Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Mid card Edition

Welcome back to Inside The Wrestling Ring. Don't forget to check out our partners at Club Kayfabe Podcast for more wrestling news and opinions.

Today I will take a look at what to do about the mid card titles in the WWE. Since they unified the World Title and the WWE titles in December there have been rumors that a similar unification would happen to the United States Title and the Intercontinental Title. I completely disagree with that idea and there is one simple reason why it shouldn't happen. There are more people in the mid card then there are in the main event. Thus, it makes more sense to have more options and more belts.

Let's face it. Both titles have been diminishing in value over the past few years. But what can be done about this? I personally love the Intercontinental Title. I grew up in a time when it was valued and I still value both titles.

 

My biggest idea to re-establish the values of both belts is to make sure they are defended monthly, maybe not always on a pay-per-view, but always defended every month. Remember back in the day there was a rule that stated, "If the champion doesn't defend the title every thirty days he or she would be stripped of the title?" I do. Dean Ambrose went from September to February without defending the United States Championship. In that time, his PPV matches were Shield matches and I understand that, but making him defend the title on Raw, Smackdown, or even Main Event once a month will help bring prestige back to the belt. I can't remember the last time Big E defended his title either. So it's not just Ambrose, but at least he defended it on this past week's episode of Main Event.

Another thing to do is make sure the champion wins more non-title matches than he loses. It will make him a viable champion. I am not one of those people who thinks every champion should win every non-title match. For every match we watch, we have to believe anyone can beat anyone else; it makes for a better match. But the champion needs to win.

In the case of a heel champion (like Ambrose) make sure he wins some of his matches cleanly. Again, this doesn't just help the prestige of the belt, but it helps the prestige of the wrestler as well. I hate to see title matches ending in either count-out, or worse, disqualification. Yes, it will happen from time to time. I get that. But Ambrose had quite a few matches that ended with Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns causing a disqualification.

Another way to help is longer, more meaningful title reigns. The mid card titles should not be passed around like a hot potato. They have been better in the past year with that, but in years past they struggled to maintain a good championship run.

You want the titles to mean something? How about ending Raw or Smackdown with an Intercontinental Title or United States Title match for once instead of the same four or five guys always around at the conclusion of a broadcast?

What do you think? What are your suggestions for how to make the US and Intercontinental Titles more relevant and add to the prestige?

Special thanks as always to my wonderful editor for all her hard work on helping with this blog!


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