Mid-Card Titles and How They Should Be Used

Let's talk about titles. In wrestling, championships are used to further feuds and elevate certain guys up the roster. Giving a guy a long title run can restore prestige to a title that the Creative Department has allowed to slip. Unfortunately, this plan of attack can backfire. Case in point: the WWE United States Championship.

Shield member Dean Ambrose won the United States Championship (alternatively referred to as the US Title) in May of 2013. At the time, the title was put on Ambrose as a means of showing off the dominance of the Shield. Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins also won the Tag Team Championship the same night. While they would later drop the Tag Team belts, Ambrose still holds the US Title.

Currently, the Shield is embroiled in a feud with the newly reformed Evolution (Triple H, Batista, and Randy Orton). With this feud taking up so much of Creative's energy, the US Title has fallen on the back burner. But let's be honest, the US Title has fallen off Creative's radar long before that.

Ambrose has only defended the title a few times in his nearly-year long reign, and while it's easy to view him as a weak champion, the truth is more complicated. See, as we all know, wrestling is scripted. The action in the ring is real, in so much as many of the moves legitimately hurt, and crowd reactions are often organic. But the outcomes are predetermined. When Brock Lesnar defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania 30, Lesnar, Undertaker, and only a few others knew what would happen, but that was the intended outcome. When Daniel Bryan won the title later that night, it was already scripted that he would do so, as payoff for an eight-month long feud with Triple H and Randy Orton. So if a title goes a long time without being defended, it's up to Creative to make better storylines to deal with that title.

Back in the dark days of the 1980s, when the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) was still around, before it became World Championship Wrestling (WCW), they really knew how to handle their mid-card titles. The most memorable mid-card title, at least in my mind, was the Television Title, which seemed to always be held by the "Enforcer," Arn Anderson.

Anderson, as a member of the legendary Four Horsemen, was capable of adding prestige to a title by simply holding it. The NWA/WCW Creative Department was actually quite good a crafting story lines around all their championships. The current Creative Team of WWE seems to like the ability to handle anything more than one or two story lines. They've recently launched a tournament to determine the Intercontinental Championship #1 Contender. While it's a great move, and it gives current champion Big E Langston (that's right, he's still Big E Langston to me) something to do.

While Dean Ambrose holds the United States Title, his feuds are often wrapped around the Shield, meaning establishing one on one feuds is difficult. The Shield just completed a babyface turn recently, so the likelihood of them going their separate ways any time soon is low. Once their cumulative feud with Evolution is over, perhaps WWE can refocus their efforts on Ambrose's title.

The other option would be for Triple H, in his role as WWE Chief Operating Officer, could strip the US Title from Ambrose as a means of revenge and out of spite. It would allow Creative to put more time into the US Title and it would further the Shield/Evolution feud. Could be a worthwhile option...