more than a prop. Making it real.
Then the Title would go on to switch hands between HBK, Sid and Hart on a number of occasions before finding the hands of the Deadman at WrestleMania 13. The Undertaker had finally won the big thing and it was important again because here you had this Deadman who had busted his ass for years and years to finally get that Title back. If he is making it the most important aspect in his wrestling career; then others want to as well. Thus once again, creating more competition. A point I'll touch on after I get through my round about story telling here.
Then another catastrophe occurred. Bret Hart (the then WWF Champion) was screwed out of the Title in Montreal and the Title was basically given to Shawn Michaels. I believe this to be a rather low point of prestige for the WWF Title. It lost a lot that night. It seemed more like a prop again. Once again though, there was a filler for that void of lost prestige and it came in the form of a Texas Rattlesnake named Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin was becoming very over with the fans and was on the fast track to greatness or as some announcers like to say, "Immortality."
The stage was set for WrestleMania 14 in Boston and Austin's opponent and the WWF Champion, Shawn Michaels. Truth be told, neither man was 100%. Austin had that neck injury from a horribly took piledriver at a previous Summerslam against Owen Hart. HBK had a back problem going into the match to. However, the will that these men fought for the Title even injured was amazing and then Austin captured the Title at the win after Mike Tyson counted the 3. "The Austin Era has begun!" says JR with such enthusiasm. And not only had the Austin Era begun, but a new batch of prestige and credibility was regained to that WWF Title.
Now I'm not going to run down every emotional Title run and every Title switch and every bad Title moment that has occurred in the illustrious history of the World Wrestling Entertainment. But I want a one key point to be noted here. Basically put, even with ups and downs, the WWF Title had prestige and it had credibility. It lost some here and there, but there was always that pivotal time in which it garnered back the lost prestige and credibility. So now we can move on.
The World Wrestling Federation Title soon then (skipping ahead as I said, a few years) was unified with the World Championship (most commonly referred to as the WCW World Heavyweight Championship), on December 9, 2001. Chris Jericho had won the Undisputed Title by defeating both the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin on the same night at Vengeance. That was instant credibility to that Undisputed Title. The Title was defended on both Raw and Smackdown of course. Then during the Hogan reign, the company came under some legal issues and the name of the Title was soon changed to the WWE Undisputed Championship (the company obviously was known as WWE instead of WWF now).
The Undertaker soon then had a reign with the Title. It lasted only about a month before he lost it to the Rock in a Triple Threat (also involving Kurt Angle) at the Vengeance PPV. However, in the weeks before that, the Undertaker added instant credibility to that Title. He had a fantastic showing against Jeff Hardy and made it seem like Hardy could actually defeat him. Then the same week, he has a Title match on Smackdown against Kurt Angle in another classic match. Of course then, the Vengeance match with Rock and Angle.
Now this is where it begins to decline from my perspective. The brand split has occurred and Raw and Smackdown were treated as separate entities. Brock Lesner as the then WWE Undisputed Champion was exclusive to Smackdown. So Raw was left without a Champion. So Eric Bischoff (then General Manager of Raw) came out and awarded HHH the World Heavyweight Championship on September 2, 2002. Brock then dropped the Undisputed part and became the WWE Champion. We have one more pit stop on the round about before I make my point. Just bare with me.
John Cena. Unlike many, many people I do not have an issue with John Cena.I think he is overrated but I don't want to go into a tangent, just wanted to state this fact for the record. Now John Cena had introduced a spinner when he won the United States Championship on Smackdown. I was fine with that. It was innovative and it was cool actually. Then when he won the WWE Title and eventually came over to Raw. He had a spinner put on it as well. Again, I didn't exactly have a problem with this. I loved Austin's Smoking Skull belt he used. So I didn't have an issue with this. I understand that as the years have gone by, the WWE Title has evolved and changed to fit with the times. A spinner belt fits with the times. Now that I got the spinner part out of my way, I can come full circle.
However, now as I make my full rotation here. That does not mean the WWE Title has not lost prestige. The main point in which I believe it really lost prestige and began its decline was after the Undertaker lost the Title. Now this has nothing to do with the Rock or Brock Lesner being bad Champions or anything of the sort. It is just a good point in time. The Rock only had it for a short while before losing it to Lesner and Lesner became exclusive to Smackdown. So this leaves us with Two Titles that are apart of the World Wrestling Entertainment. The main reason that this isn't good is because you do not have a clear cut defiant "top dog" in the WWE (especially with the addition of the ECW World Champ). You do not know who it is. You also don't have much of any (actual its basically extinct) competition revolving around the WWE Title or the World Heavyweight Title. The WWE Title (once known as the Title to win) is no longer full of prestige or credibility.
It now has become just a prop you win on television. Now some people may say (ignorantly) that the WWE Title has always been a prop. "This is fake." "It's just a prop." If you have ever cared about the art of professional wrestling, it wouldn't be known as a prop to you. A little side rant there. Anyhow, I feel, along with countless others that I have seen confess it on numerous boards, the Undisputed Title is the way to bring back this prestige and this credibility that the WWE Title once had and should have.
Now how is that you may be asking? Elimination Chamber instantly comes to mind. You do this at Survivor Series. The best place to have an Elimination Chamber and especially one of such importance. You take 3 Raw wrestlers and 3 Smackdown wrestlers (chosen however you want to do that, possibly through qualifying). Not too sure what you do with ECW though. You stick them in this Elimination Chamber. You add that the winner will become the Undisputed Champion of the World Wrestling Entertainment and take the Title to either show he wishes and you have instant credibility and prestige. Because you will have these 6 men (plus those that tried to get into the Chamber) fighting for this Title. They will get bloody. They will sweat. They will get bruised. They will get battered. But in the end, it is all worth it for that Title because it means that much. Of course you should have the announcers playing it up as much as possible and the wrestlers mentioning it in promos and whatnot.
So now you have your Undisputed Champion. Now what? Now you have guys on two rosters fighting for that Title. No matter which way you look at it; you have instant credibility coming to the Title. You will always have fresh opponents. You will always have fresh competition and battles to decide who faces the Undisputed Champion. And you of course, have your "top dog".
Now yes, there are some kinks to work out. As there are with any new idea or change or really anything in wrestling or in life. But those kinks can get worked out because the Title is important. When John Cena and Batista both won their respective Titles at WrestleMania 21, it didn't feel special. It didn't feel must see television. It didn't feel like it meant something. We need more moments like Benoit and Eddie. Not too much or it becomes overplayed, but more emotional and mean something Title wins. That passion needs to come back. The WWE Title needs credibility. It needs it to strive.
Also, at WrestleMania you don't have two Main Events. And in the case of WrestleMania 21 or even WrestleMania 22, you can have one big closing moment instead of two. You also don't have to decide and worry about which Title gets booked above the other (even though we know which one that is). And finally the most important aspect other than it gaining credibility back is that Smackdown can once again regain prestige by having the top dog in the Undisputed Champion coming over to that show and doing whatever they do.
Like I said, there is flaws with the concept of the Undisputed Title coming back. But we can overcome these flaws and work them out because we need the honor of being the WWE Champion to come back. Yes, winning the WWE Title is probably still seen as "making it", but that's because of the Title's history, not current prestige. It needs the prestige of today to make it even more important and to gain back credibility. Winning the WWE Title (or Undisputed Title if it were to happen) needs to be seen as winning the "big one" and something of honor. No longer should it be seen as a "statistic" or the winning of some television prop. Because then, this wacky and crazy entertainment we call professional wrestling becomes reality.
I know that, that piece was really long, but I guess for simplistic reasons. What I am saying is: Do you want the Undisputed Title to come back? This doesn't necessary (as I eluded to) a brand split. Just ONE Title (again not too sure about ECW).
Thoughts?
