The Importance of…5.04.08: Secondary Titles

Chintense Observations
Quick notes on the past week in wrestling

-Wouldn’t it be something if CM Punk turned heel in cashing in his MITB shot? It’s a random thought that occurred to me Monday night. His turn in ECW during the New Breed angle was aborted within a couple weeks. From what I hear, the guy played the role masterfully in RoH. I’d like to see it in WWE.

-If you take the word “like” out of Michael Cole’s vocabulary, I bet he’d be a much better commentator. The guy throws it into so many of his sentences, and it often doesn’t make sense when he does. And it’s not as though we’re talking valley girl “like, oh my God.” We’re talking about ‘clothesline-like’ maneuvers, and Edge’s ‘Machiavellian-like’ actions (props to JD Dunn who more than shares my disdain for this comment). Sometimes, it’s okay to say that a clothesline is a clothesline, and that Edge is an asshole, plain and simple.

-What’s with everyone using the crippler crossface all of a sudden? This week we’ve seen Shawn Michaels do it, which wasn’t so remarkable, given he added it to his repertoire in October. But Triple H using it on Raw? The friggin’ Great Khali using it at Backlash? I almost get the feeling WWE is trying to desensitize us to the move, and have us forget that Chris Benoit popularized it. On one hand, I can respect that, because it’s a perfectly good submission hold, and should remain in the contemporary wrestling canon. On the other side, it’s kind of unsettling that a move that synonymous with Benoit is getting so much play.

-I’m not sure how I feel about all the swerve finishes on WWE TV this week. Regal pulls the plug on the end of Raw, the commentators walk out on ECW, Undertaker gets stripped at the end of Smackdown. On one hand, I appreciate the attempt at building episodic TV, and I am interested to see where these stories are going. On the other hand, I don’t know that I care enough that I’m any more likely to watch the shows next week, and I’m not sure how I feel about each of these endings being something to piss off the crowd (well, maybe not Adamle leaving, but for the other two…).

On to our regular column…

The Intercontinental Title. The United States Championship. The TV Title. The X-Division strap. Secondary titles are an institution of central importance to the wrestling industry. True, young guys starting out in the business come in with dreams of winning a company’s top prize, and it’s those bouts over world titles that will always main event the biggest of shows. Nonetheless, for every great main event, a promotion cannot forget about providing the undercard to build up to it. Secondary titles have historically been what define the mid and undercard, and have been a fantastic booking tool, and gimmick device to help get guys over. It’s sad how often these straps get overlooked in the major promotions today, as they still have a lot to offer.

Secondary titles are key in elevating a wrestler’s status. From a kayfabe perspective, these belts give a guy’s career a natural trajectory. It makes no sense for a guy to debut one day, and be main eventing the next. Secondary titles give a newer guy a realistic goal to shoot for. A rookie can go for gold, but compete with guys who aren’t too far ahead of him. Competing for, or winning a secondary title is a way of saying that a guy is a major player. No, he’s not the biggest dog in the yard just yet, but he’s not a flash in the pan either. Secondary titles are a way of establishing credibility, giving a guy some face time, and helping him slowly get over with the fans before he gets the big push to the uppercard. I sincerely believe that it’s for this very reason that the WWE was able to create loads of new stars throughout the 80s and 90s, and have had very little success in this decade. When you look at the last generation of great stars, virtually every one of them held a secondary title before his world title push. Think about it—Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle—all of them former Intercontinental champions. Take it back a generation, and Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash can all say the same. John Cena and Randy Orton were last two guys to make this formula work. And where are they? Oh yeah, alongside Triple H, they’re the two most over guys on the biggest show in wrestling.

You can contrast the success of secondary titles in elevating guys in the past, with the way the belts are booked today. Look at our five most recent IC champions—Chris Jericho, Jeff Hardy, Umaga, Santino Marella, Johnny Nitro. Jericho and Umaga were upper mid-card guys who had already had main event pushes and got the strap more as a prop than as a title they had been craving. Marella’s title win was designed for shock value and went no where. Mic skills aside, the guy was probably more over as an in ring performer in his debut match than he is today. Nitro looked to be on the rise, before getting mired in the tag ranks between a reunited MNM and a throwaway pairing with Kenny Dykstra. Then the guy seems to get elevated with his ECW title reign, but then where is he now? Oh right, teaming with The Miz. Of all of these men, Jeff Hardy was the only one the WWE seemed interested in elevating with the title, but even then, I can’t remember him defending the title once, besides the match in which he lost it, and the real focus on his push was that he was chasing Orton for the world title. The bottom line is that none of these guys benefited from effective booking during their run with the IC title. And to be honest, you can’t say much better for the US strap, where MVP held the belt for almost a year, but can anyone, off the top of their head, name five times when he actually defended it? Maybe things will be better for Matt Hardy, but I’m not holding my breath.

Secondary titles should lend meaning to the mid-card. For the guys outside the main event scene, this should be the title to chase. Think about the 1980s WWF product. The Honky Tonk Man didn’t have a prayer against the Hulkster, who was busy bodyslamming Andre, Bundy and the One Man Gang. But that was fine, because the Honkster had his own title to keep him happy, and his own line of challengers to fend off. In this way, mid-card guys didn’t need to appear as though they were just fodder for the bigger stars. On the contrary, it was almost as if they existed on another plane, with their own championship at the center of it.

On that mid-card plane, the secondary title can give guys a very legitimate source of conflict. What could be more basic? Mr. Perfect has the IC belt. Bret Hart wants it. Rick Rude has the US title. Dustin Rhodes wants it. Bang—instant feuds, and you can spin off into new feuds by adding a third guy who wants the title, or even a fourth. All of a sudden you could have guys competing to be number one contender for the secondary strap, in addition to the title feud itself. This is not rocket science, and it’s perfectly logical way to give a host of guys motivation, and a meaningful place on the card. In having a meaningful secondary title scene, you’re also making your company’s world title look that much more important. If guys are ready to kill themselves over the second best belt, how prestigious must the top title be? Pretty darn prestigious—that’s what I say.

Speaking of guys killing themselves over a belt, it’s worth noting that secondary titles have given us some of our most memorable matches over the years. There was Savage-Steamboat at Wrestlemania III, the show stealer. There were Bret Hart’s epics with Mr. Perfect and Davey Boy Smith. At Wrestlemania X, there was the ladder match that revolutionized the business as Razor Ramon fended off Shawn Michaels. In each of these cases, guys were performing in title matches, and, as a consequence, knew that they were rising stars, and out to prove that they were the main eventers of the future. That’s a recipe for success, and a recipe for more than a few match of the year candidates.

I am not, by any means arguing on behalf of creating more titles. I was not a fan of WCW running with the World, International, US and TV titles in 1993. I wasn’t wild about the WWF featuring its world, IC, Euro, Hardcore, and cruiser straps during the attitude era either. It’s not the quantity of the titles that’s important, but rather the quality. Make the US, IC and X Division titles really mean something, and you just might be pleased with the results. Heck, if TNA’s women’s division continues to thrive and grow, I wouldn’t be opposed to them having a secondary title too, to help establish more stars. It’s all about having a second belt that has meaning and serves a purpose. This is something mainstream wrestling bookers understood well in the past. Let’s hope it’s an idea that can come back to them.

That’s all for this column. Next week, we will turn back the hands of time to take a look at the importance of WCW Saturday Night. See you in seven.