Thursday Morning Backlash with Worthless World Titles and Vampiro
Hey everyone, welcome to the Thursday Backlash, and today we have a special treat… our site founder/creator/guru and all-around king of the interwebs, Widro taking care of the column. Take it away Wids!
Title Frequency
It really struck me during the Night of Champions 2010 PPV when Michael Cole proudly proclaimed “there are a total of 32 World Title reigns in that ring†at the start of the Six-Pack Raw World title match. Is that good? When did that become good? On Raw, Sheamus vowed to Orton that he’d become a three time champion at Hell in a Cell. What? Sheamus was on ECW last year. He won his FIRST title earlier this year. How is he already on #3? What is going on??
In the modern era, it’s become impossible to expect a super-long title reign, like those of the pre-Monday Night Wars era. With weekly TV, monthly (or this month, multiple per month) major PPV events, both WWE and TNA probably need to switch the World Title more frequently than when Bruno Sammartino was champion. However, when every main event wrestler is champion 4, 7, 10 times, the value is nearly lost entirely.
There are so many excuses that WWE and TNA give for the lack of PPV buys and declining ratings, but the implicit value of the World Title is an underrated reason. The matches for the World title have less meaning and less historical significance if they are for titles that fans know will be switched again quickly.
There are rumors that Vince McMahon sees this as a problem, and is looking to combine the World titles, as has been done with the Tag and Woman’s titles this year. This admission that the title situation needs to be overhauled is encouraging, but in the meantime, the World titles continue to change hands on a very regular basis.
WWE needs to make the title mean something again, and one step would be to phase down the importance of quantity of title reigns. Conspiracy theorists will point to Triple H looking to break Ric Flair’s record of 16/17/18/whatnot World titles, but hopefully those are just theories. To get the importance of the World title back to a semblance of greatness would be a huge step forward for WWE to re-establish their foundation.
Vampiro
To honor the greatest of Pulse Glazer’s youtube fiestas, I present a youtube look at the one, the only, Vampiro.
Vs. CM Punk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD9126iz94o
vs. the KISS Demon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPBJaIyIFPY
teaming with Muta & Demon vs The Jung Dragons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hYkWtRgzzo
vs Kidman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l59RHihYWs
teaming with ICP vs. Three Count
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrqhYvg3Cs
vs Finlay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaMUJZRdmvE
vs Vampiro Human Torch Match
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mkjpn9s8mo
vs Berlyn!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfBlKi3-sCE
Remember to stay with us all through the weekend for full preview, live event and post-show coverage of WWE Hell in a Cell 2010, including my own (Glazer’s) preview of it tomorrow morning at 10am.
