RAW or Smackdown titles: Which ones mean more to you?

Bouchie

I'm trying to figure out if people have any preference, or hold more prestige, for one brands set of belts over the other. Personally, I'm split on the issue.

I like the WWE Championship over the World Championship, simply because the WWE title is the original WWF title. The World strap is something that was simply handed to Triple H on the September 2, 2002 edition of RAW. Not to mention it's the old WCW title, the same one that David Arquette "won".

Meanwhile, I prefer the World Tag Titles over the WWE Tag Titles of Smackdown. This is for much the same reason. Smackdown's WWE Tag Titles were first won in a tournament made of mostly make-shift teams. RAW's tag belts carry decades of history with them.

As for the others:

Glad to see the return of the Intercontinental Title in May 2003. Whoever decided to scrap it in the first place should be shot. Way too much history to throw out there. Too bad the same honor can't be held with the rest:

The Women's Title means nothing, since there's only like 3 people contending for it.

The US Title is pretty to look at (now that Cena has his own spinny version), but is about as valuable as the European Title was.

The Cruiserweight Title (and whole division in general) is being wasted due to the gross mishandling of 95% of the company's cruiserweights.

It could easily be argued that there are still too many titles in WWE, even with the dropping of the European and Hardcore gold. Since that time, they've simply replaced those meaningless belts with new ones.

K Jay

A title is only as good as the guy holding it the guys chasing it IMO. And sorry I used to love that Gold and Blue of the WWF title but latley it`s a complete joke. JBL for 7 months, Ive just lost intrest. US title, auctually enjoyed it`s storylines for the last year and it`s probably been utilised more than the IC title has on raw. Cruiserweight, sadly sadly wasted when it shouldnt be, a potentail gold mine of a division wastes while Bradshaw continues to get airtime for an "image consulatant", Smackdown writers musthave very sore toes from continuiously dropping the ball on them. The "world" title, this should really carry the most prestige due to it`s NWA roots but WCW probably devalued it beyond belief when a certain phone-provider salesman had his run. However that said you have a division of Heavyweights who can (when booked correctly) keep it fresh and intresting, HHH RKO Y2J Benoit Batista Kane HBK not a bad little roster to do your booking from. The IC likewise Christian Shelton Benoit Y2J plus the up and comers from next year, shame its almost ignored at the moment because they could have some intresting little fueds or even revisit past fueds i.e. Y2J and beniot. The womens title, well it was always a sideshow for T&A and 3/4 workers doesnt exactly raise it`s stock why did they let Gail and Nidia go it was starting to look like it had depth.

Anyway thats my 2 cents

Narc

I think all titles dont mean as much as they used to. Bothe Tag Team Titles are a complete joke. The Cruiserweight Title is a complete shame. The Womens Title is being fought by only four girls, weeks in and weeks out. The World Title was tainted when they just handed it over to HHH, even tho for awhile now, they have been building good feuds around it. The WWE Title has been devalued as well. The reason has been JBL and all the storylines around it. Dont get me wrong, personally, Ive grown to love JBL, but truthfully, hes the worse WWE/F Champion EVER. On the other hand the IC Title and US Title have been good for awhile now. Randy Orton really did a great job with that IC Title. So right now, no title really holds that much prestige for me. I think the all problem here has to do with the brand expansion. They are trying to make us believe its 2 completely different identities, but yet they wrestle on the same PPV. At this year WrestleMania, you are gonna see at least 6 titles on the line. That devalues all the titles and its champions. I still find it weird that one company has 2 World Champions.

Creature of the Night

I think the way that the Raw title was 'given' to HHH as it was brought into WWE TV as the Raw title was sloppy and it made the belt look like nothing more than a toothing toy for Nips. WWE tried to palm us off with the history of the title in its NWA/WCW days but either nobody cared, saw the hypocrisy and realised that you were pissing on its memory by giving it to HHH, or didn't know about the history of the belt.

The SmackDown title had history, had credence as Lesnar had become exclusive to that brand before it became the brand exclusive title rather than being created as a champion's belt for that brand.

Since the brand extension, the belt's importance has evened out because the holders of either belt, nobody really cared about. Now for me, the SmackDown title is at least being treated like a championship belt and its given some importance as storylines centre around IT rather than some sub-plot that WWE has invented to create interest. The same is true of the Raw brand right now and its shown with the quality of Raw lately.

I agree with Narc in that there should be ONE king of the mountain, one guy stood atop the entire fed as its champion because the belt feels SO much more important then. The age of the 'true' main eventer has died, because theyre really only fighting half the roster to get to where they are, and no matter how separate they want us to believe it is, SmackDown and Raw are part of a collective.

Bouchie

I agree. Remember when the brand extension first happened and Undertaker would defend the WWE Championship on BOTH brands? That's the way I would have liked to kept it, having only one WWE Champion defend against every main-eventer in WWE. It would open the door to a lot more potential fueds.

Lynch

First off, you really can't consider the Raw belt the old WCW title, because it's nothing more than the belt itself, once it's deemed a title elsewhere, that's what it is, history and legacy are not damaged, they stay the same, it just happens to be the same actually physical belt.

That said, I'll get back to the question: To me, Raw has the two more valuable belts, IC and World.

IC: From Orton to Benjamin, the IC title has done nothing but rise in value the past 18 months, matches have been fantastic, and all from credible challengers. No longer is it hotshotted between the likes of A-train and The Godfather, which sent it's value down the toilet, but it's stock has risen considerably in the last 18 mos. It's counterpart, the US title, has no lineage to fall back on, no great WWE feuds over it, and apparently, no one cares about it. The WCW history of it doesn't count simply because it has the same name, and it really wasn't a great belt in the dying years of WCW. The Cruiserweight belt if virtually pointless, and we all know both tag belts are junk. The IC title is head and shoulders above all of Smackdowns titles including:

WWE World: I'll give it up, JBL cuts a great promo, has a killer looking finisher, and gets great heel heat, that's all I'll give up for him. Now some may say, well, that's about the same as Ric Flair. True enough, Flair was pretty routine in the ring, but that routine pulled us into every match, Flair MADE superstars. Want some talentless, good looking musclehead to get over, feud him with Flair, a green up and comer, Flair, his name remembered, Flair. JBL will never have 16 World title reigns, be top guy for 25 years, or have 5 star matches. But he is doing the job he was given. His problem, is he's been given the position of Ric Flair, without the credibility. He's Bradshaw, a primarily tag wrestler, who was thrust into his 'Million Dollar Man' gimmick, then hastily given the world belt, before the act really got over. Had he been given the gimmick, then the belt say post WM21, then maybe it'd be a different story. If Guerrero had been champ all this time, it may be the most valuable, but as of now, the WWE world is #3, to me, at the moment.

World Title: Ah the HHH belt. Bitch all you want, but he's a great heel, promo's, presence and workrate, he knows what to do. He's not pre-injury HHH but he's still up there. HHH opened the year with the tail end of his feud with HBK, then did the right thing and put over Benoit in a great match at WM, Benoit went on to get clean wins at following PPV's and Raw, including an incredibly rare tap out by Michaels, until losing it to Orton this fall, who then lost it to HHH a month later. Benoit, and Orton, along with Edge have currently all stayed in the World title picture, and Benoit is finally taken as serious main eventer, maybe not to the degree we'd all like, but he's on the map for once. He's also got HHH's number, and Trips has not yet gotten a revenge win on him, which helps. He elevated Benoit, Benoit brought some strength to the belt in his half year reign, with solid feuds and matches, and like I said, did not give it up to the former champ, as per the status quo around HHH. Though it is currently vacated, there is still more interest around this title then Smackdowns. So I think that Raw easily has more valuable titles.

I really overthought and presented my reasons badly, but anyways, RAW. Har har.

Lynch

killeoin

Smackdown.