10 Radical Ideas To Save WWE's World Title

5. Cherry Pick The Possible Contenders For The Title

This most recent tournament to crown a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion has been both incredibly entertaining, and a massive failure. The matches themselves, for the most part, were great fun to watch: Reigns vs. Cesaro and Reigns vs. Del Rio, in particular, demonstrated that in the right circumstances the McMahons€™ favourite son can look like a bona fide megastar. But as a storyline leading up to the crowning of a new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, the tournament absolutely, completely and comprehensively bit the big one. The winners of each of the bouts were telegraphed a mile off. It was far too obvious who was going over in each set of matches, and who€™d be competing for the title in the tournament final at Survivor Series. The first round, in particular, was a foregone conclusion, mostly comprising as it did lower-to-mid card also-rans and a couple of tag team specialists. Were these really the best that the company had to offer to compete for a chance at the vacant world title? Money In The Bank contract holder and future WWE World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus was such an afterthought that he lost to jobber-to-the-stars Cesaro in the first round, while jobber-to-the-jobbers King Barrett (a man who must lie awake at night wondering whether Wal-Mart are hiring) lost to Neville, the human finishing move. Meanwhile, Tyler Breeze, who no one really knew yet, took part in a tournament to declare the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion as his first proper main roster match. Of course he lost to Dean Ambrose: by rights, he should have won his first match on RAW, but that would have meant advancing in a tournament he hadn€™t earned a place in. Fortunately, his win over Dolph Ziggler at Survivor Series has restored the sheen to Prince Pretty. That Cody Rhodes (even in the Stardust gimmick, a midcard glass ceiling if ever I€™ve seen one) was knocked out in the opening round is ridiculous. That Kalisto and Titus O€™Neill were booked at all is nonsense. That Ryback lost to Kalisto is just sad, on at least a couple of levels: the man was the Intercontinental Champion just before breakfast this morning, but clearly weathered the loss so that Del Rio could have a luchador to compete against in the next round. Men who should be contenders booked to fail; men who never should have been contenders at all; what a mess, especially when the outcome was never in doubt. Roman Reigns was already the number one contender - the tournament should have been to determine who faced him for the vacant title at Survivor Series. At least that would have left the winner in question. Going forward, the men contending for the title need to be selected more carefully, elevated with careful booking to actually appear to be contenders. This is the biggest prize in the business. No timewasters, please.