5 Superstars Who Would Restore Prestige to the World Heavyweight Championship

The World Heavyweight Championship is not as prestigious as it once was.

It’s spent time as the company’s most valuable prize when it was Raw’s world championship from 2002 to 2005.

Since then, it’s been seen as similarly prestigious to the WWE Championship at times, but has largely been on a slow decline in importance.

The last time it closed a show was at Hell in a Cell in 2010, and in 2013 it more closely resembles a midcard title than a main-event one.

 If the title is to be as coveted as it once was, it needs to be held by superstars the WWE is heavily invested in.

The following are five stars who could restore value to the World Heavyweight Championship.

John Cena

Of course, if the WWE wanted to bolster the prestige of the World Heavyweight Championship, John Cena chasing it would be their first action.

Unfortunately, it’s extremely unlikely to happen.

Even though it’d be a nice change of pace to see Cena pursue a title other than the WWE Championship, he really has become ‘the WWE title guy.’

When Michael Cole talks about Cena's achievements he doesn’t call him a 13-time world champion, he calls him an 11-time WWE champion.

Cena will forever be in the WWE title picture, but his presence would immediately bring the big gold belt back to prominence.

Chris Jericho

The WWE has a history of not treating Chris Jericho like the main-event star he is, so it’s possible that putting the title on him wouldn’t inherently improve its prestige.

What it would do though, is break the streak of uninspired feuds fought over the title.

Christian and RVD are both industry veterans who have had great matches with Alberto Del Rio, but the narrative behind them has been uninspired.

Y2J has a strong history of improving his rivalries via his own creative input, and he finds a way to make any storyline interesting.

If the gold was put around his waist upon his inevitable return, we’d surely see some more entertaining programs involving the title.

Ryback

Unlike everyone else on this list, Ryback isn’t a veteran superstar in the WWE.

Still, despite various setbacks (see: WWE booking themselves into a corner over and over again), Ryback will still be a big deal sometime soon.

It may not seem like that, since he spends most of his time harassing miscellaneous workers backstage in contrived segments, but it’s true. He’s being built up for something.

The WWE takes Big Hungry seriously, and the title needs someone they care about.

If he was world champion the belt would at least be more important than the Divas championship.

The Undertaker

Some people might say: “Pfft, The Undertaker only wrestles once or twice a year, he’ll never be world champion again.”

There’s obviously truth to that, but the beauty of The Undertaker is he doesn’t need to win the title; he just needs to contend for it.

The last time the World Heavyweight Championship rivaled the prestige of the WWE Championship was when The Phenom was feuding with Kane back in 2010.

He’s one of the greatest world heavyweight champions of all time, and all it would take is him making claim for the title in one match to make it matter again.

The problem is it can’t be at WrestleMania because he can’t win, right? No problem, there’s a certain 'Mania rematch that needs to happen, anyway...

CM Punk

CM Punk is the perfect man to resurrect the relevance of the World Heavyweight Championship.

Apart from being the ideal champion for The Undertaker to challenge, he’s also the right man at the right time.

The sub-main event at this Sunday’s Night of Champions is The Second City Saint vs. Paul Heyman and Curtis Axel—it’s not even for a title!

He’s already more important than the big gold belt, so put it on him so he can take it up the card with him.

Daniel Bryan will be busy etching his mark for the next several months, which is plenty of time for Punk to elevate the world heavyweight championship back to lofty heights.