“If you can’t make it relevant,” Paul Heyman reveals why he’s against the idea of having multitude of titles on a show
Paul Heyman reveals an interesting anecdote from his days as SmackDown Head Writer against having a lot of titles.
Paul Heyman is against having a multitude of titles (via WWE)
Championship belts are undoubtedly a huge part of professional wrestling. They help elevate talent and storylines, and the legacy attached to some of these belts is unmatched. However, a title needs to be executed well and given enough screen time; otherwise, it becomes nothing more than a physical prop. Thus, Paul Heyman recently expressed his concerns regarding having a multitude of titles.
In an interview with CBS Sports, Heyman said that he is not a big fan of featuring so many belts unless they all get enough screen time. He then recalled an anecdote from when he was the head writer of SmackDown in the 2000s. Back then, he was against the idea of introducing a midcard title for the men on his show.
Paul Heyman felt like he was giving enough focus to the titles he currently had. He didn’t want any more titles, as this would dilute the attention given to those that already existed. Overall, he believed that there is no hard and fast number for having a set number of titles. If they can make it work, promotions can look at adding more titles.
After the inaugural WWE Draft in 2002, SmackDown was left without a midcard title. Meanwhile, Raw still possessed the Intercontinental Championship, the Hardcore Championship, and the European Championship.
Despite this disparity, Heyman was fine with his mid-card guys competing mainly for the tag titles. However, upper management seemingly wanted to even things out between the two brands. Eventually, the United States Title was introduced to the blue brand in 2003.
Is Paul Heyman right for not wanting a multitude of titles in WWE?
WWE has often been criticized for not giving the same tender love and care to all of its belts. During the mid-2010s, the Universal Championship had a high stock in the company. In fact, even the coveted WWE Championship felt like a secondary world title to have. Thus, many fans resonated with Paul Heyman’s ideology of focusing on quality over quantity.
WWE is faced with a huge challenge after the introduction of the Women’s Intercontinental Championship and Women’s US Championship. The Women’s Tag Belts were already in a dire state before Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair came around. So, it would be interesting to see how WWE handles this new set of titles.
AEW has often been criticized for committing this error as well. They have been criticized for having too many belts on the show, especially after adding Ring of Honor titles to their programming. Furthermore, due to it being a new wrestling promotion, they have not had the time to establish a lot of their native titles. Thus, most of their belts seem interchangeable with each other without an individual and unique legacy.
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Mokshit Batra
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