I can’t recall a time when the secondary titles in WWE meant less. If you’re an Intercontinental Champion or United States Champion in WWE these days, you basically aren’t a champion at all. I can’t even count how many times a pay-per-view would come and go without an I-C or U.S. title match even taking place on the card. If they were on the card, they certainly didn’t come off as anything important or relevant.
Now that Brock Lesnar is the WWE World Heavyweight Champion and the main title in WWE, which is unified, meaning there’s only one “main” champion these days, and due to the fact that Lesnar has such a limited schedule in WWE, why doesn’t WWE take this opportunity to try and make their secondary titles mean more?
WWE Superstars need to cut promos and make the I-C and U.S. titles seem like a goal that is really worth achieving. They need to act like those titles are the be-all, end-all, if for no other reason than the fact that they are going to be the only active titles in the company for quite a while. Well, as long as Lesnar retains at Night Of Champions, which I fully expect him to do.
There has been a lot of talk about unifying the I-C and U.S. titles and while I have always been in favor of that idea, I’m not so sure if that should be happening anytime soon, considering the status of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
While unifying the I-C and U.S. titles would, in theory, make the one secondary title seem stronger, it would also take away even more from WWE live events having title matches, as Lesnar won’t be defending “the strap” on any house shows anytime soon, if ever. Right now, the I-C and U.S. titles are the only men’s singles championships that will be on the line at non-televised events. For that matter, they’re the only titles that will be defended on television. Hell, I’ll do you one better, if Lesnar holds on to the main belt all the way until next year’s WrestleMania, and if he only has one or two matches left on his WWE deal, with WrestleMania being one of them, that means there is going to be a number of pay-per-views without any title matches outside of the I-C and U.S.. titles, not counting tag-team title matches or Divas title matches, of course.
Not too long ago, when Daniel Bryan was the champion but was suffering from a neck injury that is still keeping him on the sidelines to this day, there was no WWE World Heavyweight Championship match on a pay-per-view. The mindset in WWE, however, was that with Bryan either surrendering the title or his wife quitting, that the title was on the line on that show in a sense. There are no angles of that nature to do with Lesnar as champion, as there’s really no way to “technically have the title on the line” like in the aforementioned scenario with Bryan.
WWE needs to raise the value of their secondary championships and make those I-C and U.S. titles mean as much as humanly possible. The good part is, when Lesnar does eventually drop the title and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship becomes active again, the I-C and U.S. titles, if they play their cards right, will at that point mean more and all of a sudden you have a lot of important titles, something WWE hasn’t had in years.
That’s the thing with this rare, limited Lesnar title run. Because the main WWE title will only be defended so infrequently, in theory it would mean that when WWE actually does put on a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, it will feel more important than it has in the past because it’s such a rare occurrence. If they can get the stock behind those I-C and U.S. titles up a considerable amount, which should be their goal with the main title on ice for so long, by the time Lesnar drops his strap, there will be a bunch of important titles that guys will have a legitimate desire to go after in the story lines.
Basically, it won’t seem odd for a big-name Superstar to explain how important it is to win the I-C title at that point, whereas if Randy Orton or John Cena said in a promo today, “I won’t sleep until I get the WWE United States Championship around my waist!” you would probably look at them like they have four heads. That’s completely ass-backwards and hopefully with Lesnar as the main champion of the company and working such a limited schedule, we can have these secondary championships regain the luster that they had when I was a little kid jumping on a trampoline and pretending like my dreams just came true because I won a match and got to hold the — PRESTIGIOUS — WWE Intercontinental Championship high over my head.
What do you guys think? Leave your feedback in the “Comments” section below. You can also hit me up via Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBooneWZR, and/or on Twitter @MBoone420.
