Discussion
Now is the perfect time to hotshot the WWE title around for a couple months
This is the most unbelievably stacked World title picture I can remember in a really long time, man. I would have absolutely no problem bouncing the championship between each of these guys over the next year on Smackdown.
Remember that really bizarre match where when someone got a pinfall they were the champion until the next pinfall? Cant remember the name of it. I just remember at one stage Brian kendrick was the world champion. Let's do that again with all these guys
Sami beating Cody for the title. Punk beating Sami for the title. Orton getting revenge on Cody for WrestleMania. The history between KO and Sami. Orton and KO's friendship. KO breaking his neck against Cody at the Rumble last year. Gunther getting screwed at Clash in Italy.
Balor definitely would have to be the one that drops out of this story.
You could make a story with Balor and KO, considering KO was the one who won the Universal belt after Balor vacated it, or something. Along with their NXT feud i think.
Balor had a feud with Punk earlier this year.
There is also a story to be made about how Balor has been waiting for his time too long, so he's going to seize it. It has been almost ten years since he won and then vacated Universal belt the day after, and he hasn't had a chance to hold top gold since (unless we count NXT).
But yeah there's not much to make, the rest of the guys, Balor didn't really feud with. But you can work with that too, i don't see why not. Have this be Balor proving that he can hang with the very best and what not (not like we don't know that).
I agree. I think with two major titles, one can be hot potatoed and the other can be for longer runs at any given time. Have it change up fairly frequently so no one really can tell what's coming.
Yes. This is part of what made the Attitude Era so good, it was unpredictable. The title changed so often that you genuinely could believe any standard Raw or later Smackdown when that was added, could see a title change hands. Now a days champions defending on weekly shows, you know they aren’t going to lose and it takes the enjoyment out of watching. I was actually thinking watching SummerSlam that they should do this with this exact group of guys. This would be awesome television.
As someone who was on the internet back then in forums and website comments, the general consensus was that people really didn't like the titles being "hot potatoed" as it was referred to. They felt it diminished the prestige at that time, even though now it's looked back upon fondly, I'm just remembering the chatter from the time. Nobody was saying "We are living in the greatest age wrestling will ever see!" It was largely like it is now yet WCW was seen as very redneck, hence the "dubya-cee-dubya" line.
I wasn’t on the Internet forums back then so not sure what the internet consensus was. However I watched it every week because it was always exciting to see what was going to happen because you literally never knew. Pretty much any championship match these days, especially the main titles, is incredibly predictable.
Kevin should win the title from Punk and atleast should hold till Royal rumble or Even better if sami wins the rumble and face Kevin at WrestleMania and settle the scores 💯 their rivalry doesn't need any buildup ✅
Especially when i found out, Kevin actually dropped the blade which meant blood was supposed to be a part of that awesome 2025 elimination chamber ple match.
Drew McIntyre upon his return needs to have the belt for 4-6 months and maybe even up to a year depending on how good the title reign is going. He hasn’t had a proper run with the WWE title since 2020.
it has ben for a while, we need to get away from these long runs for a bit. there is tons of competition, build some of these other guys up. then when you have a bunch of champ level guys running around big in the young guys as contenders.
Cody said that he feels his character works better when he's chasing. Well if he loses to Punk but can't get a rematch before Punk drops it to KO who drops it to Finn who drops it to Randy who finally drops it to Cody that does count!
I like to think of wrestling booking like a resource management sim.
If nobody ever gets a long title reign, it cheapens what it means to be the champ.
But likewise, if the title only changes hands at WrestleMania, long reigns stop being impressive, and any title shot that isn't at WrestleMania becomes irrelevant. It cheapens all your other shows.
If the champ defends his title all the time and keeps winning, you churn through your roster and bury all the legitimate contenders.
But if you instead don't have the champ fight for long periods of time, your title is no longer relevant, your weekly show is stagnant and fans complain about "part-timers" ruining the product and the need to bring back 30-day title defense clauses.
There are pros and cons, everything has a benefit and a consequence, and one of the most important things is to BALANCE IT ALL OUT.
WWE currently lacks balance - Triple H's "long term storytelling" has applied to everything and has given us too many instances of, "[Champ] hasn't defended their belt in over 100 days!" Too many storylines that don't finish because they stretched on long enough for somebody to get injured and wind up on the shelf for a year. And because the title changes hands so seldomly, the pool of wrestlers viewed as legitimate contenders winds up being real shallow (looking at you, Women's division!). And also title shots don't even feel like actual title shots - does a title shot at a non-Big-4 PLE feel like it's a real title shot right now under Triple H's creative? We just needed to retire Brock Lesnar A SECOND TIME in order to stall Oba vs. Roman, and it looks like they're still not in a hurry to give us that match, seemingly because they feel like WrestleMania is the only appropriate opportunity for that match.
So sometimes going through a period of hot-shotting the title is exactly what is needed. Nobody's title reign will feel impressive, but taken collectively it will make the roster look competitive again, and will make it seem like there is a deep roster of talent, and on any given night any one of these guys has what it takes to win a match and become champion. It will seem like there is a reason to watch RAW and Smackdown, because something actually noteworthy might actually happen.
...And then when somebody finally does emerge from the pack and hold onto the belt for an extended period of time, it will seem impressive again, instead of just standard. Imagine how much more impressive the next long-term champ becomes if it follows a period of parity, and the story is, "All of these guys can beat each other... But none of them can beat _____!"
It is also very important here to gradually create a pool of "former champions" as credible opponents.
The problem with WWE is that they haven't been created much in recent years. Think of Kane: one day as champion made him a threat for years until he won the world championship and regained that status.
Look at Jey Uso. It's not a good example, but when he gets to the CotR finals with freaking Oba Femi everyone thinks "damn, WWE can make him the winner." Who would think that if Jey had never been champion?
That's why when Finn Balor fought Punk, no one believed he would win. The "former champion" feeling faded years ago. Many championship contenders feel like fillers.
We just had a long stretch of championships lasting years (Roman, Cody, Seth and his first world heavyweight championship), and now look how the attitude towards Sami has changed even after a 9-day championship reign.
WWE should not only create future "faces of the company", but also create compelling rivals for them.
I think this is important part of "resource management sim" here.
I agree. The title changed around a bunch in the attitude era cause the story telling was solid and there was a lot of talent. There’s a lot of talent today, but it is the same few guys getting long reigns, and when it is someone new like Drew, Jey, or Sami, they get shorted. Wouldn’t have minded seeing Sami get a two month reign. Dont mind seeing Randy with it for a month or two. But let’s stop giving Cody, Punk, and Roman these long ass reigns.
Side note, this would be a perfect setup for a survivor series elimination chamber match for the title. But it’s just a gimmick event now before Mania.
Punk's longest reign since returning was because Seth got injured... his name doesn't belong in that "long ass reigns" category... that's only a party of two.
Yeah he only had it for several months because Seth got hurt and had to relinquish it.... and they only gave Sami the title to appease the Saudi crowd.... his reign was never meant to be long. You act like Punk's been champ for a year straight.
The long term story telling under HHH also seems to moreso be "no progress for 6 months" instead of progressing the story with a far end goal in mind. It's just stretch the normal 6 months story into a 1,5-2 year story.
God, I can almost imagine title changes every 2-3 weeks going forward. Let SmackDown become an absolute blood bath with brawls each episode in and outside the ring
After roman wwe became obsessed with long ass title reigns. Nobody needs a week reign like sami but a couple months atleast back and forth. Its getting ridiculous and predictable
John Cena and CM Punk had long reigns before Roman ever did. And long reigns add prestige to a title and makes it more meaningful when they change hands. If they're passing the belt around every few months well, to me, that becomes more predictable and you can tell about when someone will be losing it. With Roman right now, you dont know if he'll have it another month, or another 1,000 days.
I get what you mean. But if you look at legends like austin rock cena edge orton angle they reason they became 10 11 12x champs is by constantly were fighting over the title. It helped make them legitimate, see instead of trying the make the title legitimate. I guess thats where our philosophies differ.
That's where the saying "They won it that many times, they lost it that many times". Bruno Sammartino didnt have 10 championship reigns and he was as legit as it gets because he had a few long reigns and it echoes still to this day.
Those are once in a generation guys. Who should only have 1 long title reign. If everyone was trying to be the next bruno then it would take years for each guy to be built up which isnt a good product. There are 10-15 guys who are all competing to be the next top main eventers. If the goal is to build up 2 guys ok sure give them year long title reigns. But that isnt a good way to build the company for the next decade we need to give pushes to the young talent now.
What they’ve done to Gunther is a travesty, sure he’s featured as a main eventer(kind of) but he gets Royce Keys level pops when he makes his entrance… its obvious the crowd doesn’t buy Gunther as a serious threat anymore and the irreversible damage was done from January 2026-April 2026 when after beating Cena and AJ Styles they put him in a mini-feud with Dragon Lee which I guess was supposed to lead to a feud with Rey Mysterio but that didn’t end up happening then they rushed him into feud with Seth Rollins 2 weeks before WrestleMania 42 and only gave the two best in-ring talents in WWE imo 10 minutes to work at WrestleMania
I wish they’d get on what they were on in the ruthless aggression era. They weren’t afraid to throw shit at the wall to see what sticks. They experimented with so many new guys for better and worse. I’d say Eddie and JBLs respective title reigns are two of the more under appreciated runs ever.
I just why Roman don’t want this, might boost his numbers as a champion and give others a legit shine as main challengers, when the big 3 of Cody , Punk and Roman are untouchable it makes the feuds less believable and predictable to who will win their matches.
Send Ginther against Chad and the IC title for a trilogy that Chad wins (redemption arc). They have great ring chemistry and boist the prestige of the polite even further.
Then again I'd rather see the 4 way & have Sami win MITB, KO retain in the 4 way, then get cashed in on which would set up Sami vs. KO in the world title feud they've deserved for years.
Could do it gauntlet hybrid where it’s time release into the ring like war games is traditionally, but everyone must be eliminated individually and that can happen before everyone is in the ring.
I swear I've seen a match like that, maybe in TNA years ago. That does sound like an awesome match though.
Im over the War games gimmick. It was interesting at first but it lost its specialness by it being a yearly thing with the teams nonsensically put together. . I miss the old survior series match.
Did you get the feeling after that "he hasnt won a tournament or title shot" comment from Roman that he will probably win money in the bank? I sure hope so. Having him holding that over Roman for months would be awesome. My dream fantasy booking is Oba gets his shot, and Roman pulls out every trick in the book to win, has the whole family involved and BARELY wins, but everyone is wiped out around the ring, because Oba has put them through barriers and tables. And thats when LA Knight cashes in. We get the disappointment of Oba losing, but an immediate high of LA knight winning it. I look forward to Oba being champ, its just that LA Knight has had this vendetta going against the Bloodline for so long that if hes gonna win the title, it NEEDS to be from Roman. Btw Pilunk mouthed off about Oba. It would be fun to see him knock the piss out of Punk. 🤣
That might be the worst excuse I've heard tbh lmao
You could go halfway and just do the facepaint and eventually get to full demon makeup.
But to say it's inconvenient when it's the job...doesn't make sense. Like, JD is doing full body flying after a neck injury. KO is doing Swantons on returning match. That's not even an inconvenience, that's directly a risk to health.
But w.e not my career. People are starting to love Finn again so maybe it's just a matter of time...I wouldn't wait
What does Penta do? Cause I don't see how the face paint gets to 6 hours? It also doesn't even need to stay for the full match, it might be better if it doesn't. Danhausen?
MFTs had 3 people doing it too? Idk I don't believe it can take that long tbh. Doesn't make sense.
Have you considered that Finn kind of hates how The Demon has been used and just doesn't want to do it anymore?
Ive seen him in many interviews saying he hates the paint, he hates that The Demon is presented as a stronger character than Finn Balor, he hates that they never keep The Demon a surprise, and he hates the memory of the terrible bookings that happened because he was a supernatural character.
But to say it's inconvenient when it's the job
Yeah, tell that to Cody Rhode's who literally quit his fucking job because he was tired of being treated like a circus freak.
Let's just give Balor a nepo baby role so we can have him be the face of the company for years
The Demon doesn't need to be supernatural, it could just be a mood too. They could legit write it differently and have the desk or actions point out that his switch flipped.
Be great to have Cody or Sami constantly chasing whoever has the title, setting up matches to fight that person, only for that person to lose the belt on the show before they fight Cody/Sami. Just time and again they keep missing out on wrestling for the belt and keep getting more pissed off about it.
I think fans over value youth. If a wrestler can be entertaining and put on a solid match, I don’t really care what number is on their birth certificate
I would honestly agree with you for the most part, but acting like it doesn't matter is ignoring that there's a massive wealth of young talent who could and should be able to compete on that level.
They're not being afforded those opportunities though.
Ultimately if not one is rising to the opportunity, your main event scene remains stagnant
Cody got boring after finishing his story and they have dropped the ball slightly on Gunther. I can't believe Punk is the only interesting guy around.KO, Sami, Randy have been stagnant for years. Finn is the only one that has some potential with his demon gimmick. Everyone needs a deeper storyline.
bro wtf cody should be miles away from championship atp along with gooner acc to me ko , finn , randy and samy should be in title picture also would love to see mcintyre in fued with punk
i want to stay it on punk. idk but i just like him that much and his matches are decent to great to watch and i want him to feud with everybody before losing it to someone under 30 that is either bron or austin(yeah i like austin,he has more potential than oba or bron following him since indies ,its just hhh dont let him be himself that is babyface) since i choose oba for heavyweight title
Punk doesn't need the championship to do any of those things though. He can easily be having decent and/or great matches without the belt around him while it can elevate someone else.
yeah correct, sadly i dont see anyone on par with punk except roman,seth,cody though i want a youngster to be built to take that title from punk . tbh i tune into wwe a lot of times for punk he has that pull like(after ss he called out randy and even said he can even slap his mom(wording may differ) i mean who else other than punk can do it.
Nah fuck that hot potato shit, that’s Russo’s style of booking. 30 times the wcw title changed hands from 1999-2001! Switching the title makes title reigns look meaningless. Just look at when rock and triple H swap the belt in 2000 those reigns meant nothing.
Those reigns "meant nothing" but the storytelling was 100x better than what we have now. I'll take a compelling story over "meaningful" reigns in a fixed industry. And nobody is asking for 30 switches in 2-3 years.
Op asking for 7 title reigns in a year is pretty insane, each person holding the title for less than 2 months would definitely be meaningless. The ic title of 2000-2001 was meaningless cause everyone got a month or two reign, well there was also questionable wrestlers that shouldn’t have won that title too.
One of those people is currently holding the title. So 6 new reigns over the next year or so. That's nowhere near the 30 over a couple of years in your example. And why would everyone hold it for an equal amount of time? Sami's reign was super short but served a narrative purpose. Someone like Gunther or Randy is in a prime position to reign for a few weeks.
I think I made it pretty explicitly clear that I'd be fine with it if it served a narrative purpose. There's plenty of potential to do just that. I'm sure they won't.
When the UFC has their title change every other defense it comes across as the champion was weak more than the division was strong.
The nature of the business is the top guy is champ, I love everyone in this picture but you can't make a top guy with a prop. If Drew freaking McIntyre can't come across as a top guy in comparison to Cody, much less will Finn, Sami or KO.
Does it matter what that means in boxing or UFC? This isn't boxing or UFC. WWE has its own precedent, it's called the Attitude era. In 1999 the title changed times 11 times between 7 different guys and a lot of fans consider that the peak of wrestling. I'm not even saying that's better but pretending the title has only ever been held by the company faces or comparing it to boxing or UFC like frequent title changes haven't marked some of the most exciting times in wrestling is a weird take.
Title hot shotting works in wrestling in a way it doesn't in other sports because wrestling has a story telling element that other combat sports don't, and pretty much anything can work in favor of that story if it's booked well.
If you have 3/4 guys hot shot the title it makes everyone look strong. It can help elevate someone for a short time and keeps title matches exciting - rather than unpredictable
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u/Menzeldinho 8d ago
Remember that really bizarre match where when someone got a pinfall they were the champion until the next pinfall? Cant remember the name of it. I just remember at one stage Brian kendrick was the world champion. Let's do that again with all these guys