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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Apr 11, 2024 20:54:39 GMT -5
I wonder if Eddie even just kinda went off script and said some stuff knowing he was booked to win to put it into that light and just kinda running with it. There was that rumour that New Japan was not clued in to the whole thing, so a merger was never really on the table.
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Apr 12, 2024 16:01:09 GMT -5
My issue is that, stripped of the Triple Crown, I'm not sure how to equate the Continental Championship to the International Championship. Yeah, I understand the different philosophies to the titles (International can be defended in any promotion, Continental has people at ringside and interference barred and will be the prize of the CC every year), but those are fairly thin divisional differences when compared to past industry concepts like Cruiserweight, Hardcore, or even the Pure Championship. Maybe I'd feel different about it if the International Championship hadn't just settled into a position of being the defacto number two men's belt with the TNT Championship now more of a traditional third-tier TV Championship. Having a fourth men's singles belt in the mix (to speak nothing of the RoH titles floating around) feels like it needs a bit more of a gimmick to keep it from getting watered down. Yeah, on the one hand "too many singles titles" doesn't usually phase me thanks to years of NJPW viewing, but there's a delicate balance to having belts with different purposes that suit and fit different parts of the roster when you're a weekly TV product; for all the talk over the years in various companies that it's good when main eventers pursue midcard titles, you also risk devaluing the World title if you do that too often, so having some of these clearer lines of delineation (which can be stepped over from time to time, of course) is important. I'm hoping that the next C2 tournament, in lieu of maybe the belts of three different companies/brands, permanently unifies a couple of the more extraneous titles, namely the Continental and International titles.
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Kalmia
King Koopa
Happy to be here
Posts: 11,679
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Post by Kalmia on Apr 12, 2024 16:10:23 GMT -5
I think the problem is that the belts don't really have their own identities. When OC was champ, the International belt was the open challenge belt, but the TNT belt is also that sometimes. When Pac was champ it was regularly defended abroad but now that's less frequent.
The Continental title being one that is defended in a tournament every year will make it different, but it also needs something for the other 11 months of the year to make it stand out.
Figure out a unique identity and purpose for each title and stick to it, regardless of who is champ.
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Post by Cyno on Apr 12, 2024 17:09:42 GMT -5
Yeah, on the one hand "too many singles titles" doesn't usually phase me thanks to years of NJPW viewing, but there's a delicate balance to having belts with different purposes that suit and fit different parts of the roster when you're a weekly TV product; for all the talk over the years in various companies that it's good when main eventers pursue midcard titles, you also risk devaluing the World title if you do that too often, so having some of these clearer lines of delineation (which can be stepped over from time to time, of course) is important. I'm hoping that the next C2 tournament, in lieu of maybe the belts of three different companies/brands, permanently unifies a couple of the more extraneous titles, namely the Continental and International titles. As cool as the Triple Crown aspect and the tournament itself was, we do have way too many midcard singles titles now. It rips off the G1 too much, but I'd like to see the C2 belt be a ceremonial championship (like the Owen Hart belt) and then the winner gets a guaranteed AEW World Championship shot at a PPV of their choosing, though it has to be announced X weeks in advance so it can't be like a cheap MITB-style cash-in.
Either that or the Contintental Championship is always defended under "Continental Rules." It becomes sort of like AEW's take on the ROH pure belt, though without the limited rope break gimmick
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Post by XaviersSS2015hair on Apr 13, 2024 0:59:59 GMT -5
Dunno why they just didn't put Orange Cassidy in it too and have the third belt in the Triple Crown be the International Championship, which has plummeted in prestige since the introduction of the Continental Championship. And are essentially the same concept of title. Because TK prefers shiny new belts over logical booking.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 14, 2024 5:24:51 GMT -5
Yeah, on the one hand "too many singles titles" doesn't usually phase me thanks to years of NJPW viewing, but there's a delicate balance to having belts with different purposes that suit and fit different parts of the roster when you're a weekly TV product; for all the talk over the years in various companies that it's good when main eventers pursue midcard titles, you also risk devaluing the World title if you do that too often, so having some of these clearer lines of delineation (which can be stepped over from time to time, of course) is important. I'm hoping that the next C2 tournament, in lieu of maybe the belts of three different companies/brands, permanently unifies a couple of the more extraneous titles, namely the Continental and International titles. I think their roster might be large enough to support as many belts as they've got (e.g. WCW even before it was at its biggest that roster supported a World, US, TV, and Cruiserweight singles titles), but yeah, I'd consider merging those belts if they can't really come up with a solid way to fully distinguish them from one another in terms of gimmick and/or what part of the roster tends to fight over them, as, again, you want your top names focused on the World title most of the time. I think they could potentially make it work by setting some clearer parameters for each belt: the TNT belt should have an emphasized short time limit and demand regular televised defenses (they at least have babyface champs doing the latter), the International belt can be one where the champ regularly travels overseas or to the indies to defend it or can bring some of those foreign/indie/non-contracted talents onto the weekly shows/PPVs for defenses, and the Continental Crown can keep its rule-set and maybe serve as a de facto #1 contender's title ala the NWA's US belt. Problem, of course, is that as with all things in wrestling, especially in the era of weekly prime time shows, parameters like that are essentially made and then broken whenever a booker needs it to be, and once you've done that it's tough to get back on the bike. If that's the case, then yeah, merge a couple of 'em.
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