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Before WrestleMania I put together a piece that assessed all of the different titles in WWE in order to explain why Goldberg was the UV Champion heading into WrestleMania. This has played out roughly as expected, with the UV Title going from the absolute bottom of the barrel barely to a higher position. What about the other titles?
At current there are nine championships in WWE. Which are the most prestigious? Which are the most worthwhile and, if you were in WWE, which would be the one most worth pursuing.
I’m going to break it down, piece by piece below. Disagree? By all means message me @Colohue and we’ll get this party started.
9. WWE Smackdown Women‘s Championship
The timeline of the Smackdown Women’s Championship started very promisingly, with Becky Lynch a prominent and deserving inaugural champion. The elevated position of Alexa Bliss, especially now, gives the title a genuinely strong heritage leading up to February. Unfortunately, this was the point at which Naomi won it and, even more unfortunately, the Smackdown Women’s Championship was a major sufferer from the Superstar Shakeup.
Since the shakeup, Raw’s Women’s Division has been able to focus particularly on a small collection of wrestlers, ignoring the rest of their division. Smackdown have gone in the other direction, giving all seven of their women’s wrestlers plenty of stuff to do and keeping them as even as possible. This has meant limited action for all involved.
Naomi, the champion for most of this, was given a positive push but due to niggling injuries and a weak promo style, Naomi has done very little for the title. Unable to defeat Charlotte upon her arrival, Naomi has only defended the title against a debuting and laughably ineffective Lana since the shake up.
The title has gone undefended on multiple pay per views and, for a while, the women’s Money in the Bank briefcase was more sought after than the title. It has been a bad few months for the Smackdown Women’s Championship.
Future Prospects: Natalya as champion is a big step forward for the belt given how much experience Natalya has. She is capable of carrying a division, wrestling week in and week out and it’s additionally helpful that she is a heel champion; adding plenty of mystique.
Carmella has given a belated boost to the title simply by having the briefcase and being visibly interested in using it so with Lynch and Charlotte both due back and Carmella on the horizon, this is one that should only be on the up from here.
8. WWE Intercontinental Championship
If not for The Miz, there might as well not be an Intercontinental title to compete for but an uninterested Dean Ambrose title run, a pre-show Wrestlemania title defence and the title going undefended on Summerslam have really done a number on the value of this belt. It’s a real shame given how strongly the Intercontinental Championship was booked last season.
After the shakeup things started very promisingly for the Intercontinental Championship, with The Miz, Finn Balor and Seth Rollins all competing in a number 1 contendership match from which The Miz emerged as the winner. Unfortunately, Dean Ambrose rarely seemed to even remember that he was a champion and made his feud with The Miz intensely personal rather than having it about the championship.
The Miz exists purely as a utility player at this point. He deals with the celebrities and he runs in on promos. The Miz has also been a catastrophic loser any time that the title is not on the line. Barely anything has been done to develop potential new challengers until Jeff Hardy won a battle royal and with Jason Jordan expected to be pushed to the title soon it really doesn’t seem promising for a once prestigious title.
Future Prospects: Despite The Miz being the best thing to happen to this title for the last ten years, this title desperately needs to have an actual upper mid card division built around it. That means a collection of wrestlers who want this title and are willing to work hard to get it, including competing with other members of the division to get it. Having Jeff Hardy involved with Jason Jordan already in the background is a very good start. We will never know if that might have been the plan for Big Cass.
Hopefully more people will be involved because otherwise we’re all going to be stuck waiting for Bo Dallas or Curtis Axel to eventually take the belt and then an even longer wait until The Miz retires Chris Jericho to become the first ten time Intercontinental champion.
7. WWE World Championship
What a fall from grace this has been. After going from Dean Ambrose to AJ Styles, on to John Cena and then to a Bray Wyatt who had almost a year of build behind him the title was in a very good position. Randy Orton is a big name to have the title moved to and even though he rarely makes for a good champion, Orton is a legitimate top drawer who had a multitude of feuds lined up ready to move on to.
He did not move on to any of them. Jinder Mahal came from absolutely nowhere to take the title using some good old fashioned cheating. Since that moment the WWE World Championship has not been the top title on Smackdown. It’s been third at most.
Interest in the supposed top belt is at an all time low, with Randy Orton showing very little interest in taking the title back, instead choosing to attack Mahal simply because Mahal was a cheater. Then it was because family. The title barely even needed to be involved.
…the unstoppable Undertaker: “Roman Reigns is dolla dolla bills, y’all.” It was during his urban era, I swear.
…the unstoppable Undertaker: “Roman Reigns is dolla dolla bills, y’all.” It was during his urban era, I swear. https://t.co/GrhNPHbwDZ
— Tom Colohue (@Colohue) September 6, 2017
Now with Nakamura going for the title this match up was once again organised without Nakamura showing any interest in the title belt beforehand. The match between Nakamura and Mahal had no built and no interest was shown in the title itself. And then, Mahal won his fourth championship match in the exact same way.
The only reason that the WWE World Championship is not at the bottom of the pile is because we’re talking about the WWE World Championship here. Despite everything that has happened this is still the biggest championship in the business. What next? Who knows?
Future Prospects: While Jinder Mahal has enabled the championship to be constantly visible and on a constantly competing wrestler, it needs to come off Mahal to get back to the level it needs. Short of another year on the current champion, in which Mahal beats all of the top stars in the company, Mahal needs to go back down the card a little. He’d be good in the US championship division.
It definitely seems as though Nakamura will be the next champion, which gives two very high drawer prospects for Wrestlemania. Let’s say at the Rumble, Nakamura takes on Kevin Owens, giving us a mania match of either Nakamura/Styles or Owens/Zayn. Both of those would be powerful matches which would regain a lot of power for the belt.
Or Mahal could take the title into mania and that would be good too I guess. He could take on Mojo Rawley or something.
6. WWE Cruiserweight Championship
It’s hard to be negative about the Cruiserweight Championship, beyond the fact that the Cruiserweight Division isn’t particularly strong. Born of the Cruiserweight Classic tournament, given plenty of exposure and a result of some tremendous matches, the only drawback that you can really say about the arrival of the Cruiserweight Championship is that TJ Perkins, the initial champion, was perhaps not the ideal choice.
That’s down to opinion but it’s hard to say that the WWE didn’t get behind him. Perkins has good music and wrestled some okay matches with Brian Kendrick but there was always something missing. The title shifting around a little, going to Kendrick and then on to Rich Swann did a little damage mostly because of how ex-champions vanish from any sort of prominence the second they lose the belt.
But then 205 Live arrived, coinciding with probably the absolute best thing that it was possible to do for the Cruiserweight Division; Neville. There was literally nothing possible that could have been a better move. Neville returned and won the championship and has been given a major push since – championing two shows and appearing in an average of two segments a week. His matches with Swann, Gallagher and the trio with Austin Aries were tremendous and very entertaining and Austin Aries managed to get a lot more eyes on the product.
The injury to Aries has unquestionably damaged the brand but Akira Tozawa has stepped up nicely. Given more time and a much stronger division, Neville could be the champion holding one of the most prestigious titles around.
Future Prospects: The one major drawback with the Cruiserweight Championship is the lack of drawing power in the Cruiserweight division. While their star power has been slowly improving, 205 Live is definitely struggling and needs more injections of star power from outside. More than anything what we need is some more viral moments and unmissable matches. The brief inclusion of Sasha Banks and the current appearances of Titus O’Neill are very helpful in that regard.
Enzo Amore will add a lot to 205 Live and they’re right to draw extra attention in this regard but what we need most of all is to get more out of the talent that they have. The Singh Brothers need a push. Neville can win some matches outside of the Cruiserweight Division against midcarders like Sami Zayn, The Miz and Tye Dillinger. Gargano and Ciampa have been pushed in NXT and are ready to arrive now too.
That said, the Cruiserweight Championship really just needs time and as much Neville as possible. In writing this I’ve realised that I actually have quite a bit of faith in WWE on this one.
5. WWE Smackdown Tag Team Championships
When trying to establish where certain belts are in the grand scheme of WWE championships there are a few different things to consider: title visibility; strength of champion; depth of dedicated division; desire for the championship and the quality of the matches. Before Wrestlemania the Smackdown tag team titles were at the weakest they could have been. They had no visibility, the champions were The Usos, who had only just taken them from American Alpha and that was essentially the entirely of the tag division.
One thing the division did have going for it was match quality. Building on The Usos and focussing on match quality has helped to right the ship. Following that with a push for Breezango (and to a lesser extent The Ascension under the same umbrella) and add the arrival of The New Day and we have a set of titles that are slowly on the up.
The division is still shallow but visibility is way up, The Usos are strong champions for both promos and wrestling and the matches produced are some of the best around. Even the more comedy based Breezango vs. The Usos match was a thrilling watch in its own right. There is certainly more work to do but it’s fair to say now that people are looking forward to Smackdown Tag Team Championship matches.
Future Prospects: What these titles need most are more tag teams or at the very least Breezango need to get back involved and actively pursue the titles. Gable and Benjamin seem to be on the way to the tag titles via the slower route. That gives us three face teams and one heel team so expect either a push for The Colons or the arrival of an NXT heel team in the near future.
The concern really is whether or not the match quality can maintain the level that they have set for themselves. If they can maintain that level of quality, or even just close to it, we’ll all have a reason to watch every episode of Smackdown and every pay per view preshow.
4. WWE Raw Women‘s Championship
Despite the constant hot potato of this championship being seen as a drawback by many, there’s no denying that the Raw Women’s Championship is highly sought after in a highly combative division. While Alexa Bliss isn’t the most accomplished in ring performer she is almost as capable as The Miz in drawing in heat and drawing attention to her championship. Keeping competition limited to Bliss, Bayley and Banks has put the rest of the division down but it has ensured that Raw Women’s Championship matches are high drawing affairs featuring great storytelling and good wrestling.
We’ve also seen a lot of Raw main events featuring the Raw Women’s Championship, which is a big deal that puts a lot of focus on that title, even though more often than not it’s put there because they expect a large audience to turn off after hour two. Having any women’s match, especially a number one contendership match, go last adds to the allure of what these people are fighting for.
Though a lot of the focus has been on the collapse of Bayley, Bliss has been consistent in making it all about her. Here we see the benefit of having a heel as a champion when it comes to visibility and encouraging the desire of others to take the championship back. Being able to lose Charlotte Flair to Smackdown, the woman that the whole division had been built around, and still having a highly competitive division? That takes some doing.
The fact that only three people are really competing though can also be seen as something of a drawback. Mickie James is owed a feud with Bliss and by this point seems unlikely to get one. Nia Jax is sort of there but also sort of not; promising to protect Bliss and pursue the title one week and then not bothering to do so for the next four or five. The move to Sasha should have been a triumphant one but that championship was supposed to go to Bayley.
Bliss in particular has benefited from the injuries of her colleagues. Naomi’s injury meant that Bliss went into Wrestlemania a champion. Bayley’s injury means that she can no longer carry the championship into her long awaited feud with Sasha, which means that the Nia Jax feud has had to be moved up. The losers in that manner? Bayley and Naomi of course, but also Mickie James and Nia Jax.
Future Prospects: Before Bayley’s injury things were looking exciting for the Raw Women’s Division. Bayley would take the title at Summerslam and feud with Banks, meanwhile the return of Paige to take on Emma, Bliss and eventually a champion heel Sasha is good storytelling if they ever actually got Paige back in a WWE ring. At this point it looks more likely that either Brie or Nikki Bella will be taking Paige’s place in that feud. This is not a bad thing of course.
While Asuka has been mooted to go straight to Raw and aim straight at Bliss’ championship, having Nia Jax now more involved hugely complicates this concept. In my opinion Asuka will still be going to Smackdown, where she will win a feud with Charlotte, take the championship off a Carmella who has only just won it and then go on to take her first loss to Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania.
If Asuka does go to Raw, it could serve to reinvigorate a Bayley who badly needs it but when it comes to ending Asuka’s streak I don’t think anybody would really believe it of Bayley, Banks or Bliss right now due to the mixed nature of fan reaction for all of them.
3. WWE United States Championship
The United States Championship was on the up the second Chris Jericho took it from Roman Reigns but there was still a long way to go. Jericho didn’t treat it all too well but given how personal his feud with Owens was that’s perfectly understandable.
Kevin Owens, however, did wonders for the belt; building a whole new gimmick around it and demanding respect for being the champion in the same way that The Miz has done for the Intercontinental Championship. Even though only two people have been prominently competing for the title, the inclusion of Chris Jericho and the brief involvement of Chad Gable has shown that these two are not the only people who want the title. The way Styles won his right to contend was also a big deal.
There are two things that have served the United States Championship well. The first is match quality. While the division doesn’t have great depth and we’re ultimately just seeing two guys beating the hell out of each other, the two guys in question are really very talented at beating the hell out of each other. Right now they’re both moving on to other things but this is a feud that has reliably delivered all over the board.
The second big boost is the massive drop of credibility for the WWE World Championship. This means that the United States Championship has essentially been the number one title on Smackdown Live since Wrestlemania. It’s in the nature of Smackdown to be a much more even playing field but when you’re talking about wrestlers like AJ Styles and Kevin Owens? You know they’re going to be a big deal.
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— Tom Colohue (@Colohue) August 29, 2017
Future Prospects: With this major rivalry now over, the possible drawback is whether or not we will now have matches of an equal quality. As good as Baron Corbin can be he’s really more or a no holds barred powerhouse and Chad Gable is now occupied elsewhere. Sami Zayn would be great in the US title scene but face vs. face seems unlikely for a long term feud.
The potential to have Mahal move into the US title scene shows worth but really the United States Championship is too valuable right now compared to the WWE World Championship. This one might need to take a hit before Survivor Series.
2. WWE Tag Team Championships
Given that the Universal Championship division contains only seven people total and the champion isn’t always around, you would have expected the Intercontinental Championship to be the main championship of choice. However, that has not been the case. It speaks to the strength of the tag division on Raw that you could remove The New Day from Raw and the division has actually gotten stronger. It’s even possible that a team as popular as The Revival will take years to reach the gold because the division is just that strong.
These belts have really had everything thrown behind them; to the point that Enzo and Big Cass had no right to get anywhere near them. The record breaking New Day title run mostly seemed to be necessary because of a dearth of strong tag teams who could take them away from them but that is no longer the case.
The titles were taken from The New Day by Sheamus and Cesaro; a triumph of long term storytelling and a masterpiece in making an audience care. Both superstars have had a long time to build up their popularity in the WWE, particularly multiple time world champion Sheamus. The match quality was high, with Sheamus and Cesaro keeping things plentiful interesting with solid tag team fundamentals and some unique spots.
Going then to two former Bullet Club members in Gallows and Anderson you would expect the value of the titles to diminish, which did happen. And then The Hardyz returned. Quite possibly the most popular tag team in the world waltzed into Wrestlemania and won themselves a four corners ladder match.
It’s important here to mention, and a fact often forgotten, that depth is not the same as strength. None of the Raw titles have particular depth in their divisions but with the exception of the Intercontinental Championship vs. the United States Championship Raw has much greater strength.
Sheamus and Cesaro are huge names in WWE, as The Hardys were and as Rollins and Ambrose are now. These belts have had a major push and as long as the wrestling stays this good long may it continue.
Future Prospects: The recent tag team cull has seen the overall number of challengers whittled down hugely and that’s been done for good reasons. Rollins and Ambrose only have a small number of established competitors right now but those competitors are strong. That said, I can’t see them being in this division for too long given their respective star power and the fact that Seth Rollins is doing double duty in the Universal Championship division.
Were The Revival available I would have put them as ideal next challengers but at the same time Sheamus and Cesaro don’t seem likely to go quietly and seem even less likely to break up right now. Look for The Club to get involved in a big way in the coming months. Really these titles can’t get much stronger but they will elevate anybody who has them so expect the belts to give back in the near future.
1. WWE Universal Championship
This one’s going to be controversial, isn’t it?
Any division built around Brock Lesnar is always going to be a big deal. That’s just fact. For a while everyone was unhappy with his sporadic appearances. Not so sporadic any more. For a while people were furious with the way that Lesnar doesn’t put anyone over. Not so any more. Right now people are horrified that Lesnar will eventually lose the title to Roman Reigns. Jury’s still out on that one.
There are several things that take this title from the bottom of the pile to the top. The first is the established narrative regarding Brock Lesnar. Lesnar, early after Wrestlemania, challenged his eventual opponent Roman Reigns. At that time the division was established. Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Bray Wyatt, Braun Strowman and Finn Balor. Some people have been in and out of prominence but that is the established division. Nobody else really involves themselves with Brock Lesnar.
They then went about building Lesnar up to the very top. Everyone talked about him. Everyone talked about the title that he held. Everyone established that he was the top of the pile. Brock Lesnar is the video game boss fight holding the trophy. He’s the final obstacle. The grand mastermind at the end of a Bond movie.
Then there’s the leak of the plan and this was pure genius. Roman Reigns, who turned heel at the Royal Rumble, was established as the man who would topple Lesnar, after having already retired the Undertaker. Reigns was then given wins in Raw main events to position him as the top challenger to Lesnar.
End result? You root for somebody else. This is where the magic happens.
Samoa Joe went from Triple H’s heel lackey, not really involved in anything in particular, to within a whisker of taking down Lesnar and the fans were desperate to see it happen. Anyone but Lesnar. Anyone but Reigns. A decent push for Joe and just like that we’re all taken in.
Braun Strowman? He attacks Reigns and just like that he’s the most popular face on the planet. He went from squashing Sami Zayn to getting huge reactions around the world and when he faces Lesnar people will will him to win. Thus when Lesnar retains it will be an even bigger deal.
This will continue, with Balor, Rollins and Wyatt all owed title shots in future and owed the chance to be put over in close failure by Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar is the biggest star in the game right now; people tune in to watch him so you might as well use that.
Eventually of course, Roman Reigns will both defeat and replace Brock Lesnar but that’s still half a year away. This is a ride that I am very much enjoying. The belt that was heckled for a dream match upon its debut is now the top of the pile. Believe that.
Future Prospects: Finn Balor is due his shot after Strowman, so look for him to beat Wyatt without the paint and then challenge Lesnar without the paint. After that WWE2K18 is due for release so expect Rollins to get a turn. The UV title will continue to go up and up and up, likely starting to appear at MMA events as Lesnar goes further towards walking out of the company when he does eventually lose.
Post Wrestlemania? We’ll just have to see, won’t we?
Disagree with any of my list. Throw some abuse my way @Colohue on Twitter.
I’ve been Tom Colohue. Have a great weekend all.
CHECK OUT THIS PREVIOUS COLOHUE COLUMN: FRIDAY FEATURE: Bayley – A Victim Of The Modern Age (and is there anything that can get her back on track)
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