Synaptic Discharge

< Main Index: Synaptic Disharge for 2003-06-09

So Stone Cold is now a co-general manager of Raw; Goldberg has arrived, Hulk Hogan is now parading around in red, white, and blue as Mr. America; Sable is back, and none other than Rowdy Roddy Piper reopened Piper's Pit! The more things change, the more they stay the same...

It seems that the Raw / SmackDown split is working out alright, not as much interaction as I first thought there would be. Some title shuffling has left them each with roughly equivalent titles; they each have a 'World Champion' for singles and tag, they each have a secondary title (Raw, has Intercontinental and SmackDown the Cruiserweight), though Raw has the Women's title. I'd like to see several improvements to the title structure:

Women's Championship: Having one women's title is fine with me for the number of women they have - although I think the women should at least meet at PPVs to get the title swapped between shows from time to time.
More Title Changes: There's not as many title changes as there once was (especially on TV - 5 out of 7 current title holders won at PPVs), Triple H has had the World Heavyweight Championship for 6 months now.
Three Tiers of Titles for Better and More Meaningful Competition: e.g. Heavyweight, Middle, and Light weight. Raw has the WWE Champion (Heavy), and IC (Middle), but no light weight. Smackdown has Heavyweight and Cruiserweight (Light), but no Middle. I propose a TV Title (previous WCW title) for SmackDown to fill in the middle weight slot. Title defended every show, and heavily swapped at times (recall Hardcore Title 24hr rule). For Raw, since most of the smaller guys are on SmackDown anyhow, I propose a Number One Contender Title. (Explained more below).

By a Number One Contender Title I am aiming at a stronger focus on 'climbing the ladder'. Anyone can participate, the title will be defended only on TV (to coincide with the aforementioned TV Title) and will be defended every week. This may mean a wrestler competes more than once on the show (nothing new considering they often compete in house show matches before the tapping). Or even that the title is defended more than once a night, i.e. make verbal challenges more of an impact and gives the underdog a better chance to win. This might go one better, the defending Number One Contender can only reject 3 challenges before being forced to meet the next challenger. The Number One Contender title holder meets the WWE Champion every other PPV (perhaps less frequently to give traditional story lines more time). This may interfere a bit with feuds but it may also make it more dynamic. That is, if someone wants a shot at the Champ then they have to beat at least one person to get it (and then compete every week to retain it).

Probably too complicated to hope for, but I like the idea of taking weight off direct storylines to make sense out of matches. And putting more emphasis on direct competition; no storyline necessary, simply the desire to be Champ.

That's all for now. I'm going to try getting some photos together from the past couple shows I attended.