10 Step Investigation: Just How Successful Is WWE In 2017?
4. Title Prestige
The WWE Heavyweight Championship remains the pinnacle achievement in professional wrestling. It remains so bulletproof that even Jinder Mahal's bizarre flirtation with it cannot dent its prestige. A proper WWE Championship match remains the company's foremost attraction.
The profile of Universal Title has been enhanced considerably by Brock Lesnar's capture of it, but elsewhere, the middle tier titles are bandied about so casually and frequently that they don't really mean anything. The Intercontinental Title used to be a symbol of ascension, but it now acts as a consolation prize for failed main event experiments like Dean Ambrose.
The United States Title is even lower on the totem pole. Ex-World Champions like Kevin Owens are positioned as indistinct from undercard jobbers like Kalisto. Owens' new act as the Face of America is ironic, because that title has no identity whatsoever. The Tag Team and Women's Titles, across both brands, are more or less trinkets acting as a prize for a game of pass the parcel. Essentially every act in the division is eligible for a shot - often several - irrespective of whether or not they are in any outdated sporting notions of form.
WWE has for years shied away from presenting shows as if they are an emulation of sporting events - but why else are the performers there, if not to challenge for gold?
If that gold means nothing, where does that leave them? If there's no point to any of this, what reasons are fans being given to stick around?