10 Fascinating Facts About Famous Wrestling Titles
1. A Shocking Stat On Title Inflation In WWE
The contrast between the WWF's two biggest spikes in popularity is striking.
Let's use Hulk Hogan's maiden title win as the starting point of the so-called 'Golden Era', since (again) it was effectively the launching point of Vince McMahon Jr.'s era at the helm, and end it at King Of The Ring 1993, the day that Hulkamania died, the first time, in the WWF. That's around nine and a half years.
The Attitude Era was formally ushered in via Vince McMahon's infamous "pushing the creative envelope" speech on December 15, 1997, and ended at WrestleMania X-Seven. That's around three and a half years.
Across the Golden Era or 'Age of Hulkamania', the WWF Title changed hands 16 times. This works out at a rate of once every seven months or so, and consider that the identity flux of the early '90s skews things. Across the far shorter Attitude Era, the WWF Title changed hands 21 times. The WWF Title therefore changed hands at a rate of once just under two months.
Both eras were incredibly popular, which makes for sobering reading. Isn't the hot potato of title inflation a bad, counterproductive thing?
What does this tell us?
It tells us that title reigns are a mere device, one of many, with which a promoter makes a star - so perhaps that intro might scan as histrionic. A well-curated wrestling title is very important, much more so in the long-term, but there is more than one way to book - and if anything, since the Attitude Era was a cable TV phenomenon, Tony Khan might be applying an antiquated philosophy to his booking in the rights fee era.
This is a separate debate unto itself, but it's always worth challenging one's automatic impulses when covering this great sport.