In this new article I will look at things that have simply disappeared from the wrestling landscape. For example today we are looking at number 1 contenders….. For years wrestling used the storyline of number one contenders. In NWA it was the red hot baby faces of a territory on a win streak, defeating the biggest and baddest heel to get a shot at Ric Flair. The WWF had the big bad heel running thru the 2nd string baby faces to work his way to Hogan. In this day and age it seems all you have to do is sneak attack the champ and you automatically get a title shot.
Look at Kane getting a championship match against Seth Rollins. Who has Kane beat in the last year? has Kane ever wrestled since coming back? So Kane simply gets a title shot just cause he hates Rollins alot?. It seems stupid to not have Kane go over ANYONE and just get a title shot. Why cant Kane go over someone now just to at least build him up for the title match? I don’t really have answers for these questions and I don’t think WWE does either.
I’m not saying that each championship match has to be earned by a number one contenders match. A few wins leading up to the championship match would help to say the least, but when is the last time we seen a number 1 contenders match?. Earlier in the year NXT had a number one contenders tournament and it did wonders for Finn Balors career. The match between Nevile and Balor on the NXT special had a purpose and it meant something. WWE did give us a half assed number one contenders match between Cena and Orton at Hell in the Cell and the stipulation was sort of just thrown in the mix…… We need more number 1 contenders matches, more number 1 contenders tournaments, We need more people working for a title shot not just stumbling in to one. …..WWE has a 3 hour Raw that they are having problems filling with meaningful matches. So why not have a number 1 contenders mini tournament for the IC or World title? Why not have a feud on who is the number one contender?. This doesn’t have to be done every month but at least often enough to make being number 1 contender mean something.
The number 1 contender storyline has simply died out, What once got wrestlers over and made the World title that much more important is almost completely gone from the wrestling world. The closest thing we get to it now is crappy battle royals and MITB briefcases…… WWE could easily use this to fill Raw with more meaningful and entertaining content or to make Smackdown more relevant but it seems the WWE just don’t want to.
Sometimes I miss the old days of the WCW top 10 or wins leading to a title match. The old days when people were built up for more than a week before a title match….. In wrestling today WWE tries to train us to think Win and Loses don’t matter. but they do and they should.
