Mid-card titles. Depending on which promotion, it is somewhat of a struggle to book them properly and highlight their relevance.
In WWE, lately it’s been a hit and a miss. Aside from the newish reign of Big E as the Intercontinental Champion with former champ Sami Zayn and challenger Apollo Crews breathing down his neck, the IC title hasn’t had a run on WWE programming that made it seem actually important. Over on RAW, unless it’s mentioned, you’d might almost forget Bobby Lashley is the United States Champion.
Over on NXT, Johnny Gargano’s current work as head of ‘The Way’ has put the North American Championship regularly in the spotlight, with Kushida or Dexter Lumis possibly vying for the belt down the road. Over on AEW, Darby Allin just had a successful but hellienous title defence against Brian Cage, who has his own “FTW” title (though it is not an officially sanctioned championship under AEW).
On Impact Wrestling, there is the X Division Championship, which seems to be open to anyone regardless of weight, or gender. And in Major League Wrestling (MLW), there are even two “mid-card” titles besides their world championship.
If wrestling promotions are looking to try something different with their midcard title scenes in order to have some fresh booking opportunities, then perhaps they should exercise an interesting idea taken from Impact, as well as the now defunct Lucha Underground.
Lucha Underground had a championship known as the Gift of the Gods. Seven matches would determine the winners of seven medallions, each one of which would be placed in the GOTG title. There would be a seven way elimination match to pick the winner. The Gift of the Gods allowed the holder to vye for the Lucha Underground Championship, as long as they gave ample time for the authority figure to “promote” the match.
Once the GOTG title was used, the medallions would be ‘scattered’ again until a new series of matches would determine the next winner. As Lucha Underground heavily featured Hispanic based wrestlers and catered to a Latin American fanbase, having a title with an Aztec motif was something that connected with their audience.
Over on Impact, the X Division Championship since 2012 has a stipulation known as “Option C”, in which the titleholder can voluntarily vacate the championship in exchange for a shot at the Impact World Championship, though it was not always a successful ‘cash in’. Notable wrestlers who have utilized Option C in the past include Austin Aries, Chris Sabin, Rockstar Spud (aka Drake Maverick) and Eddie Edwards. Brian Cage is the last known individual to have exercised Option C in 2018.
Now I am aware that WWE has the Money in the Bank option every year, but the way the briefcase has been booked this past year has not been good for the illustratious history of the Money in the Bank contract. Of all people to win the thing, Otis ended up with it when it literally fell into his hands and Miz ‘won’ the briefcase later that year from the former Heavy Machinery member. The last time it was ‘cashed in’, it was actually John Morrison who cashed it in for the Miz, not the Miz himself which gave a loophole to have it returned to him.
We seem to have forgotten that when Brock Lesnar cashed in the MITB contract, it was Paul Heyman doing it for him…and that was considered a legitimate cash in. Let’s not forget the shocking conclusion for the Women’s MITB match, in which Asuka actually won the RAW Women’s title because Becky vacated the title due to pregnancy, which in itself was an unprecedented situation.
At this point, I’m wondering if the MITB concept has run its due course. The last traditional cash in for the women’s side was Bayley in 2019, which led to her having the longest reign as Smackdown Women’s Champion, and Lesnar on the men’s side in 2019, not counting the “bogus” cash in by Miz at December’s TLC.
Could WWE benefit by stealing an idea from Impact and give some kind of Option C for either the Intercontinental Championship or the United States Championship? It may end up giving better reasons for going after those titles in the first place.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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