Jump to content

Unpopular Wrestling Opinions XIII


Lunchbox
 Share

Recommended Posts

You can say one is or isn't as much as you like, there are no clear-cut rules or regulations.

Nah. A world Championship in pro wrestling has always been the belts that the company considers their top branded title. Titles, that only their highest pushed and paid guys win. That's as clear-cut as it can get in wrestling. The WWE never considered the ECW title on the same level as the WWE/World Heavyweight/WCW/Universal championship and you can tell that easily while looking at the way the whole brand and the champions were treated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.2k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I consider any world championship from a credible promotion to be a world title. And nothing will change my perspective on that. Obviously, I'm not counting indy promotions...but, any promotion that has become a household name would certainly count. Impact, RoH, NJPW...you get the point. And certainly ECW and NXT.

 

The only reason why this debate even exists, is because of WWE politics. Because, in order for a guy like Ric Flair to call himself he 16 time world champion, they needed to count the NWA and WCW belts. Which is another thing that I find interesting, given the fact that NWA is now officially going to be run as a standalone company, not just a governing body. If Nick Aldis came to WWE at this point, would they call him a 'two time world champion' just because he won the NWA title? I doubt it. So, yeah...it's just a thing that WWE did for convenience, so they could give a guy like Ric some clout. Which is exactly why I heed no attention to the WWE "rules" on what is and isn't a world title. It's entirely convoluted...and, frankly, meaningless. Why does one company get to distinguish what counts as a world championship? That would be like UFC saying that Bellator or Pancrase belts aren't "real". Whereas, anyone who won two of each would certainly call themselves a six time world champion...

 

Funny enough, if anyone was going to have a say on what a world title would be, I'd think it would be the National Wrestling Alliance, not the WWE. So, yeah...WWE can maintain whatever requirements they desire for their grand slam or triple crown moniker...but that's all very baseless at the end of the day.

 

It's also one of those situations where the times are changing. In the past, NXT was a cut and dry "you go here to learn, and you are the lowest tier of the WWE". Now they will be a legit third brand. So, there is no reason to think that the title reigns need to be considered "below" the ranks of the Raw and SD belts. It's the same deal as I said with not counting indy belts. At one point, you wouldn't consider winning the RoH or Impact championships to mean anything. These days, it does. NXT will be no different in that regard.

Edited by Generations
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

You can say one is or isn't as much as you like, there are no clear-cut rules or regulations.

Nah. A world Championship in pro wrestling has always been the belts that the company considers their top branded title. Titles, that only their highest pushed and paid guys win. That's as clear-cut as it can get in wrestling. The WWE never considered the ECW title on the same level as the WWE/World Heavyweight/WCW/Universal championship and you can tell that easily while looking at the way the whole brand and the champions were treated.

 

 

Has always? Or has traditionally? Because traditionally it implies so, but as with anything in wrestling that is traditional, it's not a rule. That is how you and many others see it, but others (including actual wrestling companies) differently. There are no rules, just traditions. A world title used to mean a belt defended in more than one country, then it shifted into the belt a particular company considers their top belt. If we go by your logic then the WHC (at times) couldn't have been considered a "world" belt because WWE treated that belt like second tier trash for years. You could argue the same for the current iteration of the WWE championship when you compare it to the Universal title. But if we're willing to accept that the world title was a "world" belt at the same time as the WWE championship, then we must be open to accept the logic that the NXT championship is also. It's the top title on a particular wrestling brand (and has also been defended in multiple countries.) So that's a good enough reason in my book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a reason why many top stars of different promotions have joked about WWE's World Titles over the years. Because "Everyone gets their turn". It's also the reason why certain World title runs are considered as some of the worst title runs (or worst champions) in history, while worse title runs with lesser titles are often ignored in that regard. Dean Ambrose's US title run, Honky Tonk Man's IC title run, almost every non-World Title run durring the Attitude Era...There are so many awful title runs in history, that were much worse than certain world title runs, but because these World title runs are supposed to mean something in the World of kayfabe, they recieve more criticism.

 

That's where the World title "name" comes from. It's not just tradition. It is story. The World Title is supposed to be the highest prize. If it is not treated as such, why should it be called so? I get where you are coming from, Creep, but that's only in an ideal booked company. Until recently the NWA has managed to devalue the prestige of their once so famous titles so much, that what Generations is talking about, sounds exactly what would happen. Although with the revival of NWA I think Nick Aldis would actually be announced as a "former (NWA) World Champion", just to put him over. But there is no doubt that a Tim Storm or a Jax Dane would never be recognized as a wrestler on equal footing as other World Champions in other promotions. Because that's ultimately what a World Champion is. The highest prize in a wrestling company, comparable to other World Champions. If a company doesn't treat the title as a big enough standing, then it's not going to be recognize as a title belt equal to the title that a Lou Thesz held. Or Hulk Hogan. Or Antonio Inoki. Or El Santo.

 

The traditional way of recognizing a World title has long been thrown out of the way, with the accessibility wrestling has now. But World Titles still make a difference. Like the Raw Women's Championship compared to the Divas Championship. Or the IWGP Heavyweight Championship compared to the NEVER Championship. Or the WWE Championship compared to the WWECW Championship.

Edited by LEGION
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also one more while I have a little time from work. I know the idea of Punk returning anywhere is so taboo at this part. But after hearing some of the stuff he said at Starrcast, I would prefer to in fact return in WWE over AEW. He seems to be in a much better space mentally. My hope is even if it's a short run, he can at least go out maybe a little better this time. I also think he'd have a great final run. Give him his main event match at Mania and we're off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HHH and Taker's entrances have been pretty good, but all time best entrance ever to me will be Sandman. Multiple times I have been given Goosebumps by that opening bass line. His Return to ECW entrance still gives me goosebumps, They really did a lot with so little

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't enjoy a series of matches headlining PPVs. Specifically Takeovers. I enjoyed Cole vs. Gargano and Gargano vs. Ciampa the first time, but by the end of the second match I wanted the feud to be done and a new challenger for the next Takeover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me, the problem with those matches wasn't even the repetition of them being a series. It was Gargano. I just can't bring myself to enjoy watching the guy. I know he has all the talent in the world, but there's something about him that I've never been able to get on board with. Same with Ciampa, tbh. I'm over both of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me , I just want to see more of Johnny Wrestling as a character. Develop that, and lose superhero arch they did. It worked with Ciampa, and the whole hero vs vilian dynamic, and even tough at later stages I wasn't much into it... it was perfect, for that. But it translated too much into feud with Cole. Hopefully it's over now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...