Recently Returned as a fan... very confused...

Mr. Millions

Yeah, so it's been a very long time since I watched, and I started recently with the Lottery and whatnot. But I'm pretty perplexed, so here are a few questions I have:

Is there a hierarchy amongst the different championships? For example, is the WWE Champion better than World Heavyweight Champion? Or other way around? Or are they equals? What about Intercontinental and US? What about the Tag Titles?

Also, didn't they at one time combine the titles, to have an Undisputed Champion? What the crap happened to that? Or am I just imagining that?

What the heck happened to people like Hogan, Nash, Hall, X-Pac?

When did Eddie Guerrero qualify as a Main Eventer, not to mention the WWE Champion?

I've yet to see him wrestle, but why did John Cena get over? Is he talented in the ring? His "Word Life" crap seems a bit ridiculous to me...

So is Foley "un-retired"?

And here are a couple of questions that I've had for a long time, nothing to do with my recent return as a fan:

Remember when Ric Flair came to the WWF in the 90's, and he feuded with guys like Hogan and Savage... and he had what he called the "Real World's Championship," and "Jack Tunney" had it blurred out on TV... what belt was that? WCW, NWA, or just a belt he had made up?

Also, I was never a big WCW fan, but my cousins were. And one day, probably about 15 years ago, we watched a PPV at their house. Here was the deal: There were probably about 40 superstars, and then names were drawn "at random," and you were teamed up with someone for a tag team match. This happened for everyone, and all the tag teams that won got to go on to the next round. For this part, there were two rings set up side-by-side. Everyone started in one ring, and as I recall (this may be a bit wrong) you first had to be thrown over the ropes into the 2nd ring. Then, in the 2nd ring, someone had to throw you out like a normal battle royal to eliminate you. Then, when there were just one person left in each ring, they went at it, and the winner was declared. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Okay, that's all. Thanks.

vaulter894

I will try to help best i can, Eddie Guerrero is very over so he finally got a push to the top. Each Brand tries to make their titles seem better than the others but they are all equal in what level they are in(midcard US Intercontinental, main event World/ WWE title) The undisputed champion at one point was Brock Lesnar and he chose to only stay on one show so another title was made for the other. Nash is injured I think, Hogan quit or was fired, Hall was fired i think also. John Cena has been working his way up the card and has been getting over. Also I think you are thinking of the Lethal lottery concept in WCW. I hope this helps I am unsure of some stuff, If anyone can correct me go ahead.

Dr. Giganto

I'll do my best to answer to your questions:

There is not supposed to be a heirarchy between the two shows. In theory, the WWE Championship should be just as prestigious as the World Championship, the tag belts are the same, etc

The belts were unified until Brock Lesnar won the title from the Rock at Summerslam 2002. On Raw the next night, Brock announced that he was going to become exclusive property of Smackdown, and take the title with him. The next week on Raw, Eric Bischoff brought back the WCW title, calling it the "World Championship" and he handed it to HHH, who was "awarded" the title

Hogan lost a "retirement" match, then came back last summer as "Mr. America", where he wrstled under a mask and pretended he wasnt Hogan. He then got extremely full of himself and left when Vince wouldnt make him the top star (this is Internet speculation). Nash gets hurt everytime he steps into a ring, and he is basically retired. Recently, hes been acting in the upcoming movie "The Punisher". Scott Hall couldnt get over his alcohol problems and was dismissed like 2 years ago. X-Pac apparently thought he was worth mor than WWE was willing to pay him, so they let him go

Over the past several months, Smackdown was sorely lacking in top-level talent. Because of this, Eddie was given a chance to shine and became far and away the most over face on Smackdown. He best Brock Lesnar in February at No Way Out in a mild upset for the WWE Title

John Cena's ring-work is adequate. He probably got over mostly because of his character. He's new and fresh. He cuts funny promos ridiculing people like the Rock used to do. and, unlike every other rappng wrestler, he actually has a small amount of rapping talent. Not much, just enough to make the gimmick work. and its apparently the way he is in real life, so he plays the part well

I doubt hes unretired for the long-term. I suspect Vince convinced him to come out of retirement to help build-up Randy Orton as a top-level star. I suspect when the angle runs its course, Foley will go back to retiring

The gimmick was that it was the actual NWA belt (i dont believe WCW existed yet), but i heard in actually it was just an old duplicate of the IC belt or something like that

I remember the match youre talking about, but i cant tell you anything more than what you already know. sorry

Hope that answers your questions....

IRALB

I honestly don't see what the deal with John Cena is. He has little to none 'rapping' talent whatsoever, it looks like he's reading it off a fuckin teleprompter.

As far as the Flair belt went, I remember watching those segments, and I'm positive it is the WCW World title belt (Now around Benoit's waist). I never watched WCW back then, but when I first tuned in around the nWo days, I knew the belt looked very familiar, of course sans the spray paint. And this was right before or during the WCW/NWA merger.

Remember Hogan spitting on it in that angle?

Y2J The King Of The World

Mister D did a good job of covering your questions, but I'll help out on a few details:

After Wrestlemania X-8, which seems to be the last time you were into WWE, there was a brand split, which divided the WWE roster into two brands: Raw and Smackdown. The Raw guys can appear on Raw and Heat only, and the Smackdown guys can appear only on Smackdown and Velocity (which replaced Jakked/Metal). The Raw brand has the World Heavyweight Champion as their top guy, the Intercontinental Champion, the World Tag Team Champions, and the Women's Champion. Smackdown has the WWE Champion as their top guy, the United States Champion as their answer to the I-C Champ, the WWE Tag Team Champions, and the Cruiserweight Champion. The European Championship and Hardcore Championship were consolidated with the I-C title during the summer after WM X-8 (the I-C title was also consolidated into the World Heavyweight Championship that October, until it was brought back last June).

Mister D covered that one perfectly. After the brand extension, the Undisputed Champion was the only person who was on both rosters. After Brock won the belt, he went exclusive with Smackdown.

Covered. They all suck.

Again, covered. He's currently at the peak of his career, both in hierarchy and in performance.

Cena is definitely a Rock wannabe. He has the "Five Knuckle Shuffle" to the Rock's "People's Elbow," he gets over by cleverly dissing other wrestlers, and has dabbled in catchphrases with the crowd lately. His gimmick was a parody at first, but now is pretty over.

I doubt he'll be active for long. Then again, I never thought HBK would have stuck around as long as he has. We'll see.

Flair mostly used what is now called the World Heavyweight Championship belt (formerly the NWA World Championship) as the "Real" World's Championship belt in his first stint in WWE. However, I do distinctly remember there being times when he obviously was using one of the WWF Tag Team title belts in this gimmick, too. Why they did this, I don't know, as the belts look nothing alike, even blurred out.

I'm pretty sure you're talking about Battle Bowl/The Lethal Lottery from Starrcade '91. The wrestlers' names were drawn, pairing them up into random tag teams. The winning team advanced to Battle Bowl, which was the big two-ring battle royal finale to the show. Pretty cool concept - I'd like to see it brought back sometime.[/quote]

Danny Diamond

Founder/Admin

I know for a fact that Cena is a free styler and maybe he comes up with some lines ahead of time but he is not reading off a teleprompter. People have said to have challenged him in the back to rap about random objects and he does it all the time.

I know this story has been told before, but years ago Cena went to school with one of my best friends. My buddy Brian said back then that Cena was a great freestyler.

The guy should get a little credit for what he is able to do. I couldnt freestyle for 5 seconds.

And Mr.Millions I would say that D was dead on with just about every answer.

Liva La Razzzzza !!!

Good Ol' JP

Ill have a go at the flair thing.
When most NWA territories where no longer operating, World Championship Wrestling began to refer to Flair as WCW World Heavyweight Champion, making the NWA and WCW names interchangeable. Despite popular belief, the WCW World title has NO direct lineage to the NWA World Heavyweight title. There was a title vs. title match in which Flair reunified the NWA and WCW World titles. Flair jumped to the WWF, making the NWA World Heavyweight title vacant, but although Flair never lost the NWA title, and the NWA isnt WCW that technically ment he was still the NWA champion. So it was the NWA belt he had.

Rhyno's #1 mark just layed the smackdown!

If I am no one, and no one is perfect, then I am perfect.

Mr. Millions

Okay, one more question... I recently watched Royal Rumber '04, and Hardcore Holly had a title match with Lesnar. Now, it was weird enough to me that Eddie is a Main Eventer, but Holly? Was that just like a one-time thing, to bring him back from injury in a big way? Or is this like an on-going Main Event push for him?

Mity1

Holly had a title shot? Oh yeah I vaguely remember that... I think they wanted to bring him back as some sort of psycho and try to tear apart Brock but he got very little reaction from the crowd so I believe he's been demoted to Tough Enough to work on his character...lol. Seriously though, I think he just doesn't have IT to get fully over as face or heel.

At least as Spark Plug Holly he had a character to work with...

Dr. Giganto

It was a one-time thing

Brock Lesnar dropped Holly on his head like a year and a half ago, and he was out for over a year, so when he came back: insta-feud. Holly actually got kinda over at first as a blood-thirsty guy out for vengeance, but they dragged the angle out so long (over 3 months...he made his return before Survivor Series) that the feud really lost its legs prior to that match. and everyone knew holly didnt stand a chance, especially so close to Wrestlemania

Brock beat him clean at the Rumble, and Holly dropped back down the ladder