3. Making Secondary Titles Matter
The last time the WWF Intercontinental Championship was truly relevant as a prestigious title was back in the late 1980s when it was held by the likes of Macho Man Randy Savage and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. It was especially significant at WrestleMania VI, when then-Champion the Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship. These days, WWEs titles, especially the Intercontinental title, have lost so much value that being a Champion has lost any true significance. Gone are the days where being a champion meant something important, where each champion was the best in his/her division and everyone wanted to take that belt to prove their worth. This is where New Japan succeeds, with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Despite being less than four years old (the belt was announced on April 11th, 2011 and the first champion, MVP, was crowned on May 15th, 2011), it has been elevated so much that it is now considered to be on par with, or of greater value than, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, a belt almost 8 times as old. How was this done? During Shinsuke Nakamuras first two reigns, he would defend it internationally, making it seem like a real world title. This combined with Nakamuras growing star power, culminated in the belt receiving the top billing at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014, New Japans biggest annual show, and was won by former IWGP World Champion Tanahashi. Thus, within the span of 3 years, a new title belt was given importance that hasnt been seen since the Savage/Steamboat days of the 1980s. If WWE wanted to elevate their titles, that is how its done. By booking long-term champions who defend their titles in regular, high-caliber matches, make the biggest stars appear to desire the belt, and feature the title more prominently on major shows. It would also make sense to defend the title on international tours and on special shows emanating from other countries (i.e. the UK), to help bring back the world in world champion. If WWE could manage that, then maybe people would actually care about title matches again.
Alexander Podgorski
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
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