WWE: Why a Second World Title Shouldn’t Return

With the upcoming brand split and the WWE Draft set to take place live on SmackDown on July 19th, there’s a possibility that the WWE could bring back a second world championship.

While the WWE has yet to make any announcement on bringing back a second title, they have made a few interesting changes to the current title’s name.

On the June 27th edition of Monday Night Raw, the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Dean Ambrose was referred to as the WWE Champion on several occasions.

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The WWE also made changes to the “title history” section of their official website, where Dean Ambrose is now listed as the current holder of the WWE Championship and not the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

It’s too early to tell if the WWE will reintroduce the World Heavyweight title, but if they choose to go that route, they’re making a mistake.

Back in 2002, the WWE had it’s first brand split where it’s roster was divided between Raw and SmackDown. The WWE Championship was exclusive to SmackDown, while the World Heavyweight Championship later became exclusive to Raw.

One of the problems the WWE had during their first brand split was that the two titles were never treated equally. Whether it was intentional or not, the WWE Championship was always booked as the most important title in the WWE.

When the WWE Championship was on SmackDown, it helped propel the show significantly as the show didn’t have the notoriety that Raw had. People watched Monday Night Raw because it was the flagship program, while people watched SmackDown because the company’s most important title was on that show.

When John Cena was drafted to Raw in 2005 as the WWE champion, the title became exclusive to Raw. Batista was also drafted to SmackDown as the World Heavyweight Champion, which made that belt exclusive to Smackdown.

Once the heavyweight belt went to SmackDown the show began to decline in popularity as more people tuned into Raw to see the WWE champion. This difference in quality between SmackDown and Raw hurt the prestigiousness of the heavyweight belt.

It also didn’t help that several heavyweight champions were either given the title too early in their careers or booked poorly during this period. Wrestlers like Christian, Rey Mysterio, Jack Swagger, and Jeff Hardy all had lackluster reigns with the title and did little to elevate the prestigiousness of the heavyweight championship.

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The only way the two title system can work is if SmackDown and Raw are presented as equals and the WWE sticks with the brand split. The issue with this is that the WWE has shown in the past that they can’t do it.

Over time, the WWE gave up on the brand split idea and had superstars appear on both Raw and SmackDown. With both the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship on the same shows, the importance of the heavyweight championship diminished even further.

Instead of having two belts, the WWE should stick with the WWE Championship and have the champion compete on both shows. This would add prestige to the title as superstars from both brands would compete to be the top champion in the company.

Having one WWE champion will also help elevate SmackDown to the same level as Raw because both shows will have their wrestlers compete for one title. This helps keep the main title picture fresh and allows the WWE to only have their best become champions.

It’s too early to tell if the WWE will actually bring back a second world championship, but signs from the company seem to point to a return to the old two-title system.

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Having more than one major title did not work out for the WWE before and there’s little reason to believe it’ll work now.