In 2003, with the drafted roster in place, the WWE added another second-tier Championship- the United States Championship. With WCW dissolved and WWE now operating with seperate rosters on each show, the former WCW United States Championship and, before that, the NWA United States Championship was brought out of retirement to be placed alongside the Intercontinental, essentially giving each show a secondary Championship status. Much like it's counterpart, the title has a rich, decorated history. It's holders include Harley Race, Terry Funk, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Sting, Steve Austin, Goldberg, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Edge and John Cena.
Why is it then, I wonder, given the illustrious history and significance of these two Championships that as of today, only two days away from a huge, 90,000 capacity, New York/New Jersey Wrestlemania, that neither of these Championships are being contested and promoted on the main card?
Infact the WWE are set to give two debutants their very first televised matches on the main roster this Sunday. The Champion of their developmental territory NXT, Big E Langston has been on the main roster making appearances on both RAW and Smackdown! since December acting in a 'heavy' or bodyguard role for Dolph Ziggler but has yet to wrestle a match. Johnny Curtis is set to wrestle his very first match as the re-packaged 'Fandango' this Sunday with Chris Jericho. However current Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett has seen his match with former WWE Champion The Miz bumped to the pre-show and current United States Champion Antonio Cesaro isn't even booked on the show at all, despite having appeared on the main roster for almost a year now and holding his current title since August of last year. It is booking like this that leads me to wonder exactly what role the secondary Championships actually play in WWE today.
It's easy to forget that Shawn Michaels was, at one time, considered to be "too small" to make it to the big time and, in his days teaming with Marty Jannetty as 'The Rockers' looked far from the Superstar and Hall of Famer that he would become. it is certainly an arguable point that his Intercontinental title reigns in the early to mid nineties allowed Shawn Michaels to find his identity and his place within the company, proving himself to be the main eventer, Champion and draw that he would go on to become.
Steve Austin was the United States Champion in WCW and has spoken publically of his belief at that time that he could go on to greater things, at the desire he expressed to work with the bigger names and the main eventers. Eric Bischoff and WCW disagreed and he was eventually fired. He went on to hold the Intercontinental Championship in WWE and eventually win the King of the Ring, where the "Stone Cold" era is often said to have been born and Austin would go on to be arguably the biggest draw ever in pro wrestling. The Rock led a similar path and it could also be argued that the battles over the IC title that Austin and Rock had was the catalyst to the success of the careers of both men. After all, I'd say it's very likely that both men would not be willing to name a better opponent they ever had than each other.
Before John Cena ever won a World title, he became so identified with the United States Championship that he even received a customised, personal version of the Championship belt. A design that would eventually be given to him in the form of a WWE Championship that was only replaced earlier this year.
The secondary Championships in WWE can make a Superstar. It can be the opportunity to prove they deserve a place within the programme and are capable of great things and I would say that over the years, the most commonly used route from rookie to main-evener has been these titles. However, could that be a thing of the past? Is this really how WWE grooms it's main-eventers these days? Have the lines between mid-card and upper-card been blurred in a way they have never been blurred before? If so, I personally believe this been a recent trend.
Many, I believe, would argue that the importance of the second-tier Championships to recognise rising, budding talent and future stars has been minimal for a long time. With the faster pace of the Attitude era and the "excitement" of a racing, evolving, thriving environment, not to mention a huge spike in public interest and viewership, title changes were more frequent than ever before. Long Championship reigns were very much a thing of the past and many people have, and will continue, to argue that the Championships themselves, their importance, and their meaning were hurt as a result of this. I'm not necessarily arguing this. However, take a look at more recent times, and take a look at the history of the Intercontinental Championship between the years 2000 to 2005.
Many men won their first IC title during these five years that would go on to win World titles in WWE; Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Jeff Hardy, Kane (arguable one, depends if you want to include his one-day reign as WWE Champion in the late 90s. I do not.), Christian, Rob Van Dam, Booker T and Randy Orton. That is eight or nine men, depending on how you look at it. Eight or nine stars that were made in this way. This, in my opinion, is a booming, productive, exciting period for WWE. A lot of this era is still experiencing the 'Attitude' hangover and fast, frequent title changes. It is still however a period of time where main-eventers, Champions, Superstars and indeed Hall of Famers were allowed to breakthrough from the middle of the roster.
Then what happened? In 2005 the hangover was well and truly over but the WWE need to continue to make stars, arguably much, much more than they did in the five years previous. Between 2005 and 2010 only CM Punk, JBL and Rey Mysterio would win their first Intercontinental Championship and go on to win a World title. Some other IC title reigns of this era belong to; Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison, Umaga, Santino Marella, Kofi Kingston, William Regal, Drew McIntyre and Chris Jericho. All of these men are either no longer with us, no longer with the company, were bigger than the second-tier at the time they won the title, or are still struggling in the WWEs mid-card today.
Since 2010 the title has been held by Kofi Kingston, Wade Barrett, Ezekiel Jackson and Cody Rhodes - all still in the mid-card. It has been held by Christian again and by The Big Show. It was held by the Miz in 2012 after his WWE Championship reign in 2010 and it has been held by one man you might be able to say, upon reflection in the (hopefully rather near) future used it as a stepping stone to stardom in Dolph Ziggler.
It obviously needs to be recognised at this point that some of these men, The Miz for example, did win the United States Championship before the WWE Championship. That is true. What the Intercontinental Championship should tell you though is that it is not essential in creating stars, not anymore.
In recent years The Great Khali, Daniel Bryan, Sheamus, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Batista and Jack Swagger have all won World titles, either very quickly (within the first year or two) of their debut in the company or without a substantial second-tier title reign first, or even no reign at all. Of these men Alberto Del Rio is arguably the only one to have held onto that spot ever since. It is not a list of current main-event, top-tier talent or big draws. So what is the WWEs current criteria or preferred route to "make" a Superstar? Well, I'm not sure I can tell you the answer to that. The lines are now far more blurry than they ever have been before.
For all the WWEs recent attempts to push wrestles into the limelight, Batista is no longer with the company, Daniel Bryan is a tag team champion with Kane in a floundering, weak division and should work the middle of the card, Sheamus has seemingly fallen out of favour and is working without any real sense of direction, The Miz has been pushed to the pre-show for the Intercontinental Championship match with Wade Barrett and Jack Swagger has returned from a long injury to be pushed directly into a Wrestlemania main-event program while the likes of Kofi Kingston struggle to make a live Raw or Smackdown taping, never mind Wrestlemania, and United States Champion Antonio Cesaro is a "Champion" by technicality only after not even booked on the card, after weeks of jobbing to the likes of Alberto Del Rio to assist the World Championship program. Probably because Del Rio and Swagger haven't quite yet earned the respect and the absolute confidence of the creative team to take the reigns and produce a program capable of drawing money.
Wrestlemania is the biggest show of the year. Not just for WWE, but for professional wrestling as a whole. It is the biggest, most high-profile, stage for a wrestler to apply their trade. Wrestlemania is the key historical record for their production. The DVDs will sell, be re-packaged when the next format arrives, just as the VHS was, and continue to be released as a record of wrestlings greats. The biggest stars and the biggest matches of the year, the biggest matches of the wrestlers careers. Wrestlemania should be the strongest show the WWE is capable of airing and should offer an insight into who is "hot" and who is not, what is in and what is out, and, I hate to say it, but this year I think the WWE aee making it very clear that above all else, it's secondary titles are most definitely out. They offer little importance and have a very small role to play in the current day WWE.
Just remember that the next time the WWE want you to pay for a PPV featuring "Championship" matches that what they are trying to sell to you, the Championship belt they are trying to sell to you as the symbol of any kind of credibility or significance, that on their biggest show of the year, that will have more people watching it than any other show you have tuned in for or bought this year, that neither of its Champions of the "upper-tier", next generation of Superstars were deemed good enough to promote and show you ahead of a match you have already seen, a tag team that probably won't still be together to wrestle at Wrestlemania XXX, two debutants who havent been given a match on free-to-air TV yet and The Bella Twins.
Essentially I suppose it doesn't matter how stars are made, as long as they are and as long as it works. As long as fans are able to invest in them and their programs. If the WWE are not going to use these time-tested, traditional, honoured routes to make their next era of World Champions then I just hope that this does not stop the product from evolving. If it does, I wonder what the card could l;ook like at Wrestlemania XL.
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