Is the WWE Championship slowly becoming what the World Heavyweight Championship once was?

When comparing the current state of the WWE Championship to what the World Heavyweight Championship was toward the end of its existence, the similarities are actually quite concerning.

Since its inception in 1963, the WWE Championship has been the centerpiece of WWE and has been held by a lengthy list of illustrious names. Wrestlers couldn’t reach ultimate super stardom until they held that title because of the prestige, honor and history that came with it.

Aside from from a brief period in 2001 where the WCW Championship was actively defended on WWE programming, the WWE Championship was the sole world title in WWE for nearly half a century until the institution of the World Heavyweight Championship in 2002.

The World Heavyweight Championship was the top title on Raw for the better part of the original Brand Split, making the WWE Championship exclusive property of SmackDown for a time. Once the straps switched shows, the World Heavyweight title belt was immediately relegated to secondary status due to being on SmackDown, which has always been regarded as the B-show compared to Raw.

Regardless of the remarkable matches that were contested for the World Heavyweight title on the blue brand, it played second fiddle to the WWE Championship when it came to the co-branded pay-per-views. Before being merged with the WWE title in December 2013, the World Heavyweight title hadn’t headlined an event since Hell in a Cell in October 2010.

Worse yet, the belt was being defended on Raw on occasion, sometimes in the opening slot on the show. That essentially sent the message that it was no more important than the Intercontinental or United States Championships, and that should not at all be the case for a world title.

Unifying those two titles was long overdue, because although it gave less wrestlers an opportunity to hold it, at least the remaining world championship would actually mean something and not be perceived as a joke by fans.

Fast forward several years to the when the Brand Split was brought back in the summer of 2016. It was announced almost immediately that with the WWE Championship going to SmackDown Live, the Universal Championship would be created for wrestlers to fight for on Raw.

Despite the awful name and design, it was a logical idea in theory. A world champion that traveled between brands would have been fine as well, but to truly uphold the rules of the Brand Extension and to make it as special as possible, world champions should be exclusive to one show.

The WWE and Universal Championships were largely treated with the same respect for the first year or so of the current incarnation of the Brand Split, but by mid-2017, it was clear WWE had lost their way with the world titles and that they quickly started to lose value.

Brock Lesnar being an absentee Universal champion is another issue all together, but him being out of the picture for a few months at a time should have meant that the WWE Championship would take precedence on pay-per-views.

Sadly, it has been the exact opposite, at least so far in 2018. Lesnar is one of WWE’s biggest draws, mind you, but even when his matches aren’t the most must-see, he will wrestle in the main event of almost every pay-per-view he appears on, overshadowing WWE champion AJ Styles in the process.

Styles closed out the Clash of Champions and Fastlane events with successful WWE Championship defenses, but that is only two pay-per-views in the span of nine months. It’s also unlikely that he’ll headline SummerSlam with Samoa Joe this Sunday, begging the question of whether the WWE Championship has merely become a prop the same way the World Heavyweight Championship did years ago.

Needless to say, the WWE Championship will never be done away with like the World Heavyweight Championship was in 2013, but something should be done to boost its significance on SmackDown.

Following SummerSlam, the WWE title must be given more chances to headline pay-per-views and featured as the main attraction for a change. It was understandable when that was happening to Jinder Mahal (if only because he shouldn’t have been champion to begin with), but Styles is among WWE’s biggest stars and should be booked as such.

To those clamoring for the world titles to be merged again in order to put an end to this nonsense, be patient. WWE has proved in the past that they are fully capable of having two top titles that are equal in importance, but it’s up to them to get back to that point before it’s too late.