Last night on Monday Night Raw, Triple H introduced the Chicago crowd to a brand new WWE Championship. The World Heavyweight Championship as he called it. A clear callback to the big gold title that The Game himself would strut around with in the early 2000’s.
Although the live crowd erupted into cheers for this big announcement, the general response from people watching at home has been less than positive. Personally I believe this to be one of WWE’s more stupid ideas for a while, and that’s really saying something. Here are 6 huge problems with WWE’s new World Heavyweight Championship.
1. It’s Nothing But a Silver Medal
There’s absolutely no getting away from the fact that whoever ends up holding this belt is nothing more than a secondary champion to Roman Reigns. Hell, with Gunther’s Intercontinental title reign going so well this new belt may even feel closer to a bronze medal at this point.
Of course we are yet to see how they decide this new champion (unless they announced some sort of tournament on Raw but you won’t catch me giving 3 hours to that tripe) so there’s still a chance this could be booked well… Meh, who am I kidding? Whoever ends up celebrating winning this new title is going to look like a pathetic dork in comparison to Roman’s 1,000-something day long reign.
Oh and if Cody Rhodes is the man to win this new title, then I can’t help but consider that to be the final nail in the coffin for the American Nightmare. Imagine giving it the biggun about taking down Roman’s empire in the memory of your late father, only to fail on the grandest stage and then be handed a hollow consolation prize in Saudi Arabia. Poor Cody.
2. No Prestige
As with any new championship in any wrestling promotion, it’s always going to be difficult to convince the audience on the prestige of a new title when there’s literally no history behind it. AEW had the exact same issue when introducing their World title, hence why they had the legendary Bret Hart reveal the belt and then crowned a household name in Chris Jericho to be their first champion. But even then it took a while for people to take the Championship seriously, and that was without another more serious title holder looming over the entire story.
Obviously this is a problem that can only be fixed over time, but I can’t help but feel it would have been much easier to just crown the much-beloved babyface – Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania if they wanted a full-time World Champion that people could take seriously.
3. It Makes WWE Management & The Audience Look Stupid
You only get one chance at introducing a new belt, and I will always remember this one for Triple H basically admitting that WWE management is inept while simultaneously presenting this new title as nothing but a participation medal as the live crowd claps like trained seals.
Going live on TV to openly talk about the company’s World Champion Roman Reigns getting a part-time contract is one thing, but to essentially praise him for doing so makes Triple H and every other suit-wearing shmuch backstage look like complete amateurs in the field where they’re meant to be the market leaders.
What’s even worse is that Triple H would go on to praise Roman as one of the greatest champions of all time, as if we haven’t all watched literal years worth of screwy finishes that, in kayfabe, the company completely allows to happen every time Roman defends the title. The fact that Roman’s boss is out here applauding this and rewarding him with time off, while every other wrestler falls in line to acknowledge their tribal cheif and fight for this new kids belt instead just makes everybody involved look pathetic and insults the intelligence of the audience.
4. Chapter 1 of it’s History Will Always Be Rooted in Sportswashing.
I could write an entire article on WWE’s disgusting venture into Saudi Arabia but that’s already been done a hundred times over. WWE are always going to WWE. But what if they didn’t…
Let’s say that WWE’s new owners Endeavour decided they want out of the Saudi deal, much like they allegedly halted a Saudi deal for the UFC. They could go on to pat themselves on the back for not being involved in sportswashing, despite all their other dodgy dealings, but still. However, this new champion is set to be crowned at the upcoming Night of Champions event in, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia. So no matter what happens with WWE in the future, it will always be written in the history books that this new championship was first decided in nothing more than a show created for sportswashing practices.
5. It Devalues Roman’s Title Reign
It’s actually hilarious that WWE have had to create what is technically their third (THIRD!) current World Title because they want to protect Roman’s record breaking reign, and in doing so they’ve actually devalued Roman as THE champion. Because that’s just it, he’s no longer the one and only champion, he’s one of two. Even though he holds two World titles.. Yeah it’s confusing.
Once again, and I apologise for repeating myself, wouldn’t it have just been a lot easier to crown Cody as the Undisputed World Champion at WrestleMania and avoid all this convoluted bollocks?
6. It’s Ugly
I’m sorry, I know a lot of people are into this but this championship is ugly to look at. Yes I’m aware that it’s meant to be a modernized version of the classic ‘big gold’ Heavyweight Championship, but smacking a giant WWE logo on the front of it to continue the company’s never-ending pursuit of perfect branding just hurts my eyes. Having said that, it’s probably nicer looking than most their other belts, make of that what you will.
Oh and finally, the irony of it being a big gold belt when it’s nothing more than a giant silver medal is not lost on me. Big self own right there by the lads in Titan Towers. In fact, self own is probably the best way to describe this entire situation.
You can take a closer look at the new championship here:
Well that’s my rant over. Do you agree or can you see the positives in all of this? Without turning this into a giant argument, let me know your thoughts on the new WWE Heavyweight Championship over on twitter @RespawningUK.