WWE Universal Championship is a Terrible Idea

Having a championship belt to represent both RAW and Smackdown Live! will diminish the importance of both titles and champions.

“There can be only one!” – Connor Macleod

When the dust settled on WWE Battleground, RAW ended up with the United States, Women’s and Tag Team belts while Smackdown Live! took ownership of the Intercontinental and WWE World Heavyweight Championship. This relatively equal distribution of power made sense since WWE will attempt to make fans watch a minimum of 5 hours of live wrestling each week.

While it had been rumored for weeks, the creation of a new championship belt was confirmed on the July 26th edition of RAW. It is being dubbed the “WWE Universal Championship” and it is a big mistake. I imagine the sales pitch to Vince going like this:

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IDEA PERSON: “Hey boss, remember over a decade ago when we had two belts but eventually people stopped caring about one of them?”

VINCE: “Of course I do! It was a professional embarrassment which is why we eventually unified the titles!”

IDEA PERSON: “Well I propose we do the same thing again with likely the same results!”

VINCE: ::slowly takes off glasses:: “My God…it’s so crazy that it just might work.”

With the previous brand extension in 2002, both the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship served as top prizes for RAW and Smackdown respectively, with the idea being that both belts were equal in prestige. At least, that’s what WWE wanted us to think because fans knew they were not.

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As the years went on, it became clear that the WWE Championship was the most coveted title because it shared the company namesake and appeared on the most important show. For better or worse, the old WCW belt became just like Smackdown itself and was regarded as good but not great.

Now that the WWE has introduced a second championship, it will be impossible to view them as equals; that’s simply not how championships work. Imagine if both the Cavaliers and Warriors received a Larry O’Brian trophy at the end of Game 7? What if both football teams received unique versions of the Lombardi trophy after the SuperBowl? Having two titles will bring the WWE right back to where it was after 2002.

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The irony is that by not reintroducing a two-title system, the WWE would have been in a unique position to elevate other titles which have lost some of their luster. The hot streak once enjoyed by the United States Championship has cooled ever since Rusev won the strap. Like him or hate him, the John Cena Open Challenge was a fresh idea that actually had fans caring about the U.S. title week after week. Before Monday’s announcement, Rusev would be RAW’s top title holder which means the entire roster would be fighting for a chance to take it from him and thus be the “champion” of RAW.

Unfortunately, the WWE will not allow the U.S. title to be the most prestigious belt on their flagship program. Having a WWE title holder on both shows begs the obvious questions, “so who is the REAL champion?” to which there is no answer. This decision is as confusing as it is frustrating because we’ve been down this road before. Just because the current champion is on Smackdown doesn’t mean it would stay that way. Crossover shows, open challenges, and tournaments to decide who faces the champ during PPVs are just a few ways the WWE could have kept a single champion but still allowed wrestlers from both shows to fight for the prize.

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Having two champions is the easy way out and since WWE has done it before, there’s no need to put any creative thought into the title pictures of their new programs. It’s a lazy and unoriginal decision. The coronation of a WWE Universal Champion at Summer Slam will effectively spell the end of the “both shows are equal” narrative that WWE has tried to convince us of since the draft ended. Because they can’t help themselves, the WWE has gravitated back towards ensuring that RAW gets the most attention by having it’s own unique championship belt and it won’t be long before the Smackdown Live! ratings suffer as a result.