10 WCW Ideas Eric Bischoff Can Use To Boost SmackDown

1. A TV Title

eric bischoff
WWE.com

For a time, WCW’s Television Championship was one of the most prestigious titles in the wrestling business. Defended on free weekly television, the championship conjures up fond memories for many a wrestling fan thanks to the title reigns of stars such as Arn Anderson, Steve Austin, Booker T, and Chris Jericho. It’s just a shame that the final memories associated with the championship are of Scott Hall throwing the belt in the trash before janitor Jim Duggan retrieved the gold for its final run.

More recently, the closest we’ve had to anything like the TV Title was when John Cena was doing his weekly open challenge for his United States Championship. And we can all agree, that weekly match quickly became one of the most hotly anticipated parts of WWE programming as it added a long-lost prestige to that particular belt.

It could be argued that WWE currently has too many titles, so if you’re of that school of thought, maybe having the Intercontinental Championship – currently held by Finn Bálor – defended on each episode of SmackDown is one way to instill a sense of weekly anticipation without oversaturating SmackDown with one too many titles.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.