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Titles With No Respect
May 3, 2005 by Alissia Peric

Let me start by saying that the World Heavyweight championship and the WWE title have gone from being held by some of the greatest wrestlers of all time, to steroid addicted wannabe's (Batista), and a kid that turns the WWE Title into a spinning pizza tray (John Cena).

There once was a time when the World Heavyweight title was held by greats such as Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit to Randy Orton (Pretty-boy that held the title for four weeks) and Batista (Next time you watch him wrestle look at the holes in his upper back where he injects his steroids). I honestly can say I'm disgusted. I would rather see the return of Brock Lesnar (I've heard some things), or The Rock (Please come back we love you) and them with the titles.

As well as the Intercontinental and US title (Thank god it's back), Shelton Benjamin has held the title too long for a rookie and as much as I think Cena was a great US Champ, I've got to thank OJ for changing it back. Orlando Jordan has not defended it once and Edge was stripped of the title because of a leg injury in which he wouldn't be able to defend the title every 30 days. Well Shelton hasn't exactly defended it that often has he"

The World Tag Team and WWE Tag team is a totally different story altogether. The World Tag team Champions Regal and Tajiri just flopped outta no-where, but it will open a road for a lot of feuds, such as when Eugene returns, I don't think he'll be too happy about the Regal-Tajiri connection. The WWE tag team titles are finally held by a team that knows how to wrestle. Paul London and Billy Kidman were great too though.

Now the Women's title, that is being held by a dumb blonde who thinks she is good because she defeated a wrestler in her 4th match (2 of her matches were laundrette pillow fights).

What about the One Million dollar Tough Enough Champion Daniel Puder, he was entered in the Royal Rumble and got his butt kicked, and Christy Hemme is a waste of everyone's time, I think the best place for her is in a magazine so we can CLOSE IT. And thank God Maven is in a feud, but why the hell is that Simon Dean his tag Partner, I'd rather see Puder come to RAW or Maven go to SmackDown! and then win the World Tag Team or WWE Tag team titles.

by Alissia Peric ..

Erkka J�rvinen wrote:
Actually, i have been thinking this and i gotta say...after Shelton took over the IC title it has been getting worse. Just re-cap some of the IC moments which we got during 2004 before Shelton became IC champion. Randy Orton vs Mick Foley at Backlash 2004 was no doubt best match in that card AND it had a big storyline behind it. Again, RKO brought us an amazing IC title match with Edge at Vengeance 2004 and i could say it was second best match in the card. Then, we were treated with average Triple Threat which lead to a Jericho & Edge feud which continued till Edge's injury. Next, when Bischoff vacated the IC title, Christian and Jericho fought in an intense Ladder match! After that, became the dark era...the era of SB(Shelton Benjamin) or more likely backwards Benjamin Shelton (BS=bullshit) I haven't seen any good matches from him and the segment with Maven (i dont recall it an IC title match) was awful, which proved that both Shelton or Maven has zero charisma.

What comes to the RAW title and SD! title,i think they are being raped by talentless guys like Cena and Batista. Cena basicly spits in the faces of all the great champions before him!! Look what he did to that title!!!! Someone save the WWE title !!!!

Katie (Green Bay, Wisconsin) wrote:
First of all, I would like to agree on all points when it comes to the Women's Division. All we have for a Women's Division is a bunch of women prancing around in bikinis, underwear and some clothing that I can't really explain with their fake boobs hanging out like sore thumbs. I remember the days of Alundra Blayze, Bull Nakano and decent wrestlers who can actually wrestle and didn't prance around like a cheap whore.

Secondly, I'm in total disagreement in your bashing with Batista. You referred to him as a 'steroid addicted wannabe'. How can you bash someone like Batista and endorse Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar was arrested in January of 2001 on an illegal possession of steroids. So, what does that make him" A steroid addicted wannabe...exactly!

Finally, John Cena is very entertaining and I know you don't like changes being made to title belts, but change can be good for a company like the WWE. John Cena has made a load of money with his merchandising for the WWE and Vince (McMahon) doesn't care as long as he makes money. Same goes for Orton. Orton's looks are bringing a lot of women (who haven't seen a WWE show in their lives like I have)into some of these shows and throughout the whole show are impressed at the skill of the other wrestlers and ending up wanting more of the show's entertainment value. That means bigger bucks for Vince and the other wrestlers. So, in other words, all who are involved in this business circle benefit from the good things in a company. Yes, I'm a business major in college, so I know these things

Tony Mayes wrote:
My God, They will let anybody write a column these days. What was your point writing this" If you don't like who the WWE has as Champions then don't watch it. I think Cena is a great champion and the fact that the title was changed to fit his gimmick was a great idea on behalf of the WWE. Vince himself has already stated in recent remarks about the champions is that he is looking for something new. He is tired of the same old people as champion. You don't have to worry about Brock Lesnar cause he is trying to play football Again. These titles are about one thing. Who is the best as of right now. Cena is the best in Vince's eyes right now cause of the fans and so is Batista. There for those two have the titles. As far as the other titles such as the IC, US, Tag, and Womens title they will once again mean something once the WWE adjust to the new roster and newer talents they bring in.

Joe Tobin wrote:
People have short memories. Remember back a few years ago when Stone Cold Steve Austin had the 'Smoking Skull' belt made to replace the then-WWF World Title" How is John Cena's new belts any different to this" I don't remember Stone Cold getting flak on for it so why are people bagging out John Cena for the same thing"

Darron wrote:
Well the truth of the matter is that with the exception of Shelton Benjamin's reign the rest of the titles are worthless and should be all thrown in the trash. Shelton is the only one who steps his game up in a title match and that's what makes a great title match which is something that former champions like Triple H and Randy Orton needs to learn but hell those guys can't even do their finishers properly much less put on a great title match so I guess that's asking too much of them.

John Cena needs to slapped for making the title belt into a spinner and should be beaten to death by the guys who made it possible for him to hold that belt today like Bruno Sammartino, Killer Kowalski and all of the other guys who take the title and it's apperance seriously and didn't turn it into a Flavor Flav medallion to be shown off in some stupid MTV video or something. Instead of tricking out the belt he needs to trick out his wrestling skills cuz I haven't seen him in a great wrestling match yet so he might wanna drop the mic and actually wrestle for a change.

Johnny Morgan wrote:
John Cena, a wrestler who can't wrestle nor rap, in Vince McMahon's world, is thought of as "world champion" material" A man, who takes the belt, and makes a turntable out of it, is supposed to be respected as a class act" I would rather Eugene have the belt! At least he would respect the history of the belt, not like John "I want to rap, but I can't wrestle worth a crap" Cena! JBL had more respect for the title than what is being shown now, at least he didn't glue bull horns on the belt, for crying out loud! And thank God that Orlando Jordan has the U. S. belt and reverted it back to the way it was. And about Bastista, it's just what we really need, huh" Another steroid filled gorilla being crowned champion! but I will give him credit, he hasn't turned "Big Goldy" into a turntable so far! The worst thing that can happen is, maybe if someone else wins it, they have to wipe the drool off of it.

The tag team situation is far worse on Raw than on Smackdown, however. On the Raw side, we have those great wrestling technicians, Rosey and The Hurricane (give me a break), as tag champions. This makes me actually wish that they gave the titles to Doink and Dink! At least they would have been more credible than these two mistakes in the creative writing department. On the Smackdown side of things, MNM are a pretty good tag team. More so than the two sideshow rejects Raw has. Maybe we can get a legitimate tag team in Raw, like The Dueleys, before they actually decide to give them to Jerry "The King" Lawler and "Good Ole" J.R.! Then again, that may be a step up!

God of Gods wrote:
First of all, i think this is startiung to get a little over critical. While a lot of this i agree with, their is so much that i allso must dissagree with. Complaining about john cena's new title belt... Have you seen the last one, the one JBL has been carrying. That thing looks horrible. John Cena adjuted the belt to represnt and express himself. Theirs nothing rong with that.

Regaurding Shelton, ill admit that some of the matches havent been all that great, but his athletasim is increadable. Just look at his recent match against shawn michaels. Even shawn had to give Shelton some complament. The types of matches shelton is put in to is not allways his choise, that dission lies with the managment. So complain to them, not Shelton.

The Tough Enough Champion Daniel Puder, he just won his contract, that doesnt mean he knows everythign about how to survive in the ring yet. Maven.. hes just a moron with zero charisma. As for Darron's comment about cena saying he should 'drop the mic and actually wrestle for a change'. Id like to see you take him on. Give these ppl a break. The majority of you people allways want to critasize these ppl, but u never have anything to do to help. You all complain and complain and give some more shitty suggestions. Perhaps theirll listen to you all when you have sopmethign good to say for a change.

BoiOfLife wrote:
I think the points here, though poorly expressed, have some merit. Although I have to disagree with the concept of wrestlers changing their belt. That has been going on for a long period of time. The champ holds the belt and can do what they want with it. Shawn Michaels and the Ultimate Warrior changed the color of their belts on a daily basis.

But I think WWE has lost the concept of what a wrestling title means. There have traditionally been a few ways for a champion to be represented. Generally, in WWE history, a face would hold the World Title. No matter how long they held it, their reigns were longer than the heels' and the champions were dominant. At the same time, the IC Champion was usually a dominant heel. This created match interest because fans would tune in to hope that the heel would lose the belt (or, if you like heels, it was refreshing to have a heel as champ).

Shelton Benjamin is a poor IC Champion because he does not create interest around the belt. Batista is a poor World Champion because he really has not earned his way to the belt. Just a year ago to even mention him in the same breath as World Champion would have gotten the speaker laughed at. John Cena is too concerned with trying to be a rap star and not being a wrestler. It's a spit in the face of the belt that the holder of the title is not concerned with being a wrestler FIRST. Orlando Jordan does not have the charisma nor ability to make the US Title scene interesting.

JBL has been the best champion the WWE has had holding any title in a while. He put over other wrestlers, yet always came out on top. He had hard nosed charisma and infuriated his audience. WWE would be smart to put the title back on him as soon as possible.

"Lucifer" Nick (from Singapore) wrote:
I couldn't agree less. I feel that the tag team titles were crummy. I am, MNM tag team champs at smackdown" And Hurricane and Rosey champs at Raw" That was really funny. In the first place, MNM had bad charisma when they first came. They couldn't talk worse, and they beat a team like Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero. I thought it wasn't a good heel turn for Eddie. And the two crazy comic book fanatics won the titles through a tag team turmoil at Backlash. In the past, the turmoils were fought for number one condenderships for the tag team titles. I felt that both titles were lost too easily.

Owen Prince - Fan since 1988 (Australia) wrote:
Am I the only one amazed that people who know nothing about Wrestling are the same people who write "columns" on a website dedicated to that very business"

For those who want to whine and winge about the title belt and title run of John Cena, have a good long think about some of the people who have held title belts and what they did to those belts... from Stone Colds Smoking Skull belt to the Ultimate Warriors Hyper Colour belts the title belt has been changed and adapted for the times and for the title holder. It is done simply to impress upon fans the title holders character and personality. It is changed by the creative team, not the wrestler alone. Sure there is input from the WWE Superstar but just you remember Vince has the last say in everything that happens in his company, NOT John Cena, NOT HBK or Hunter, Vince McMahon Jnr.

To those who bash Batista's credentials as a Wrestler and Champion... remember where he came from. Remember his days in the Indies and his time at OVW. Remember that he has spent time paying his dues in these lower ranks and was given the ball to run with because of the reaction and following brought to him from the FANS. The fans are the people who dictate the direction of a Wrestling Company... the fans decide who is hot, who is not and who gets the arse. WWE needs to feed the fans what they want to see, and Hunter getting it from the guys who he treated as his little women (Orton and Batista) was exactly what they wanted. Randy got over sooner becuase he had more mic time and had the IC title, Batista was the silent assasin of Evolution who did his job until he realised his employer was an asshole.

Now to the IC title, Shelton Benjamin is a perfect example of what the IC title is meant for; to build a mid card talent who HAS talent into a World Champion/ WWE Champion over time. Look at HBK, HHH, Austin, Rock, Savage. These guys had memorable runs with the IC Title, only to end up WWE Champ in the long run. Not all IC Title holders end up WWE Champ; Honky Tonk Man, Mr Perfect, Ricky The Dragon Steamboat; but they do become the number two guy in a company where there used to only be one number one guy. Now ofcourse the work load is shared and as such the IC Belt can be truly utalised to push a guy from Mid Card to main event; need I sight Orton, Edge, Christian or any more guys" Giving the strap to a young guy lets them be tested as to how they will handle to load of a major title later on in their WWE time. Give Shelton a go, he is a fine wrestler with damn fine skills and a killer physique (and tell me it isn't nice to see an African American hold a title for once). On that point it is nice to see both Shelton and Orlando Jordan hold titles as African Americans. The whole US Title is being used on SmackDown! the same way the IC Strap is being used on RAW, to develop the superstars of tomorrow today.

As for the Tag Team titles, this entire division is a wasted space for both programs. Remember the days of The Rockers, Demolition, Legion of Doom, The Hart Foundation, even the God damn New Age Outlaws. A time when a team was a TEAM not two guys who have nothing else to do except tag together to kill time until they are fed to Hunter to destroy and make a point out of for his next opponent. Bring back REAL teams and they might just save a dying art.

Women's wrestling was worth watching as little as two years ago. But with Diva searches and ring announcers becoming characters for the purpose of eye candy, I am scared the legacy of Moulah and Co will be forever lost. Trish, Victoria and Co do not have enough options for fueds to keep this belt interesting. Bring in new fresh female WRESTLERS who have something to offer other than a g string flash you might have my attention, until then... I will keep going for a piss break as our esteemed friend wrote.

Titles are there to be fought over and love the champions or not, they are held by those who the fans see fit to be their leader. And if you are a fan you would know this.

wrote:

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