Gone are those days when the World Heavyweight Championship was considered a prized asset. There was a time when this world title meant everything for the wrestlers. Batista, The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Benoit and not to forget Ric Flair, spent most of their lifetime in the WWE to get their hands on this title. The Elimination Chamber match where Shawn Michaels made a return and won this title redefined the way I looked at it.
For me, this title was bigger than the WWE title then. Evolution had half its storyline based on the WHC, which gave this title not only a lot of importance but also gave WWE a lot of viewers.
When you look at this title today, you don’t feel that excitement anymore. When a world title opens up a PPV match you know it is considered a mediocre title. Until Wrestlemania last year, this title had some relevance in the hands of Daniel Bryan and WWE knocked out every bit of its value when it made Sheamus win the title from Bryan in a few seconds. I guess the title doesn’t seem that important to WWE anymore.
Why am I all of a sudden talking about this? The reason is that there is a huge rumor floating online that WWE is planning to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championship. Does that mean the Rock vs Cena II is going to be for the unified title? After CM Punk, is it Del Rio and Ziggler’s turn to see themselves run over by a part-timer and an over-hyped wrestler? I guess WWE doesn’t care anyway, because selling merchandise and attracting toddlers seems to be their main motive now.
There are several problems WWE could face if they plan on unifying the World titles. Firstl,y it is the management of the roster. We already are seeing half the WWE roster spending idle time in the ring without a proper feud. The absence of the Cruiserweight Championship has already cost WWE a great deal. Light weight wrestlers like Rey Mysterio, Evan Bourne could have been better pitched had the Cruiserweight title still been around. Now, with the World Heavyweight title gone, the roster problem will only become worse. The management of wrestlers like Del Rio, Big Show, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler will become difficult as they will not have any meaning in their feud.
Another problem that WWE will face is with SmackDown. Recently, we have seen SmackDown scraping the floors in terms of its ratings, and taking away the world title will only make matters worse. Without the WHC, SmackDown will find it extremely difficult to attract even the mediocre crowd that it is bringing in now. Though the likes of John Cena and The Rock will constantly attract 6 year olds and ladies, the more ardent and hardcore wrestling fans will most likely be the ones that WWE will start losing. I have already seen a lot of Attitude era fans stop watching wrestling mainly because of its predictability.
In my opinion, The Rock vs Cena II already has no meaning and if WWE thinks they can make it meaningful by adding the unified title tag to this worthless match, then the only result that it will bring is a Wrestlemania failure. Last but not the least, here are a few epic moments that we have witnessed with the World Heavyweight Championship that should make people realize the lost importance of this title.
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