WWE Championships: Would Adding Weight Classes Make Things Better?

Every fighting sport, whether it is boxing, MMA, competitive martial arts (yes, it is different from MMA) or any other kind of fighting sport all have one thing in common—weight classes.

This is, of course, with the exception of professional wrestling. WWE, TNA and ROH are the three largest promotions in the United States, and none of them use weight classes, at least not very well.

Some promotions around the world as well as past US promotions have used weight classes, and it actually worked well, too.

The idea behind weight-class separation is that the smaller fighters have a better chance against each other than against guys twice their size.

When UFC first began, they did not have weight classes. Now they do, and they have never been more popular. I am not saying the reason for their popularity was the addition of more belts, but it helped them to promote more than one fighter as champion.

WWE could introduce a weight-class system that would add to the current structure without necessarily destroying it. Here is what I propose.

Have the WWE title remain the top title in the company and be eligible for contention by anyone. The next step would be to remove either the US or IC title, no need for overkill if we are adding more belts to the mix.

Next they would have to add a cruiserweight and middleweight championship. Having the weight classes overlap by 10 or 15 pounds would allow some competitors to bounce between divisions. Here is what I think a good setup could look like.

• Heavyweight division: 250 pounds and up
• Middleweight division: 215-260 pounds
• Cruiserweight division: Anything up to 230 pounds

This kind of system would make it so there were three titles which were contested by weight class and two titles which were contested by anybody.

The three titles divided by weight class would all be considered equal, but more along the lines of second-tier titles, while the IC or US title would be a second-tier title as well, but able to be fought over by anyone.

The weight-class championships would have to be viewed as equal in order for this to work. Having seen how WWE treated their cruiserweight division toward the end, I doubt this would be possible.

One thing that many fans feel is that WWE could use one or two more titles to help push some of their lower-card talents. The European and Hardcore titles were used to help get many superstars over in their day. Why not try to repeat that success with a different formula?

I realize that the odds of this kind of thing happening in WWE are close to none, but they are always looking for ways to spice up their product, and I feel this could help in that department.

Adding this kind of system would also help them to keep the idea of the brand extension intact. They could have SmackDown operate on the weight-class system while Raw uses the WWE and IC titles.

SmackDown has a more diverse selection of wrestlers in terms of size, which would help make this more possible.

WWE has not had any titles taken away or introduced since the Womens's title and ECW title were dropped altogether a few years back, so doing this would freshen things up a bit.

This would also help WWE if they planned on adding any more weekly wrestling to the schedule once the network is up and running.

What do you think?

Would WWE be able to benefit from weight classes, or is everything fine the way it is?

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