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Chicks Dig Big Belts
So what exactly is pro wrestling all about? Is it the women, the glory or maybe the adrenaline rush of going through those curtains? No, no and no. At least, not for me. For me it’s all about the gold.
Before I get any further I believe an introduction is in order. My name is Adam Fenwick, owner and webmaster of Titlehistories.com. I’ve got what you would call an infatuation with pro wrestling titles and their histories. I started following the history of the WCW championships around the time the nWo started getting big and my interest just kept growing.
Now it’s turned into my biggest hobby, Titlehistories.com, which follows not just the histories of the major championships in America but titles from the independent circuit, Japan, Europe, Mexico and more. Some would say I need a girlfriend (which would be true) but I rather love pro wrestling titles and their history. Besides, we all know chicks dig big belts.
In any case, the point of this column that the wonderful folks of PWInsider.com are letting me write is to touch on the history of wrestling championships as well as acknowledge title changes around the world. So with that, I believe it is time to begin!
This week saw a major movement in gold in TNA as all three of the promotions championships changed hands at Bound For Glory, the promotions biggest PPV event in it’s history. Not only did Chris Sabin capture his third TNA X Division Championship but LAX won its second NWA World Tag Team Championship and Sting won his second NWA World Heavyweight Championship.
The most interesting of these three is easily Sting’s NWA World Title win. Why is that so interesting you may ask? Well, Sting won his first NWA World Heavyweight Championship way back in July of 1990 when he took the title from Ric Flair. He held it for about six months before dropping it again to Flair in January of 1991.
Ok so what’s the big deal? Well when Sting won the title at Bound For Glory for the second time that meant the time between his first and second title reigns was at least 15 years, easily a record. There isn’t even another occurrence of this that comes close to what Sting has accomplished. Just goes to show you what hard work can do for someone, especially someone who’s been around the block as many times as Sting has.
Now onto the NWA Tag Title win for LAX. Homicide and Hotstuff Hernandez are now two time champions after beating Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles at Bound For Glory. Personally I’m not a huge fan of these back and forth title changes simply because it degrades the value of the titles. However, in this case I’m going to make an exception because every review I’ve read of their matches has been nothing short of outstanding.
You can have titles trading back and forth on a daily basis but as long as the matches are good then the crowd is into them than it won’t matter. An example of what NOT to do can be found a few years back in TNA’s history. In March of 2004 D’Lo Brown & Apollo traded the NWA Tag Team Titles with Kid Kash & Dallas (now known as Lance Hoyt).
This would have been fine had the titles changed hands in good, well organized tag team matches. One problem, not only were the matches sub par but the titles changed hands on a disqualification not once but twice. Incidents like that make fans lose respect for the titles and it’s hard to gain back that respect once lost.
Now last but not least the TNA X Division Championship. Chris Sabin can now call himself a three time champion after defeating former champion Senshi (better known as Low-Ki to everyone outside of TNA) at Bound For Glory. I think this was a good move for a few reasons.
Senshi had lowered the value of the title since winning it, simply because it seemed he wasn’t defending it and when I looked up recent results I found that to be true. In the four months Senshi held the title he made just three defenses, three. It use to be that the title was defended at least once between PPV’s on iMPACT but with Senshi’s reign that just didn’t happen.
Keep in mind these are just opinions of a title history geek who has nothing better to do than overanalyze title changes and title matches. Before I go here are some upcoming title matches from around the world:
World Wrestling Entertainment:
Champion Of Champions Match (Title on the line TBA): John Cena vs. Big Show vs. King Booker (11/5/06)
World Tag Team Titles: Spirit Squad © vs. Ric Flair & ??? (11/5/06)
WWE Intercontinental Title: Jeff Hardy © vs. TBA (11/5/06)
All Japan Pro Wrestling:
AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title: Shuji Kondo © vs. NOSAWA Ronagi (10/29/06)
AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Minoru Suzuki © vs. RO’Z (10/29/06)
Ring Of Honor:
ROH Heavyweight Title: Bryan Danielson © vs. Delirious (11/3/06)
ROH Tag Team Titles: Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli © vs. Austin Aries & Roderick Strong (11/4/06)
That’s all from the world of pro wrestling title histories. Keep supporting pro wrestling and remember, chicks dig BIG belts.
Adam Fenwick is the webmaster of www.TitleHistories.com.
