It’s the age old problem that not just the WWE have, but many other wrestling organisations seem to have. The problem of how do you make your mid-card title relevant? For the WWE we have the Intercontinental (IC) and United States (US) titles. In order to try and make these titles matter they gave the US title to John Cena, and the IC title to Daniel Bryan before his injury. John Cena started to use the US open challenge whereas the IC title got lost and ended up trying to strengthen Ryback’s character.
What WWE don’t seem to realise is that the title is meant to make the man/woman and not the man/woman make the title. Back in the glory of the Attitude Era the Intercontinental title was used as a stepping stone to the big prize, the same for the US title in WCW. Now however, it seems as though they just put it on someone if their character is too big and is lost in the mid-card event scene at the time. What WWE needs to do is highlight the title like they used to. Have the talent talking about the title at every opportunity, and in a feud situation they need to make the title the focus of the feud.
Remember when Austin was fighting for the WWE title back in the day? He fought against the corporation to get a shot at fighting The Rock at Wrestlemania. How did he get to that point? He had a year on year feud with Vince McMahon in which Vince didn’t want Austin having the title as this would give Austin some kind of strength over the WWE, and Austin wanted it to show the boss that he was the main man in the company, so why don’t they do this for the other titles? Why do the IC and US titles get lost in a haze of one month feuds that amount to nothing? They gave the IC title to the Miz to try and keep him relevant, which then passed onto Barrett, and the list goes on. But during these feuds they hardly ever referenced the title. Not one talent mentioned how they crave it and need it. It ended up being a “you have it so I want it” type of feud instead of it being about the title in the first place.
So what I want to do is talk about how we, the fans, can take this problem and resolve it. I have ideas that you have probably thought of, but that shows the need for us to resolve them. What I think the WWE need to do is start again. Take both the mid-card titles away from those that currently have them and do a shakeup. Whether that involves a tournament, a ladder match, or any other match that they want, but the focus needs to be on the title. Recently they had an Elimination Chamber match that resulted in people stealing the title and saying it was theirs, but did we care? Not really. This was down to basic execution. No-one believed R-Truth would win the title, yet week on week he stole it and the WWE tried to make us believe he could be a “surprise” winner.
What the WWE then needs to do is highlight previous winners of the title. Winners like Stone Cold, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Triple H etc. Then they need to push the talents in the feud to talk about how much they crave and need it. What it would mean to hold a title of this importance and how they’ve dreamed about it since they were kids. Then when the eventual winner has the title, they need to mention it in every interview, every feud, and every eventual loss. Also bring back the ladder of importance, so for those that won the IC title need to move into the main event scene. Ryback should move onto the title, just like Cena should/is at some point too.
Every PPV needs to focus on not just the main title but the mid-card. Have the feuds incorporate the titles and not just be an afterthought. If WWE truly wanted to then they could make us believe in these titles just like the other brands have. But what they really need to do is make them important again. Make us want them just as much as the top title and not just give them to a top name to try and make them shine again.
What would you do to make the mid-card titles relevant again? Let us know in the comments below or join in the conversation on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Keep all things wrestling in your one stop shop at SLTD Wrestling!
Game over.
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