Fool's Gold: Pro wrestling's most worthless championships at present

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away—I wrote an article, else where, that was very similar to this. That was 5 years ago.It’s remarkable to think, 5 years ago Daniel Byran was arguably the most unexciting member of the main roster. While future Shield brethren Tyler Black & Jon Moxley were both days away from winning significant independent titles, the ROH World Heavyweight and CZW World Heavyweight Championships, respectivly. Joe Anoa’i was just another Football Player in Canada, while Windham Rotunda was ‘The Army Tank with a Ferrari Engine.’ Later that year, AJ Lee was just another deer in the headlights on NXT, CM Punk still had his smile, while Brock Lesnar was more UFC than WWE. Wow. A lot has changed in 5 years.By 2010 TNA had Global Championships, or was it a Legend’s Championship.. no, wait? The Television Championship. There were TNA Knockout Tag Team titles, WWE Women’s Championships while we certainly didn’t have the NXT Championship, nor a development league to the level of NXT Wrestling.So, in an era where less is more, and often more is less, we’ll countdown Today’s most worthless Championships in no particular order.

#1 The WWE Divas\' Championship

Nikki & Brie, the Bella Twins with AJ Lee.

From June 16, 2013 to November 23, 2014 the diva’s title picture was a wonderful place. AJ Lee had just defeated Kaitlyn at WWE Payback and would hold onto that thing for 295 days. There were Pipebombs, trantrums, drama, character development, then along came Paige and things really got crazy. For over 12 months the two anti-Diva’s exchanged title victories with Paige becoming a 2x Diva’s Champ in less than a year of debuting on the main roster. AJ Lee meanwhile, would finish 2014 off as a 3x Champ and cement herself as potentially the greatest Diva since Trish Stratus.

Yet, the WWE Diva’s Championship is arguably only as ever as credible as it’s current holder. Eve Torres, whose name was synonymous with the Diva’s Championships for quite some time, was always something of a safe option. Kelly, Natalya & Layla all did very little to elevate the title’s importance or the division’s status. While anything involving a Bella twin feels forced due to 1. E!’s Total Divas 2. Their relationships with John Cena & Daniel Byran.

Without a strong leader and great supporting cast, the championship is almost meaningless.

#2 The WWE Tag Team Championships

No suprises here as The WWE Tag Team division has suffered for over a decade.

Funnily enough however, the current titles established on October 20, 2002 got off to an amazing start. Enter: The Smackdown Six.

Edge & Rey Mysterio, Los Guerreros, Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit. For 1 year and 1 day Smackdown’s tag team division was great, over those 366 days, all three teams held the belts, as did rookies Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin and I believe Tajiri snuck in there too.

The division peaked on October 20, 2003. As it was October 21, 2003 that saw The Bashams win the belts.

And it was downhill from there. Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty, Rene Dupree & Kenzo Suzuki, The Bashams again, The Legion of Doom, Deuce & Domino, Hawkins & Ryder, The Colons, Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel held those things 3 times, David Otunga twice, Tyson Kidd & David Hart Smith when they weren’t being babysat even had a run.

The only standouts included mis-mash combinations of singles Superstars and a 331 day reign by Paul London & Brian Kendrick. Oh, and The Shield.

Let’s not forget, Carlito and Primo held the belts for 280 days, management probably just thought they’d misplaced the belts or something.

#3 The WWE Royal Rumble

While not a Championship, it very much is an accomplishment.

Past winners include: John Cena, Randy Orton, Edge, Undertaker, Mysterio, Chris Benoit, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Steve Austin, The Rock, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart.. we get the point. While some other less desirable Superstars won the rumble, including Alberto Del Rio, Sheamus & Vince McMahon, it was nothing compared to both the 2014 and 2015 results.

Batista out of shape, directly off a movie-set and wins the 2014 Rumble match, the fans wanted Daniel Byran and when he didn’t show, it was The Shield’s enforcer Roman Reigns who captured the fans imagination. Batista however won the rumble and would headline Wrestlemania, so it seemed, eventually the WWE saw the writing on the wall and Daniel Byran was included in the main event, under one stipulation; he beat Triple H first to qualify for a triple threat title match. He did and the rest is history.

What a difference a year makes. The Shield splits, as do The Wyatt Family. Seth Rollins becomes the company’s top full time heel. Ambrose organically becomes one the company’s top babyfaces, Bray Wyatt is unlike anything else in the WWE, Dolph Ziggler finally gets over big time and Daniel Bryan is still the new People’s Champion.

Yet, Roman Reigns wins Superstar of the Year and The 2015 Royal Rumble. What’s up with that? Not even an appearance by The Rock could have saved Reigns from that crowd, and not even all the booking to make Roman look strong can cover his limitations in the ring and on the mic. I feel for the guy, I really do.

Two bad decisions two years in a row have seriously dented the credibility of the Royal Rumble.

#4 The US and IC Championships

When the WWE unified it’s World Heavyweight and WWE Championships it created the ultimate prize in this industry—The WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Not only that, it separated the men from the boys. The likes of Alberto Del Rio, Wade Barrett, Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry and Sheamus all dropped out of the “ World “ title picture. The new undisputed WWE World Heavyweight Championship was for the true Champions of this era—John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Daniel Byran. It’s future will include Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns & Bray Wyatt—The Elite.

So let’s be perfectly clear. You still have two championships that are exactly the same. The WWE United States and the WWE Intercontinental Championships.

Neither are as credible as they once were, and arguably the WWE United States title has always been the ugly result of an attempt to marry up the lineage of the WCW US Heavyweight Championship with that a modern day WWE title.

When one championship has the spotlight, the other fades into the background.

Kofi Kingston has collectively held both the US and IC belts 7 times. Dolph Ziggler, collectively 5 times. The Miz, collectively 6 times while Wade Barrett is a 5x IC Champion and you know what? None of this means anything, because the belts don’t mean anything anymore. They are almost worthless.

#5 The TNA X-Division Champion

To me, there’s no other championship more synonymous with it’s company’s value that the TNA X-Division Championship.

It’s history has perfectly captured the highs and lows of TNA Wrestling. In TNA’s infancy, we were seeing the birth and rise of the new American Cruiserweights during a Post-WCW/ECW period when independent wrestling was rapidly moving away from hardcore and into a more high flying style.

When the company was red-hot almost a decade ago, AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Petey Williams, Low Ki, Chris Sabin & Samoa Joe were the names on everyone’s lips, we saw 5 star matches, innovation like never before, suddenly being under 6’0 and 220lbs didn’t mean you were destined to jerk curtins.

Eventually it became style over substance, 'wrestlers' rather than a complete performers, an athlete first, etc. Sadly TNA never really coached or developed their guys to be anything more, while feeding into a mentaility they had to be ‘the alternative to the WWE’. Which is partly why, largely since 2011, the title has been the personal property of Austin Aries.

It’s a wasted championship, built on now old ideals. Cruiserweight wrestling.. “ It’s not about weight limits”... cruiserweight wrestling is dead, especially considering we now live in world where CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Rey Mysterio, Seth Rollins, among others have had significant influence on the wrestling world.

13 years ago, it captured and helped introduce to the world something new and fresh, much like the WWF Hardcore Champioinship of the late 90s. Today the X-Division Championship is completely meaningless.

Edited by Staff Editor