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WRESTLING COLUMNS

World Heavyweight Championship = WWE Championship"
April 23, 2005 by Craig Lewis

Each and every company wrestling organisation has one man who can call himself the number one in the company, the chosen one and most importantly the World heavyweight champion...Except for the WWE.

-TNA currently has Jeff Jarrett; a worthy champion nonetheless and there is no other belt in TNA that rivals the heavyweight championship.

-ROH currently has Austin Aries as their champion, and again no title rivals that championship.

-WWE has had for the past two and a half years had two champions, one on RAW and one on SmackDown! These titles rival each other.

Every since that fatal period of time when Stephanie McMahon made the (then) WWE champion, Brock Lesnar exclusive to SmackDown! And Eric Bischoff awarded Triple H with the World Heavyweight Championship to RAW, the championships have lost their values.

Back in the days of Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Bret 'Hitman' Hart, 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and Sting there was only one World Heavyweight championship to each company, the WWF and NWA/WCW. In the 1990's you had to earn your shot at the World Heavyweight championship but in today's age anybody can receive a championship match i.e. Maven (a rookie who has proven nothing) had a shot a becoming the World Heavyweight champion on the 15th November 2004 episode of RAW.

The fact that the WWE has two World Championships, I think degrades the belt as it is not seen with the prestige as once was. In my eyes there should be one World Heavyweight champion that should work both shows, as this will bring back the honour of being the main man in the WWE. It doesn't matter if there are separate brands, I would just prefer it if there was One World Heavyweight Champion.

Even though the both championships are of equal value I find that in conclusion, at the moment in time I see the RAW brands, World Heavyweight Championship as the much better belt because of the man that has made that what it is today. That man is Ric Flair.

by Craig Lewis ..

Mark James Schryver wrote:
If you want to credit one of the WWE's championship's as being better than the other, that's fine, but I think you need to reconsider your choice.

The WWE championship is the coninuation of the Unified Championship. It contains within itself the twin legacies of the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, and the NWA/WCW World Heavyweight Championship, the two World titles that Ric Flair has held, multiple times each, in his storied career.

If the main factor for you in deciding which belt is the better one is the prestige that Ric Flair's involvement has brought to it, then you've got to go with the WWE Championship (the Smackdown! title), and not the World Heavyweight Championship (the RAW title).

Yes, the RAW title is currently represented by the old WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt, but that's just the belt; the title itself was folded into the Unified Championship, and that title is now the WWE Championship.

Matthew Geddes wrote:
Anyone who would like a full history of championship matches in the WWE can feel free to email me ([email protected]) with WWE Titles as the subject heading. You'd be surprised just who has had a title shot over the years.

USC0Dave wrote:
I agree with this column wholeheartedly; the fact that there are two champs makes it even harder for new fans to get involved: "OK so this guy is the World Champ. Who's this other guy then" Wait, why are there two champs" Raw and Smackdown are both the same company right" What's going on"" I not only agree that there should only be ONE top belt in WWE, I might also go a step further and say the rosters should be re-merged. On the other hand, there are guys on BOTH shows who are not getting enough TV time as it is, so the re-merging of the rosters might not be good for the up-and-comers, or even some of the talented veterans who are stuck at mid-card level. The downside, though, of having only one champion, would be for the champ himself; the travel schedule would be so much tougher on whoever held the belt. Would he be on both shows every week" Or would he only be on the show that has the current number one contender" And how would you have the shows compete over who gets to pick the next number one contender" And finally, the question I would have for this columnist is, would you also go the extra step and re-unify the tag belts" What about the Intercontinental and US Belts" Would you also have Trish Stratus defending her Women's Title against Smackdown Divas like Torrie and Dawn Marie" I agree that the title of "World Champion" has lost a lot of its meaning in the WWE, but I have no idea what could be done to fix this. In the meantime, whichever show I'm watching, Raw or Smackdown, I just pretend that, for the 2 hours that I'm watching, the champ of that show is the main guy and that there are no other champs. Lame but it gets me by. :)

Dev Hasan wrote:
Ric Flair" I dont see how people can mark Ric Flair the move wonder the "Greatest Wrestler Ever" There are millions of wrestlers that are better than Ric Flair.

Bret Hart, Chris Benoit, The Undertaker, Triple H, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat, Sting, Razor Roman, Shawn Michaels, Dynamite Kid.

Ric Flair does the stupid some routine every night and forever stuck with it like the legendary Stu Hart said (RIP) and forever stuck with it. Does a few chops, 1 chop block and you'll be lucky to see a suplex. He climbs the turnbuckle, gets thrown off, gets a blade and cuts his face and that makes him the greatest wrestler. To me Ric Flair is the greatest assclown. And if he ever told me otherwise, I'll slap him in the face and say "shut your mouth old man before I stuff my foot down your ass and break you face on the pavement curb"

If you say Ric Flair is all charismatic. Boo Hoo, The Rock is most charismatic guy they had. Rocky could out-talk anyone on the microphone and he was a better wrestler than Flair just doing 1 chop and a chopblock.

Flair telling people Bret Hart was never a good champion or a wrestler was a complete joke. Bret Hart was selling out arenas as the WWF Heavyweight Champion while Ric Flair was down south beating some jabroni for the NWA title. Sure he faced great wrestlers but he isnt the greatest. Sure Bret never had charisma like The Rock, but he did talk on the microphone and diss the crap outta the americans when he had to and he made a good job of it. Not everyone can be as charismatic like Y2J and Rock. Y2J is another example. The guy can wrestle and he has bags loads of charisma, his debut in the WWF in 1999 was PROOF he had what it took and coming from Calgary, Alberta training with The Hart's was of course the reason.

My friend went to a RAW show the other night. He saw Ric and asked for an autograph and he shouted at him and told him to get lost. What kind of "Great Wrestler" is he" Bret never did that to the fans, people like Jericho, Rock, Bret, Foley, Trish are nice and would stop and sign stuff for the fans without shouting at them and telling them to get lost.

If woo's and a chop make you the greatest wrestler ever, any guy in the world could become the greatest wrestler ever.

Talking about WWE Champions now, Ric Flair never made the WWE, Ric will never be a WWE guy. Nor did he ever make the WWE Title mean something. He will always be a WCW b!ch and nothing else. Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Stone Cold Steve Austin ,The Rock, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Mick Foley are the real guys who made what the WWE is today. Ric Flair saying he carried Bret in his matces and out-wrestled Bret is a joke. If any real fan knows wrestling everyone will know Bret, Kurt, Benoit, Dynamite Kid, Jericho will out-wrestle him before he can even blink.

The only damn thing strong about Ric Flair was his damn breath in the ring when he did those "Wooo's"

Peter Abonza wrote:
I think your column proves nothing. The only thing in the WWE that is worthless is RAW's World Heavyweight Championship (aka: WCW Championship). Even though the Legendary Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and Sting held this belt, the belt doesn't have it's reputation anymore. Triple H has ruined what was once sacred to thousands. Even Batista a no worthy opponent to Triple H has the belt. Smackdown!'s belt has proven time and time again that it is the most dominant. These past few weeks on Smackdown! there has been PPV worthy matches for free! While RAW it's all about who turns on Triple H, uh Randy Orton uh... Batista. Ring a bell. While Smackdown! has a tournament, superstars working their asses off to get a title shot. Rey Mysterio, Jr. Vs. JBL: good, would have been better if Orlando Jordan and Eddie Guerrero weren't in the equation, Eddie Guerrero Vs. Kurt Angle: This match was awesome a classic rematch of Wrestlemania XX, great match!, and Booker T Vs. The Big Show: Good match also PPV worthy, both men put their heart out there, now Theodore decides another PPV worthy match next week on Smackdown! a Fatal-Four Match: JBL vs. The Big Show vs. Kurt Angle vs. Booker T, god I love Smackdown!. The WWE Championship has it's legacy and Smackdown! has kept it that way, as for RAW ha don't make me laugh. It's not that I hate RAW's belt, it is that it has so much bad blood from Triple H back to the WCW from where Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash held this belt during the n.W.o era. The WWE Championship is the best and will always be the best. I would rather stick to classy and original than a stupid corrupted title any day. Thanks Bishoff, Thanks for screwing RAW!

jimmy huseman wrote:
To me the WWE championship has lost its prestigue and the World HeavyWeight Championship keeps rising higher and higher, the wwe championship maybe the undisputed title but in the last year there has only been three champions, eddie gurrero a perfomer, JBL should not have been the wwe champion that long it lost smackdown ratings and its title prestigue, because all JBL would do is not wrestle often, call himself a god, and he retained the wwe championship because of others in every match that he wrestled to defend it unless the match was against spike dudley who he still had a hard time with, john cena a fan favorite but not one of mine, i think when he changed the us title it was good, but a repeat with the wwe title was a little to far and people that dont follow that lifestyle (like me) really dont like it, I feel that the next wwe champion is rey mysterio hands down, he has worked so hard over his long career and his journey should be capped off with the wwe championship, back to raw, Look at all the great champions raw has had in its short history with the World HeavyWeight title, champions like, triple h a great wrestler, HBK a true hall of famer, goldberg as intense as it gets, Randy orton as cocky as it gets yet he is finess, Batista the animal the power he is, Chris Beniot (my personal favorite) he is the crippler toothless agression and is and always will be a strong competior, the champions make the championship and smackdown cant keep up with raw

Axel Hawk wrote:
o kay first off let me clear the air out with all the comments on who the best champion is or which belt is better. lets go back to july or august 2001, during the whlole ivasion angle, the rock being the "MASTER OF THE MIC" dissed out the world heavywight title in one of his 2 to 3 hour promos. claiming that the belt was and is a complete joke, saying that at one time the belt was even held by david arquette, he told shane mcmahon that the belt had been passed around more times than your sister stephanie. the hold thing was funny, in fact it was a joke, just like the belt. think about it was just handed to HHH with out him even eaning it. yeah some fans get mad when some one makes comments about HHH being champion becauase of him being stephanies husband. well what other reason can it be, because "HE'S THE BEST", WHAT A JOKE, FACE IT, he is the only reason why that belt is so prestigios, yeah sure what ever, so smackdown has had the same champion for 10 months so what, isnt that what raw did during the late 2002 and 2003 era. it wasnt until golberg came in took the belt from the son -in-law, at this point in time anything is better than watching hunter have the belt, loose it and get it back, the smack down belt was and will always be the original belt. look at the history, from hulk hogan, to kurt angle, stone cold steve austin, to the ultimate warrior, macho man, bret hart, shawn michaels, and yes even hunter. a couple of months ago on smackdown, eddie guerrero was talking to booker t. about haw he was the five time heavyweight champion, but yet he had not been able to win the big one. just last year, were all happy to see chris benoit win the heavy weight tilted, but not too long ago less than 5 years ago, benoit won that same title in wcw during his last match at souled out vs sid vicious, he didnt even want that belt, he threw it in the trash and came north to wwf. the best move he ever did. his tiltle reign would have meant more if he would have stayed on smackdown and win the real big one, even flair knows that during his tiled reign in the wwf duirng 1992. the wwf had the real gold. so in conclusion smackdown has the real big one, yes the heavywieight titled has been around longer than the wwe tiled, but it's not as worthy as wwe tiltled. the only thing raw does with heavyweight title is let you borrow it, but remember, you must give it back to hunter or else!

God of Gods wrote:
To an extent, i do agree. It had allwyas annoyed me that their are two champions in the WWE. But after watching for so long, i am forced to agree with what Booker T said when he first came to smackdown. Smackdown is the minor leages. I mean no disrespect to any one on that show, their are some great people their. But i feel that Raw has allways been the dominit brand in sports entertainment. And their for i have allways considered the Raw World heavy Weight Champion the true champion of the WWE

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