Lately, I have been hearing people talking about the Women's Division in WWE being big enough to warrant a set of Tag Team Championships. In the 1980's, the company actually did have Women's Tag Team Titles, worn by such teams as the Glamour Girls and the high-flying Jumping Bomb Angels, and we haven't seen those Championships in 30 years. While I can agree to a certain extent, I don't want that to happen unless there is only one singles Women's Championship. I don't think the Women's Division is strong enough on both Raw and Smackdown for separate Titles. I'd rather the Raw and Smackdown Women's Champions unify their Titles into one and then bring in the Tag Team Titles. I don't know why people think more is better, especially when it comes to wrestling Championships. The prestige gets diluted, especially when the Titles are claimed to be treated equally. I tend to endorse the saying; "less is more."
Since I'm still on the topic of the Women's Division, let's look at today's Champions. Although it's almost inevitable that Asuka will be winning the Raw Women's Title at WrestleMania, the current champion of the Raw brand is Alexa Bliss. Charlotte Flair currently holds the Smackdown Women's Title. Here's my question! Which one means more? In my opinion, it would be the Raw Title, as that came first, and how they didn't continue with the old Women's Title lineage I'll never know. The Championship on Smackdown came later on, with its inaugural Champion being Becky Lynch at the time. I mean no disrespect to the women who have held the Smackdown Women's Title but having two of the same Title makes no sense to me. I realize that the women in WWE are being cared for a lot more these days and attention has been paid, which is fantastic. Nothing could make that statement mean more than the recent first ever Women's Royal Rumble. I realize there were a lot of returns, surprises, and NXT wrestlers in it but 2/3 of the match featured women on both Raw and Smackdown.
There are several women that could form teams to compete for Women's Tag Team Titles but I feel there only needs to be one singles Title. You could take any combination of the Four Horsewomen that could hold the belts for a time. There's always a return of the Bella Twins at some point. You could potentially have Ronda Rousey team with her MMA friend Shayna Baszler. There could be any number of combinations, whether they make sense or not, hold the Titles, even the off chance of besties Trish Stratus and Lita having a very short comeback. My other problem with two Women's singles Titles is the depth of the roster. While the landscape of women's wrestling in WWE is much different these days, if there was really depth, there would be non-Title programs that make it onto big PPV's. For instance, it's very likely we'll get a one on one match at WrestleMania between Sasha Banks and Bayley. I'd rather that happen a lot more often! If there are two Women's Titles, the company will feel obligated to have both Titles appear on the card and just paint by the numbers, whereas with only one singles Title for the women, creative would have to adjust and put together meaningful non-Title feuds for the women.
The other reason I brought this up is the recent announcement of Backlash this May, along with the rest of the PPV's this year going forward, being duel-branded. Duel-branded PPV's are both a good thing and a bad thing at the same time. What I like about this is that the best of the best will appear on the shows. Sure, not everyone will be able to appear on the card but that's not such a bad thing. Another reason I don't like multiple Championships is that they appear more as participation trophies. As I stated once in a blog, while John Cena may have tied Ric Flair's 16 World Title wins, he competed in a time where there was often more than one "World" Title to go for. When Cena tied the record, he had been competing on a professional level for 17 years, whereas Flair's career spanned 28 years by the time he won 16 World Titles, and then he wrestled for another eight years after.
The brand only PPV's don't generally do well because half the roster is missing, things get repetitive, and we get stuck with meaningless matches that are there simply to fill up a card. There are also way too many PPV's in general. With duel-branded PPV's, that problem is solved! However, another problem now arises! With nine Championships currently, this mostly means all the shows going forward will have all the Titles on the line. That in itself would not be a bad thing if there weren't as many Titles. It means we're either going to be getting a lot of nonsensical multi-person matches, or some major players won't be on the card, therefore not garnering the amount of revenue the company will have in mind. Therein lies the problem of brands in the first place. I for one never liked the brand split. I didn't like it the first go around and I don't like it today. Realistically, everything is, even in kayfabe, treated as being under the WWE umbrella. A company cannot compete against itself, it just doesn't make sense! The first brand extension ultimately failed and this one will too because the effort eventually goes away. If you're going to split the roster, you can't half-ass it, you have to go all in. That's for another topic altogether, though, so I'll save that one for another blog down the line.
The biggest problem in all of this is the Tag Team Division. I don't think either brand has a strong enough division on its own, even with more solid tag teams forming. For a long time, WWE hasn't concentrated enough on tag teams at all, considering many are broken up and don't stay together long. In 2017, we lost teams like Enzo and Big Cass, American Alpha, and several others. Back in the day, teams used to stay together for years, some even staying a team forever. The Legion of Doom were almost always together and even when they weren't teaming with each other, they were still in tag teams. Animal and Hawk were not good enough to be singles competitors. Hawk teamed with Kensuke Sasaki as the Hell Raisers and even wore the old Road Warrior shoulder pads together. Though Bubba Ray Dudley eventually found a successful singles character in Bully Ray, the Dudley Boys remained a team for most of their careers. D-Von wasn't nearly as successful by himself. Look at a team like the Usos, arguably one of, if not the best tag team in WWE today. Especially with the fact that they are twins and haven't developed separate personalities, I don't see an upside to either having a singles career.
There can't always be a Shawn Michaels and a Marty Jannetty. That dynamic doesn't exist for every team. Sometimes, a team splits up and you realize both are the Marty Jannetty. That happened with Cryme Tyme, among several other teams. Right now, The Bar are the Raw Tag Team Champions, while the Usos have the gold on Smackdown. Once again, how does that make sense? Which team or Championship means more? That especially goes for World Titles! In my opinion, two World Champions in the same company makes no sense! I don't consider the Universal Title a World Title, nor do I care about its existence at all. In fact, I'll agree with The Miz that his Intercontinental Title makes him the main Champion on Raw. Especially when the Universal Champion is Brock Lesnar, who rarely appears. Even during the days of the "World Heavyweight Title," I never considered that a World Title either. As far as I'm concerned, the man that wears the WWE Title, is THE World Champion. Right now that man is AJ Styles!
The only time I am okay with more than one Title is in the mid-card. For instance, I'd be okay with the Intercontinental Title on Raw and the US Title on Smackdown, as they are, with the World Titles, Women's Titles, and Tag Team Titles being unified. There are way too many Championships, even with a brand split. The first six months of the original brand extension saw only one World Champion and things were fine. I don't think another World Title needed to be brought in at all. Many people say that with a brand split, it's better with two World Titles and that way, one wrestler doesn't have to burn the midnight oil on both brands. In the Territory Days, the NWA had its World Champion go all over the the Territories to defend the Championship. You'd always see Harley Race or Ric Flair defending the NWA World Heavyweight Title all over the world.
That brings me to another topic, which might also develop into its own blog. If WWE truly wants to continue with a brand extension, don't make it Raw vs. Smackdown. It doesn't appear as competition if it's all under WWE. With WWE owning most of the wrestling world's brands, they could just as easily put Smackdown under a different banner. While yes, everything would still ultimately be under the WWE umbrella, in kayfabe it would appear as actual brand competition. WWE could create its own Territory system. I'd keep NXT the way it is but with them having a UK Championship, a UK Territory could make sense. Each brand could have its own singles Champion but I would have the one World Champion make appearances as needed, on every territory, much like the way things happened with the NWA years ago.
With the upcoming HBO special about Andre the Giant coming out days before WrestleMania this year, I read rumors about more attention being paid to the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Since its inception at WrestleMania 30, none of the four winners were followed up with, concerning storylines and such. If they really want to make this year's count, it might make sense to have actual big names in this thing. Would it be so bad if say John Cena or Randy Orton were a part of it? After all, the match itself is one big participation trophy, just so everyone can get on the card. I'm afraid WrestleMania this year will be filled with a ridiculous amount of multi-person matches. Why not just include big names in this year's Battle Royal? With the Undertaker's match with Roman Reigns main eventing the show last year and the way he left his gear in the ring, it signified the end of his career. Therefore, the much rumored match with John Cena this year, doesn't make much sense. God forbid Cena doesn't have a clear program! Stack this year's Battle Royal with some star power! Guys like Cena, Orton, and some others will be just fine. I really wish WWE would roll with quality over quantity. That's basically what this was all was about. What are your thoughts?
If you have any further thoughts on this topic, let me know in comments. Heck, let us all know on The WAR Report podcast, every Tuesday at 7PM EST on YouTube, brought to you by tagmeadate.com, the first and only dating site for wrestling fans. Go to askthewarreport@gmail.com or #askthewarreport. For TagMeADate members, our Android and Apple apps are vastly approaching so stay tuned!
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