Question for you, folks..... Does the man make the Championship, or does the Championship make the man? I've said before in this article that the Championships haven't been seen as all that important in the past few years. So how do you make a Championship feel important? Well, for a start, you have someone who you can honestly look at and say "yep, that's a Champion". The Champion would defend his belt constantly against all comers, he would make keeping his belt his highest priority, he would be proud to be the Champion. Even if your Champion was a heel, he'd still cheat to win, to hold on to that Championship at all costs. It has to be perceived as something worth having. And a Championship can only be seen as worth having if it's held by a true Champion. Look at your last two Intercontinental Champions. Curtis Axel and Big E. One is a failed experiment and the other is an infuriating waste of potential. When Big E beat Axel for the belt, it wasn't seen as a huge achievement, because beating Curtis Axel ISN'T a huge achievement. Beating Big E by himself wouldn't be a huge achievement either, were it not for this tournament. But now, thanks to the tournament, whoever the ultimate victor is will look like he's climbed a veritable mountain. Let's assume that Bad News Barrett wins the tournament. If he then defends it victoriously against the likes of Cesaro, Big Show and whoever else steps up to the plate, he'll look stronger for doing so. And then when somebody unlikely actually beats him, like Xavier Woods for example, it would make people sit up "what?? Xavier Woods actually won?!?! We might need to check this guy out!" So to answer my own question, the man makes the Championship, at first. Then when winning and keeping the Title actually becomes an accomplishment, it is then the Championship that makes the man a Champion Let me know your thoughts in the comments section.
Stephen Maher has been a rock star, a bouncer, a banker and a busker on various streets in various countries. He's hung out with Robert Plant, he was at Nelson Mandela's birthday and he's swapped stories with prostitutes and crack addicts. He once performed at a Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras by accident. These days, he passes the time by writing about music, wrestling, games and other forms of nerdery. And he rarely drinks the blood of the innocent.
