Value of a Championship Title

[billy]

I have read the card and everyone has a championship being defended, on a card. I watch tv and John Cena is defending his belt weekly on Raw. Does the Championship actually mean anything any more. It just down't seem like the belts mean a thing anymore and I want my belts in the fed to mean something .what di you all think?

[JimSteel]

It depends

I say defend ever other week is good

BUT
In the 80's the NWA had title matches on a regular basis and it was awesome. The titles didn't change hands as often as they do now but you tooned in to see ho could beat the champ. Ric Flair defended his title alot and he kept it a long time. He brought alot of credibility to the title

But then again back then the outcomes weren't as obvious as they are now and Monthly PPV's I think kill the titles credibility

The good old days when PPV's were run every 4 months or so

You can defend titles on almost every card and not lose credibility. As long as its against legit contenders most of the time

[Bazzy]

I try to rota on my weekly tv cards , between the heavyweight belt this card and the next card the US title . To give the champions thier own times/angles etc . Both belts are defended on PPVs .

[stephenvegas]

In both my LOW and my COTG feds, I have a rule that my titles have to be defended once a month at a minimum but I don't have my titles defended week after week.

I also use the house rule that a champion has to role his PIN two consecutive times before he loses his title.

[LWPD]

billy said:

I have read the card and everyone has a championship being defended, on a card. I watch tv and John Cena is defending his belt weekly on Raw. Does the Championship actually mean anything any more. It just down't seem like the belts mean a thing anymore and I want my belts in the fed to mean something .what di you all think?

You have to remember Billy that John Cena is a 'television character' on a weekly recurring sports entertainment Cable TV show. He is portrayed by creative in ways that are meant to illicit emotional responses from the audience...get them to watch the following week...and then hopefully buy premium content (merch, PPVs, whatever). In that sense the 'belt' has meaning as a creative prop which serves a commercial purpose.

If you want to present your GWF as a real life sport...you probably wouldn't want to use the current day WWE model...which doesn't even pretend to be a sport anymore because there's relatively no money in it in comparison to the approach they've taken.

LWPD (in terms of COTG my philosophy is that the 'less frequently' the title is defended plus the 'more difficulty' that is built into the challenge of 'earning' a title shot plus the 'more stringent' the rules and stipulations surrounding pulling off an actual title change...the less likely title changes are to occur and the more actual 'value' holding the Championship has...the steeper the mountain to climb the more value there is in making it to the top)

[billy]

I understznd that Cena is a character on tv and everything he does is for response or sales of product , The WWe title to me anyway doesn't mean a thing, if you hock it you only get $20. In the 80's flair defended that title all over the place and the world because that belt menat something, but when WCW closed that belt was not worth a hill of beans. I think if you have championship title or two or three the title should really mean something and not just a trinket to be on ones resume. What could make a championship so valueable that when it is defended it means something?

[Encubus]

I think that alot of it should fit your storyline. Defending belt every month at a PPV gets boring. Its too predictable. The best days of wrestling occured when you could have anything happen on a given night.

Best example is when Kane won the heavyweight belt at a PPV on sunday, then lost it on RAW the next day (monday). Changing belts on a regular show makes the show worth watching.

[fredkc6cfb]

It depends a lot of the title holder.

I mean, I once had Thantos hold the GWF title for almost 4 GWF years straight and he defended the belt a ton, but he cheated a ton too. Then I had Commander Sam grab the GWF championship for a much shorter period of time, but he seemed to do his best wrestling while defending the belt.

I don't stick to any set schedule for defenses anymore. I just have them when I feel like it.

[blueraider2]

2 of 3 falls every week is best imo. no smiley today.

[bmurderh8s]

The problem today is that a world championship really isn't a world championship because it is not defended in other countries against international talent.

It may be defended in Europe or Canada, but only against other talent from that promotion.

What makes a championship valuable is it's lineage and the competition for the title. I would agree the WWE belt means nothing outside of that company, same as the NWA belt no longer means anything outside of the TNA, even though it's lineage is much greater then anybelt currently being defended in the E.

[billy]

The history of the belt is important and who has held it makes it important over the years and centuries, but I was thinking just suppose the Tna champ Christian defended his belt in Hawii against the #1 contender and won, does that make the belt alittle more better, or if Cena defended against Muta in Japan and lost does that make the belt better or worse. Linage I think has alittle to do withthebelt being good or bad but does the championship ever mean the same as for instance AWA title, when Nick Bockwinkle held the title,did the title still have the same respect when Jerry lawler held the title, granted the AWA was going down the tubes but if we go by linage of the belt that title should have been precigious and it wasn't. I have more questions than answers I guess

[Mr. Jimmyface]

Not to be cliched or anything, but it's up to you promoter!

I firmly believe that you can tell everything you need to about a promotion's direction by the way they handle their championship belts and the men and women who wear them. Are they defended on a regular basis? Is the best wrestler the person holding the title? Is the title something that can elevate a wrestler's career, or is the best secondary compared to the one who holds it? Look at past reigns from your time watching wrestling, and look at the time that someone held a title. How often did they defend the title? Were they featured every week? Were their matches the best ones seen that night?

I'm of a school of thought that the Heavyweight Title should be the single most important thing in the world. To that end, I have a system in place where the best workers in the company compete for shots, and that it's not something that is easy to do. Some wrestlers have had long careers in my fed with having never gotten more than one shot at the title. And the Heavyweight Title is defended EVERY card and is always the main event. That is part of the allure. By making the title the top card of the match and defending it consistently, I have had a strong champion in the drivers seat of my fed, and it usually is one of the top performers. Granted, there are a couple of times where a fluke happens, and you have someone in the spot out of the blue, but it is usually a short lived reign, and is quickly forgotten. And considering I keep it more open for secondary titles (Tag Team, United States, Womens), and practically give away my tertiary belts (Hardcore and Cruiserweight), opportunities abound for wrestlers and title belts to find their way to each other.

But it's up to the promoter to justify title importance in their own fed. I do things my way, but I have seen fed threads where the focus is on the match up of the wrestlers, and their cards are just as good if not better than mine. The same way I focus on the title, others put focus on the character and storyline going into a match. You can balance these out any way you'd like to. In the end, as long as you are enjoying yourself, you're getting it right!

[Pride]

once an month makes it harder to abtain(i know i spelled it wrong)and that makes it worth more.

snoochy moochy

[daytondave]

I went with "every other week". I run my fed in two-week cycles, two cards per week. Every card has either a Title Match or a Special Feud Match as a main event.

The most important thing about the titles, in my opinion, is to make sure the challengers are worthy. In my feds, you have to work your way up to a title match by defeating a series of worthy opponents, up to the all-important "#1 contenders' match" with the title shot on the line.

[billy]

I know it is up to me the promoter, but I was just wondering people reponses tothat question I asked and I love the feed back. Now here is what triggered that question of value of a championship, with all the promoters here in LOW and all the diffrent federations going(I love reading all the action) Which championship belt has the most value? Does some one belt that changes weekly or almost weekly mean more or does the one that defends the championship twice monthly? Or is it the once a month guy? I am not putting anyone down here if it sounds lke it I am not, but if an outsideer came in and read all the posts and everynes federations would your championship belts be graded as valueable or a trinket and not worth anything much? Ponder it and if you think I am nuts fine i can live with it, but if you see where I am going with this then you might just understand why being a promoters of this LOW is rough

[vtturk]

I have three individual belts and two tag belts. The top IWA Championship belts are defended every five cards at my two main shows, my secondary belts, the Can-Am Belts are also defended at those shows but may be defended between to boost a hot feud, and my final and lowest grade belt, the TV Championship is defended whenever I feel like it, like once every two or three cards.

I tend to have my top rated wrestlers, generally the 1 or 2 pin guys compete for the top belts and have the 3 pin guys compete for the secondary belts with the TV belt going to low 3's and 4's.

Those distinctions are a little more blurred in Tag Team action, for instance my current IWA Tag Team Champions are the Rougeau Brothers with Raymond rated a 4 pin and Jacques a 2.

[theringmaster]

What about the whole "must defend the belt every 30 days rule" I like that. Voted for once a month.

[gatekeeper]

I don't think there's any 1 factor that determines how valuable a championship is. I think it depends on who has it, how they defend it, and who they defend it against. JMO

[jester]

gatekeeper said:

I don't think there's any 1 factor that determines how valuable a championship is. I think it depends on who has it, how they defend it, and who they defend it against. JMO

AGREED

[Holland227]

The Value of a championship is made by who holds it not how often it is defended. The quality of the champions overall has a value as well

For me though, the World Champ defends Every event he is at and to get a shot you must be in top tier, that is winning matches and beating quality opponents. Guy who beats barry horowitz 500 not as great as guy who beats Hulk Hogan once.