WWE Title Vs World Title

[Guest jfscjrs]

2) Noone seems to moan about the IC belt's lineage (Rio de Janeiro 'tournament') and the fact that the belt was unified with HHH's World title, thus making the current IC belt's lineage different (starting Judgment Day 2003)

I don't think the current IC belt started at JD 2003, it just re-started at the event and from than on, continued the linege of the Intercontinental title. same thing with the US title and the World Title. The World title espeically sence Eric Bischoff CLEARLY stated that he dispusted the Undisputed WWE title on that one Raw when he brought back the World Title. aswell as the WWE mentioning past World Champions from NWA/WCW when refering to the World Title. If the actual title is brought back, than so did the linege of that very same title.

[The Mountie 0]

Fair enough man, I didn't realise the Austin point, but I'm sure the Kane/HHH match was billed and advertised as a unification match.

 

As for the World title thing, i understand the point about HHH just being given the belt. In storyline terms it was a power play by Bisch to get back at SmackDown for for signing Lesnar, but admittedly it could have been done better.

 

Back to the original question, i find it hard to accept the 'WWE' Championship as being what Bret/Hogan/Andre won whereas to me the World title is what Flair/Sting won years ago. This may be somewhat to do with the actual belts themselves, but is mainly becuase the World Heavyweight Championship seems more prestigous than one that refers to 'Entertainment' in its name.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

It seems to me they did a great disservice to booking in 2002.

 

They should have moved a lot faster. Faster on splitting the belts and faster at making new ones. You want HHH to have the belt, fine. Move the other belt over to SmackDown, have Eric make a HHH vs Whoever match at the next PPV for the new belt, have the match, and after HHH wins he gets awarded with the belt.

 

Then HHH could have turned heel through ego and vanity of being Raw's top guy and having the belt, and we wouldn't have had to put up with that stupid "I turned heel because I got disgusted with the sound of you people cheering for me" shit.

 

Ba-da-boom. You have initial interest in the belt by not showing it right away, you have a match to actually fight over it, and you have an excuse for turning HHH heel instead of "Oh fuck this face run is a disaster."

[Slickster 0]

FYI, the World Title is the WCW Title but does NOT have the lineage of the NWA Title (contrary to JR's claims). The WCW Title was a title separate and distinct from the NWA Title until the NWA's collapse in 1993.

[Guest HitmanHart]

Answering the original question, I'd have to say I prefer the WWWF/WWF/WWE Title better. True, this is based on the bias I have, since I grew up watching the WWF. But, one thing I believe is that this title retained more prestige than the WCW title over the years. First, because the original lineage is clear cut (though, ironically, based on a ficticious tournament), and all champions thereafter have, for about 95% of the changes, been in 1-on-1 bouts. When the title was vacated, the ways they have determined the champion again were on easy to understand basis, in either a tournament or a single match (6-pack challenge, Rumble).

 

The WCW title, however, got very confusing around 2000, as Russo and company didn't really care what made sense. People were awarded the belt (Flair in 2000), it was won in strange matches (Arquette in a tag bout, Savage in a tag bout, etc), and so on. The WCW title just never seemed as stable as the WWF title, in my opinion.

 

Plus, there always was an emphasis for many years for wrestlers to speak of their desire for the WWF title. Heck, they had two PPVs that surrounded a chance for the title (Royal Rumble got the Wrestlemania title shot, and the King of the Ring winner got the Summerslam shot for a few years). WCW had World War 3 for the Starrcade match, true. However, it was a confusing match with too many unworthy wrestlers in it.

[SuperJerk 0]

Title lineage matters because it can help give a fued heat if the crowd is thinking about how many other men have wrestled and struggled to gain said belt.

 

Having said that, the World Heavyweight Championship seems to be the most important, as the WWE seems to count certain people's victories with either belt as the same thing (i.e. the way they referred to Triple H's victories with either belt by adding the two total number of reigns together).

 

As far as the lineage argument goes...I think the official position is that it is not the old WCW belt, unless you're talking about Flair's illustrious 16 title reigns (which include NWA/WCW/WWF world titles as part of the total number). They can't keep their own story straight, so why should we be looking for an offical explanation as to where the belt came from when there isn't one? The World heavyweight Title controversy is another example of the bad writing that's been a staple of WWE programming since the Invasion started.

[Guest TheLastBoyscout]

It's pretty clear that the World Title is more prestigous than the WWE Title. When one title changes hands on Free TV after only a month and a half with the current Champ the same month that an 8 1/2 month reign for the other one comes to an end on PPV it's pretty clear which one means more.

[Promoter 0]

This title stuff is always a headache. Thanks a lot pro wrestling/sports entertainment. Which title is more important in the here and now? The world heavyweight title, but not by much. I honestly do not see the title Bradshaw wearing as the same one that Hogan did although I know it is. The problem is cosmetics. The title Orton wears now looks like the title Flair wore in the 80's with the likes of Ricky Steamboat. I think that is the intent. While, the wwe title doesn't even sound like the same title or look like the same title Hogan and Savage wore. Now, they are booking it as inferior as well.

 

As someone said I think 2002's booking messed up a lot of things. I believe the wwf title has been dead in many people's minds since Brock went to smackdown and became "wwe champion". The undisputed title scenario imo was a much better idea, but I understand why they split the titles. The funny thing is that the wwe title really is still the more important title if it just has some tweaks made to it. Look how Orton had to say WWE heavyweight champion the night after SummerSlam? That was not by accident imo. World Heavyweight Champion sounds more presitigious, but we all know WWE in front of the word gives it more oomph. There have been hundreds of world champions in the history of wrestling.

 

At first, I disagreed about the complaints about how Trips got the title initially because of how the storyline went and the intent of handing Trips the title, but in retrospect the title has only really got respect from Mania XX this year imo. Trips had turned heel by turning on HBK. He won the #1 contender's match against Taker who ended up challenging Brock anyways on smackdown(another botched element in the split) and the champion ran(another bothced storyline for character development). Trips was handed the belt for heat just like Bradshaw basically was this summer(at least Trips won a damn contender's match). They had him go over Ric Flair that night to give the illusion it was the same belt Flair had won in years past(I won't get into that debacle). They also took the hardcore and I-C titles away initially because those titles had more value in the eyes of the fans. That is why they took the titles away for months to allow the world title to get the spotlight.

 

 

I think both titles are kind of watered down anyways. The title situation has been screwed up since the Invasion. They somewhat salvaged the confusion from then, but the wwe title is looking weak right now. It was fine around WM XX. I think the illusion was that Brock would do anything to keep the belt and Triple H did the same for the raw side of things. Raw still has this to an extent, while smackdown is just there with Bradshaw and the former champs aren't even caring for it like Eddie and Angle. UT is just there.