Okay, watching the Women’s tag team championship on Raw last week brought up a controversial topic: there are too many championships in the WWE and they should be unified.
Here’s the reasoning
Roughly twenty years ago, give or take, the WWE held a tournament to unify the WWE championship and the WCW championship. It became the Universal championship, which is currently worn by Brock Lesner and is still referred by that title at times. It’s considered the top championship in the federation, which makes sense given its history.
Now is where it gets murky.
The WWE heavy weight championship is considered — if inaccurately, depending on who we talk to — on par with the old WWF championship that was previously merged.
While it’s understandable that each brand would have its own championships, does that really add to the product?
When Chris Jehrico first one the Universal title, he and following champions were on both shows, playing out storylines and being open to competition from broth brands. It added a level of competition between the superstars and forced the creative team to maximize their efforts to tell the best stories possible.
It also allowed added flexibility and unpredictability for us as fans since we didn’t know who would step forward and challenge the champion on any given day.
With two championships, it floods the market, so to speak, diluting the product and making most if not every match in a pay-per-view a title match.
The same can be said for the tag team championships as with each brand having one of their own, it forces the creative team and superstars to pair together and break up constantly while hoping they strike gold. With a limited field, it’ll increase competition and streamline the storytelling and allow us to really connect with a team instead of having to pick and choose every other week.
What about younger talent?
One of the biggest gripes we’ve had for the longest time is not seeing enough of the younger talent. While fewer titles wouldn’t necessarily mean there will be more storylines, it does mean other superstars can partake in the TV and pay-per-view time in the ring since they probably wouldn’t have been deemed worthy of a title shot previously.
Once again, it’d open up the floodgates for creativity as the WWE creative team wouldn’t be able to say, “Here’s a title match. Job done.” They’d have to invest in creating and developing story arcs for the added faces.
It would harken back to the old days and add another level to WWE’s programming we’ve been missing and begging for.