SLAM! Wrestling Editorial: History to be destroyed at Survivor Series?
By JON WALDMAN -- SLAM! Wrestling
At the Survivor Series this Sunday history will be made as the WWF
Intercontinental and WCW United States titles and the WWF and WCW
Tag-Team titles will be unified.
Scratch that, history will be destroyed.
The World Wrestling Federation -- in a move to eliminate a few title
belts -- will be dumping either the United States title or the
Intercontinental title, and one set of Tag team titles following the
"Thanksgiving Tradition".
To say that this is a travesty is an understatement.
No matter which way the WWF decides to go important pieces of WWF
and/or WCW history will go the way of the WCW TV title. In
all likelihood, the WCW belts will fall as I just can't see Vince
killing off the IC title or WWF tags.
Both of the WCW titles have a lot of historical significance. The U.S.
title, in particular, has a large history. Held by such greats as Ric
Flair, Ricky Steamboat, Harley Race, Magnum TA, Steve Austin, and more
recently Booker T, Jeff Jarrett, Bill Goldberg, Kurt Angle, and Shane
Douglas. The title has also been held by several Canadian grapplers,
including Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, Lance Storm and Edge.
The title has long been considered as an indicator of the next WCW or
NWA champion, with good reason. Many wrestlers who had the title around
their waist went on to become heavyweight champions including Flair,
Booker, Jarrett and Goldberg. In that respect, the U.S. title was more
than just a secondary title such as the WCW TV title. It was an
indication of greatness with a promise of more greatness to come to a
wrestler who held the belt. The only true blotch on the title's storied
list of holders was David Flair, who was awarded the belt by his
legendary father after Scott Steiner was stripped of the belt in 1999.
The tag team titles tell a completely different
story. While the U.S. title was a carry-over from the NWA (the title was
inagurated prior to 1975), the WCW belts were created exclusively for
the promotion. They were, in fact, the only WCW starter titles (along
with the championship title) that were active throughout WCW's tenure.
The tags were held by such legendary tag teams as The Steiner Brothers,
The Fabulous Freebirds, The Outsiders, the Four Horsemen and Harlem Heat --
who held the belts on a record 10 different times. There are few names on the title list
that have not enjoyed a measure of
individual success, further indicating how important the belts were to
each holder. Names like Sting, Arn Anderson, Brian Pillman and Ron
Simmons are on this list, a true indicator of some of the best wrestlers
over the last ten years.
So why is Vince allowing the titles, along with their history, to be
thrown aside? Simply, the titles are become nothing more than props.
Foley was right when he said that the titles have become meaningless.
It's not because titles are passed around like a bowl of party-mix, nor
is it because of the undeserved like David Flair, Vince Russo, or even David
Arquette wearing the title. It's all because the titles have become
secondary in the storylines being written today. All they serve as
nowadays are smaller plot devices. When Kurt Angle was fighting "Stone
Cold" Steve Austin for the WWF title, no one bought that Kurt wanted to
be the WWF Champion; he wanted revenge for Austin chucking his medals
off a bridge. Chris Jericho and The Rock fighting over the WCW
Championship is, in reality, a feud between the two because of egos
clashing. The fact that one has bragging rights over the other with the
belt as a symbol makes the title secondary.
Those who make the title belts as a believeably precious entity are few.
Triple H is one of the best at making the titles mean something and he
shows it each and every time he cuts a promo. Flashback a couple years
and look at his initial speeches when he declared himself in the title
hunt. You could see the emotion in his eyes and hear it in his voice.
What he said was he wanted to be WWF Champion by defeating "X" wrestler,
where as today it's Jericho defeating The Rock to be "X" Champion. Jericho
simply wants the title because it will put him up on The Rock, where as
Triple H wanted the title because he wishes to be known as the best in the
game.
There are also too many titles out there. The European title has been a
joke since its inception. The Hardcore title, which was a hot-talk belt
for a while after its inauguration, had fallen to being a comedy piece
when Crash garnered the belt and has become an afterthought since Rob
Van Dam first got the belt a few months back. The
cruiserweight/light-heavyweight belts are also throwaways, since there
is no one of a high enough standing to get people interested in it.
Hell, the Women's championship has been shelved for a few months now and
not many fans even noticed.
If the WWF is intending on putting value back on the belts, then get rid
of the belts that people didn't care about in the first place. The U.S.
and WCW Tags still have significance to a lot of viewers becuase they
know of their historical significance. Tradition is not something that
can easily be parted with and once fans realize that the belts are
going, they will want them back. Hopefully the wrestlers will do the
same before the WCW Championship joins these titles in storage bins.
