Bloggerknocker - Keeping The Gold

There has been a lot of talk recently in regards to the unification of the WWE Intercontinental & United States Heavyweight Championships. Unification means nothing at all if all we are going to be treated to in the future is mid-card feuds over a singular title the crowd will ultimately perceive as meaningless due to the WWE’s propensity to provide their mid-card championship feuds lackluster storylines and build. WWE unifying the IC and US titles can be equated to sweeping a problem they no longer want to deal with (one unwanted mid-card championship) under the rug while trying their best to pretend like they can maintain focus on the remaining mid-card championship long enough for the WWE Universe to give a damn. Just like how I currently feel that the WWE & World Heavyweight Championships being unified was a bad idea, I believe unifying the Intercontinental & United States Championships will be a grave mistake going forward.

The United States and Intercontinental Championships are presently directionless and unifying them won’t fix the myriad of problems presently plaguing them. After reading Jim Ross’ latest blog post, I have no choice but to agree with his assessment that the Intercontinental Championship has been as cold as ice recently. And that was long before it was vacated due to Wade Barrett’s shoulder injury. Recent booking of the title is also a mystery that further stresses the problems surrounding WWE’s mid-card titles. Look no further than last night’s RAW to see that newly minted Intercontinental Champion, The Miz, being defeated by Dolph Ziggler. It was a hell of a contest and I for one was happy that Ziggler came out on top. However, The Miz holds the second most important championship in the company and was made to look like a fluke champion last night (It was a sneaky, flukey win for Miz anyway, but that’s besides the point.)

Conversely, the case of the US Championship is more favorable at the moment, but, there hasn’t really been an established feud centered around the former WCW-branded title in a significant amount of time. Quiet honestly, the United States Championship has been stuck in the matrix since the Brand Extension came to an end in 2011. Since Sheamus liberated the belt from Dean Ambrose, he has defended the title more regularly than Ambrose ever did during his reign, but his title defenses were more of the ‘spur of the moment’ variety rather than the culmination of a meaningful mid-card feud. Combining the two issues that hinder the once prestigious pair of championships will only make WWE’s flaws more obvious. It goes back to the proverbial, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

When the World Heavyweight Championship was unified into the WWE Championship, we all thought, myself included, that the unification would result in the Intercontinental Championship receiving a boost in profile and restore its importance to a level we haven’t seen it at since the mid-90s. As for the United States Championship, I believed that getting the belt off of Ambrose would result in title feuds being built, adequately maintained, and eventually settled in big match situations, potentially restoring prestige and giving the belt a new lease on life. Sadly, that hasn’t come to fruition and the two titles have suffered immensely from bad booking and general lack of interest. However, that doesn’t mean you give up and get rid of a title. It is the job of the creative team to come up with meaningful scenarios that make us care that the Intercontinental and/or United States Championship is on the line or what we are watching before us in the ring will have future title implications. From one week to the next, we see champions walk down to the ring without rhyme or reason and sporadically, we’ll see a graphic where the championship is on the line. Unification is a lazy alternative to rehabbing championships, plain and simple. If anything, I would suggest we take a look at what we are asking for when we say “WWE should only have one mid-card championship.” Instead of outright retiring the United States or Intercontinental Championships, rededicate their purpose. Position the United States Championship similar to how the European or WCW World Television Championships were. That way, the U.S. Title, although effectively downgraded from a mid-card title to a lower card title, can be used to elevate the importance of competitors lower on the card in the eyes of the fans while maintaining their current card positions.



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