WWE Title Picture; How to Make the Championships Relevant in 2012

Now that John Laurinaitis has control over both Raw and Smackdown, coupled with the lack of upper middle card talent, it would make sense to restructure the WWE title picture.

The only belt with any meaning behind it is the WWE Championship. The once prestigious World Heavyweight Title is a shell of its former self. That’s not to take anything away from Sheamus, but when the biggest match of the year is an 18-second squash match, there is a problem. Now it worked out because it helped Daniel Bryan get over huge with the fans, but that was obviously not their intention.

The Intercontinental Championship is finally relevant again with the title changing hands to Christian. Personally, I’m a big fan of Cody Rhodes, however over the nine months he held the title he did not have a single relevant feud that involved the belt. His feud with Booker T was more about the animosity between them than the actual championship. Same goes for the storyline he had with the Big Show. It was more about the people more than it was about the title.  

The United States Title has been an afterthought for a while. The only time people cared for it was when Zack Ryder finally beat Dolph Ziggler for the title at the TLC Pay-Per-View this past December. Then when he lost it to Jack Swagger, due to the kayfabe injury he suffered during the Cena/Eve/Kane storyline, people stopped caring again. Notice, not a single word was said about Santino. His reign has been lackluster to say the least.

Now, the Tag Team Championships have been a joke for quite some time. The WWE just does not take tag team wrestling serious anymore. Most teams fighting for the titles have been a mix-match of mid-card talent that is not currently being used in any story lines (ex: Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston/R Truth). The tag teams that they do have just don’t have enough personality to win over the crowd. Primo and Epico had an alright run with the title when they had the chance to showcase their skills. The Usos have won over with the crowd, but have just done the job for other tag teams, recently losing to the new team of Titus O’Neal and Darren Young.

Finally, there has been zero respect for the Divas Championship in a long time as well. Beth Phoenix recently had an uninspired 200+ day reign where I can’t recall a single time she put the title on the line. At WrestleMania, where all top titles and talents should be staged, the title was put on the back-burner for a tag team match featuring Maria Menounos. Same thing happened last year with the mix-tag team match with Snookie getting the pin over Michelle McCool.

Stay tuned for my next few blogs as we will be going over some potential storylines as well as some other ideas that will help restore the glory to the WWE Title Picture.

Also, follow me on Twitter @JPBrooks2 as I live tweet during WWE shows and all WWE Pay-Per Views.