Have WWE Midcarders Ever Been More Dispensable Than Right Now?

[Art Barr]

So the whole initial concept of the IC belt/feuds was a figment of my imagination?

It was only Hogan and giving the others bullshyt to do.

which is how we get to the ic title and one belt after hogan. The ic title that in general was never valued on the level of hogan.
nor, by the promotion and would eventually be buried. Which still has carryover to now.
Why no one else who eventually was gonna be champ but was held there because of Hogan or some goofball off brand disconnect typically from vkm.
That still has mad carryover to now.
shyt is still low quality that I will would and still don't point to many we moments outside of the regular smegular regular like macho/steamboat. Real talk till the radicals is the only time they got their midcard right. Which was because they had to use that pivotal piece and were setting up more asinine pigeonhole glass ceiling bullshyt centered around the vkm family dynamic again as well. Which is why they don't have any grassroots stars outside of one featured in other properties predating them as well.
Meaning cena to everyone else is discovered by someone else or popular from somewhere else.
Which is why they coveted second Gen stars and the Indy heroes who saved wrasslin now. Plus they had to relaunch from their in house dominate direction as well.
Which illustrates their inability to develop their undercard as an actual science.


Art Barr

 

[Jmare007]

One of the issues WWE has is properly building it’s midcard and using that as a way to build future main eventers.

There’s no reason why mid carders disappear for no reason.

The IC title used to be a stepping stone to the world title and now it means jack shyt.

I agree and you are right but we've been saying this shyt for 15 years now. At this point we are inching closer to the IC Belt being a meaningless prop for the same amount of time it was a meaningful stepping stone

 

[TOAD99]

I agree and you are right but we've been saying this shyt for 15 years now. At this point we are inching closer to the IC Belt being a meaningless prop for the same amount of time it was a meaningful stepping stone

Good point, shyt at this point the World titles are mostly meaningless props too

 

[Roman Brady]

Good point, shyt at this point the World titles are mostly meaningless props too

Hell the whole industry of rasslin is a meaningless entity

 

[JerseyBoy23]

Good point, shyt at this point the World titles are mostly meaningless props too

With that said, I do think it has to give a guy confidence that the booker/promoter thinks you're the best guy for the moment to hold that prop. Also I think being champ makes you the main event at every house show, which does affect your pay.

With that said, they do get liberal with handing out the belts during brand splits. Example, besides Edge, I don't think they've ever treated a SD heel champ with respect.

 

[TOAD99]

With that said, I do think it has to give a guy confidence that the booker/promoter thinks you're the best guy for the moment to hold that prop. Also I think being champ makes you the main event at every house show, which does affect your pay.

With that said, they do get liberal with handing out the belts during brand splits. Example, besides Edge, I don't think they've ever treated a SD heel champ with respect.

Agreed. I meant moreso that even having the main title doesn’t gurantee good booking in the WWE. For ex: Randy when he was the authority’s bytch or Rollins.

 

[Roman Brady]

With that said, I do think it has to give a guy confidence that the booker/promoter thinks you're the best guy for the moment to hold that prop. Also I think being champ makes you the main event at every house show, which does affect your pay.

With that said, they do get liberal with handing out the belts during brand splits. Example, besides Edge, I don't think they've ever treated a SD heel champ with respect.

not necessarily, often times just winning the belt isnt enough. How the person is booked from there forward is the real indicator of what the company really thinks

 

[Berniewood Hogan]

"Trade the midcarders for Bitcoin!"

 

[JerseyBoy23]

Agreed. I meant moreso that even having the main title doesn’t gurantee good booking in the WWE. For ex: Randy when he was the authority’s bytch or Rollins.

not necessarily, often times just winning the belt isnt enough. How the person is booked from there forward is the real indicator of what the company really thinks

Yeah I think that my original statement goes more with the guy being a face and having "the look". When a guy holding the belt is a heel or doesn't have "the look," the announcers and their opponents go out of their way to imply that they're a paper champ. Brock is a rare heel champ in that they make him so legit that fans have no choice but to cheer him.

 

[Roman Brady]

Yeah I think that my original statement goes more with the guy being a face and having "the look". When a guy holding the belt is a heel or doesn't have "the look," the announcers and their opponents go out of their way to imply that they're a paper champ. Brock is a rare heel champ in that they make him so legit that fans have no choice but to cheer him.

You are talking about the nonsense they are doing "right now" my post was more pertaining to historically. i.e chris jericho's run as the undisputed champ. Didnt matter his talent or look there was a directive and it was executed to make him look stupid. Same with CM's first WHC run, nerds were gassed thinking the glass ceiling had finally been cracked but he was booked as a failure. Not going to go in the weeds on heels, faces and what not

 

[JerseyBoy23]

You are talking about the nonsense they are doing "right now" my post was more pertaining to historically. i.e chris jericho's run as the undisputed champ. Didnt matter his talent or look there was a directive and it was executed to make him look stupid. Same with CM's first WHC run, nerds were gassed thinking the glass ceiling had finally been cracked but he was booked as a failure. Not going to go in the weeds on heels, faces and what not

Oh ok, I got you. You're right Jericho's reign had Austin and Rock making him look like a fool, then making him team with Stephanie who he was making fun of 3 months earlier.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

Good point, shyt at this point the World titles are mostly meaningless props too

Pretty much. Roman and Cena have been presented as more important than the top titles (how else can you explain Cena spending the end of 2011 and all of 2012 main eventing shows while punk was defending the title in a totally separate program in the mid card and Roman vs taker headlining Wrestlemania when their program was a hollow feud built on nothing over just the previous 3-5 weeks?), so it makes all titles worthless. If either of them mean more then the top title on the show, what’s the point of anyone being there? If these belts are all worthless, what’s the point of wanting them? How often is the IC champ not defending his title at the biggest show of the year or left off the card entirely at a big show? What was the point of survivor series? Every champion competed, but no titles were at stake and there were no ramifications of winning or losing matches. If we’re peeling the layers back a little further since they do things like that all the time, honestly nothing that really happens on either show matters much. They need to get everyone who has a hand in booking a long way away from writing the program.

 

[Roman Brady]

Oh ok, I got you. You're right Jericho's reign had Austin and Rock making him look like fools, then making him team with Stephanie who he was making fun of 3 months earlier.

oh word? I dont remember that, part of my personal problem with him being the "undisputed" champion was that he beat Austin/ rock the same night.. That honour was too prestigious for some young trunks such as jericho. And then from that night onwards everytime he faced them he would eck out a win by cheating like the cowardly heel. I dont recall austin or rock getting any sort of retribution in ring or on the stick

 

[JerseyBoy23]

oh word? I dont remember that, part of my personal problem with him being the "undisputed" champion was that he beat Austin/ rock the same night.. That honour was too prestigious for some young trunks such as jericho. And then from that night onwards everytime he faced them he would eck out a win by cheating like the cowardly heel. I dont recall austin or rock getting any sort of retribution in ring or on the stick

Even the way he beat Austin both times was due to interference from Booker T, if I’m not mistaken.

Yeah the promos leading up to his Austin match in January and Rock in February let us know he wasn’t really on their level.

Sometimes I even question whether Jericho / HHH was a bigger selling point for 18 than Austin / Hall.

 

[Roman Brady]

Even the way he beat Austin both times was due to interference from Booker T, if I’m not mistaken.

Yeah the promos leading up to his Austin match in January and Rock in February let us know he wasn’t really on their level.

Sometimes I even question whether Jericho / HHH was a bigger selling point for 18 than Austin / Hall.

It was for the title and it had HHH. Was austin/ hall really an attraction? Seemed like the leftover crumbs to hogan/rock