18 Ups & 15 Downs For WWE In 2023
8. Create-A-Title
Seth Rollins has put in a yeoman’s work in trying to elevate the World Heavyweight Championship into a legit, coveted world title. However, constantly talking about and defending the strap in numerous 3.5-star matches couldn’t on their own overcome the stigma that has persisted around the title.
When Triple H unveiled the new world championship this spring, it merely shone a brighter spotlight on the company’s major failure at WrestleMania 39 to take the unified world title (or at least separate the two titles) off Roman Reigns, who became the ultimate part-time champ afterwards.
Instead, WWE asked fans to accept this new title as an equivalent while acknowledging that it was necessary because Roman wouldn’t be around much to defend the only other world title. It was an embarrassing self-own that the company just pushed through and tried by force of will to make fans accept as a net positive.
To be fair, Sami Zayn’s quest to become a world champion and CM Punk returning and hinting at wanting Rollins’ title have done more in the past two months to elevate the World Heavyweight Championship than anything else prior. But this was an awful debut for something intended to be a major title for the biggest wrestling company in the world, and it should not be forgiven or forgotten.