WWE: The United States and Intercontinental Titles Are Hitting Their Low Point

Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we? To a time where wrestling mattered, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair ruled the business and we loved to cheer for heels like The Four Horsemen, Randy Savage and Roddy Piper.

A softer, gentler time in the “business” where Kayfabe meant something and there was one brand of wrestling for each promotion (although territories in the NWA still meant something).

There was none of this two-brand posturing where more titles are needed to make everyone happy and the product is a little watered down because there aren’t enough wrestlers truly challenging for a title.

Ah, now we are in our happy place.

The fact of the matter is the grumblings between John Laurinaitis and Teddy Long over the leadership of the Raw and Smackdown brands can only be taken seriously if it means an end to product separation and the coming to terms with one brand and one world title. There is no other significance of this “divorce” other than awful entertainment.

The way I see it, as do many other wrestling fans, is that the product gets stale when there is no competition. And for everything TNA is doing right now, it still proves fodder as the red-headed stepchild of the WWE. There is no comparison.

Back in the day, the NWA had five or six “major titles” that mattered. All other regional belts led to the ability to challenge for the World Heavyweight Title. That is how we knew about the American Title, the Southern Championship and the Missouri Heavyweight Title.

In the WWF, there were a handful as well. And with 30-40 wrestlers on the rosters of the major promotions, everyone got along. There wasn’t this greed back then like there is today. Everyone knew their role and the pecking order. And they dealt with it the way it should be dealt with: in the ring.

Right now, titles like the Intercontinental Title and the United States Championship mean nothing because they are just straps and not stepping stones onto something bigger and better.

Trying explaining that to Bret Hart or Shawn Michaels or Sting that they would not get a shot at a world title and would carry around a second-rate belt for six months or so have it mean nothing.

Being second in wrestling back in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s meant something.  And the wrestlers who carried those straps were wildly popular; Tito Santana, Pedro Morales, Arn Anderson, Wahoo McDaniel and Greg Valentine.

Now a very inspired Cody Rhodes is not moving toward the top of the food chain and someone like a Jack Swagger has the belt because there is no one else. It’s an embarrassment to the business.

If we want to see real change, then don’t denigrate two of the most storied championships in wrestling history. Give them a meaning.

Have Rhodes chase Sheamus when he wins the World Title. Have Swagger step up and beat the hell out of CM Punk. Make everything mean something, and certainly give us something more to cheer about.