TNA: It's Time to Drop Championship Titles From Your Promotion

Championship (\'cham-pee-yon-ship\)- n .  1.  The position or title of a winner.  2.  An ardent defender of a person or cause.  3.  A competition, or series of competitions, held to determine a winner.

Belt (\'belt\)- n.  A flexible band or strap, typically made of leather or heavy cloth, and worn around the waist.  A belt supports trousers or other articles of clothing, and it serves for style and decoration.  

Remember, at the conclusion of an epic battle for a championship, when former WWF ring announcer Howard Finkle, would announce the winner and "NEEEEEWW!" Champion? 

That announcement was like the icing on the cake.  It contributed to a moment.  It signified the changing of the guard or the arrival of a new star.

It meant that another kid would get a turn to try the big swing, while all the children at the playground eagerly watched and waited for their opportunity. 

The announcement helped make the championship in question seem special.  The announcement in and of itself was special.

That was then, this is now. 

Never has that distinction been more apparent than in present day TNA. 

For quite some time, TNA has failed at making their championship titles seem special. 

In fact, each championship division in TNA has recently shown alarming signs that the promotion features belts as opposed to championships.

In an industry filled with standouts trying to stand out from one another, a championship is a coveted prize that is supposed to facilitate one's ultimate goal of super stardom. 

When one wears a championship title, he or she is identified as the cream of their respective crop.  

This honor is only fully realized assuming the title in question has been properly promoted, and carries enough meaning, to the point where whoever possesses such a title carries just as much meaning if not more. 

In TNA, this just isn't the case. 

Take the X-Division, for example. 

X-Division Champion Douglas Williams was stripped of his belt for being stranded overseas due to circumstances out of his control. 

Kazarian went on to win the belt, without pinning the champion in the field of battle, however, he never wore it once. 

Douglas kept it. Then he beat Kazarian to, um, retain? Congrats, I guess. 

When the UFC is in a quandary that hinders a scheduled championship title defense, they implement an interim championship. 

The interim championship is actually a belt that is temporarily awarded to the winner, usually until the incumbent champion is able to compete. 

This creates juicy discussion as to who should be the champion. 

"Sure Brock is the champion, now, but did you see what Shane Carwin did to Frank Mir in the interim title match?!  Just who is the real champion?  I can't wait to find out when they fight each other to unify those things! "

Even in professional wrestling, when Shawn Michaels was suspended for six weeks and refused to give up his Intercontinental Championship, a new champion was crowned. 

That new champion, Razor Ramon, was awarded with a belt. 

Upon Michaels' return, the original championship was factored into the storyline.  What resulted was the first ladder match in WWE history. 

At Wrestlemania X. 

It was one of the greatest in ring contests of all time, and a championship literally was hanging in the balance. Talk about making a championship seem special. 

The antithesis of making a championship feel special, however, is openly defying the powers that be who held a sanctioned contest to crown a new champion. 

Then winning the ensuing championship match to prove that the previous championship match really was a waste of time. 

Everybody loses in that situation, even the champion Douglas Williams.  

But TNA has proved that the champion doesn't have to be a loser for his or her belt to change hands. 

Hell, just look at the Knockout division where the champion was not pinned the last two times that belt changed hands. 

In fact, the belt literally changed hands on a recent episode of Impact that saw Angelina Love awarded the Knockouts Title in a Lockbox Showdown. 

As ugly as the Knockouts belt situation has become, it can be safely said that the belt is at least designed to serve a purpose: To determine the best women's wrestler in TNA.

The Global Championship, however, doesn't serve a purpose. 

Just ask TNA Creative Contributor Eric Bischoff.  Bischoff, who has had recently developed an affinity for making questionable public statements, was once asked what the difference between a TNA Global Championship and a TNA World Championship was. 

His response?  

"That's a DAMN GOOD question.  Been on my mind as well. " [Source: Facebook ] 

Did I mention that the current TNA Global Champion is Rob Terry, who's move set is about as limited as the average person's list of their favorite Pauly Shore movies?

I'm probably losing readers just by mentioning the TNA Global Championship.

TNA Tries to gain their readers, and by readers I mean ratings, with the inclusion of washouts like Scott Hall and Kevin Nash. Washouts who are now your tag team beltholders. Along with Eric Young. 

Ugh. 

Remember when tag team championships were held by actual tag teams? 

Teams of two? 

Sure the Freebird rule can be cute when executed properly, but there was once a time where legendary tag teams battled each other in their primes for the right to win tag team championships. 

Meanwhile, the holders of TNA's last two tag team belts have been a makeshift three man, "wait, don't change the channel just yet!" show and a one man gang in Matt Morgan. 

This is the tag team division, right?  

The bleeding doesn't just stop with championship belts. It seems as if every award in TNA is crippled by inept booking.  

Take the 'Feast or Fired' briefcases, which were used by The Band to win the above mentioned tag team belts.  

After winning the briefcase months ago, Kevin Nash was not seen carrying the briefcase at subsequent Impact shows. 

By the time he finally cashed in the briefcase, everybody forgot he had even had it in the first place. 

His cheapened win was met not with anticipatory cheer but borderline ambivalence.

The Feast of Fired concept was a direct ripoff of the WWE's more successful Money in the Bank model.  This model is successful for a host of reasons, all of which are inexplicably ignored by TNA's creative team.  

The Money in the Bank (MITB) Briefcase is featured once a year at Wrestlemania, the biggest pay per view in sports and entertainment. 

The winner of the briefcase is seen with the briefcase everywhere he goes. 

Every time he is shown with this briefcase, the announcers make sure to remind the viewer that he won the briefcase at Wrestlemania and can cash it in at anytime.  

"When will he cash it in?  Today?  Tomorrow?  Next week?  In the main event?  At the company picnic?!!  Keep tuning in to find out!"

Every superstar who has won the Money in the Bank briefcase has been successful in his attempt, which is usually executed in a shrewd and opportunistic manner.

Nevertheless, a new champion is crowned, a star is born.

Did I mention that the freaking briefcase has been built up so well that it's now getting its own spinoff ?

Despite a common sense formula being set in place to elevate stars through the "opportunistic briefcase theory," TNA failed at each of the junctures that have proven to be critical in getting heat on a briefcase and the star who holds it. 

Nash didn't carry the briefcase around until he needed it. Then he won the tag belts out of nowhere. 

I guess that's the genius "Lost" booking that Vince Russo insists creates compelling television. 

It didn't help that during this crash TV segment, The TNA announcers, who are instrumental in creating heat on championships and titles, admitted that they forgot Nash even had the briefcase.

I remember when Hernandez earned a championship title opportunity in a similar fashion, and decided to cash it in against Sting. 

While Sting's cronies (The Main Event Mafia) were standing in the ring. 

Hernandez's attempt failed, of course. Where is he now?

Even TNA's vaunted WWE Hall of Fame Rings, which are routinely defended in the field of battle, are devalued through creative mishaps. 

When Abyss beat Flair in a match that was advertised to be for Ric Flair's Hall of Fame Ring, Hogan bigfooted the Monster and awarded it to the first guy in a suit who could pull off a decent Flair impression.  

Abyss' recent defense of his own WWE Hall of Fame ring was trumped by a simultaneously distasteful rape storyline where Chelsea, was ultimately part of the prize package, to be awarded the victor.

TNA can't even get this whole Championship thing right when the fan's voice is able to be heard.

Upon winning the popular vote in TNA's new fan poll to determine the no. one contender for the TNA Heavyweight belt, Desmond Wolfe was virtually squashed in a three minute tune up match against Rob Van Dam. 

Prior to this embarrassing display, Hogan "forgot" to mention the all important fact that Wolfe had earned this honor in the fan poll when he made the match.  

Oops. Consider that system crippled. I don't need to wait for it to be explained.  

So it is with this outstanding evidence presented today that I have built a case to be punctuated with a simple plea to TNA.

Drop the titles. Please.

Perhaps TNA needs to go without Championship titles for a while. 

After all, the once famous glam metal band Cinderella once told me that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. 

Sure you laugh now, but it's gotten to the point where championships and awards in TNA intensify the ridiculousness of the contest held in their honor. Needless to say, this defeats the purpose of a championship.

Just ask yourself, what's a bleeding old man doing fighting a freak for a ring?

Why does that slow, tall grey haired guy have a briefcase in his hand? 

Why is that muscled out pet project, who couldn't work an assembly line, wearing a belt? 

Didn't Douglas Williams get stripped of his belt? Then why is he wearing it? 

And how foolish do the powers that be look now that he won it back just one month later? 

Aren't two people supposed to be tag team champions? 

When did the tag team count go from one to three? What happened to two? 

Why did the Knockouts belt change hands...in a box?

TNA can't even get the booking right for its most prestigious prize.  

Rob Van Dam, a man who once held the ECW Television Championship for almost two years, was booked to win the TNA Heavyweight championship on free television with no hype, no advertising, and hundreds of thousands of pay per view buys thrown out of the window.  

All to pop a rating? Maybe that's the championship TNA needs to be focusing on for the time being. A decent rating.

It's one thing to devalue the meaning of a championship. But when the championship itself is booked so poorly that it devalues the meaning of your product, that's when you know you've screwed up. 

That's when it's time to drop the titles.

At least until TNA learns how to use them.