It Gave Up-And-Comers The Chance To Mix it With The Big Boys
When people complain about the fall of the WHC, they often chart the course of the people in the Mania events. The WWE Titles had from Wrestlemania 19 onwards: Brock Lesnar vs Kurt Angle (19) Eddie Guerrero vs Kurt Angle (20) John Cena vs JBL (21) Triple H vs John Cena (22) Shawn Michaels vs John Cena (23) Triple H vs Randy Orton vs John Cena (24) Randy Orton vs Triple H (25) John Cena vs Batista (26) John Cena vs the Miz (27) CM Punk vs Chris Jericho (28) John Cena vs the Rock (29) On the other hand, the WHC match consisted of: Triple H vs Booker T (19) Triple H vs Shawn Michaels vs Chris Benoit (20) Triple H vs Batista (21) Rey Mysterio vs Randy Orton vs Kurt Angle (22) Batista vs the Undertaker (23) Edge vs the Undertaker (24) John Cena vs Edge vs Big Show (25) Edge vs Chris Jericho (26) Edge vs Alberto Del Rio (27) Shaemus vs Daniel Bryan (28) Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio (29)
It is obvious that the star power in the WHC certainly seems to lag behind a bit by Wrestlemania 28- and the last Wrestlemania to be closed out by the World Heavyweight Championship was the Undertaker vs Edge at Wrestlemania 24. However, if we were to take the year of Wrestlemania 25 and go through the title matches at all the PPVs post Mania, something interesting happens. While the WWE Championship soon became consumed with the usual suspects (Orton, Batista, Cena, Triple H) the WHC was fought between Jeff Hardy and CM Punk through the summer. After this feud ended, CM Punk had the opportunity to prove himself to one of the big boys in the industry- the Undertaker. This allowed Punk a trial run on the big stage against one of the most respected figures in the industry. From there Punk could be seen as someone who could not only carry a match, but carry a BIG match. Because the WWE at the time was full of veteran stars that could be relied on to carry the belt for a few months (Edge, Jericho, 'Taker, etc), there was a wealth of possibilities for the up and comers to try their stuff on a PPV in a major 15+ min match. So if all these things are positives, why is the belt now sort of an afterthought?