Finishing off this discussion asking what would happen if WWE were to merge their titles (part 1 on the tag team championships and part 2 on the women’s titles), one set of belts remains: the midcard Intercontinental and United States Championships.
Unifying midcard titles isn’t strange to WWE, with these examples:
- Edge unified the WCW United States Championship and WWF Intercontinental Championship at Survivor Series 2001.
- Rob Van Dam merged the European title with the Intercontinental Championship in July 2002.
- Rob Van Dam won the Hardcore Championship in August 2002 to unify that with the Intercontinental Championship.
- The Intercontinental Championship was combined with the World Heavyweight Championship when Triple H beat Kane at No Mercy 2002.
- Most recently, the NXT Cruiserweight Championship was disbanded after North American champion Carmelo Hayes defeated Roderick Strong at New Year’s Evil.
But some of those didn’t stick at all, and different strategies work for different eras. Are we in one of those right now?
This Won’t Happen for a While
If it were to happen, I would think it would need to be before or at Survivor Series. Once again, that’s where the traditional brand warfare “champion vs. champion” matches take place, so either that match would be to unify the titles, or they would have been long combined beforehand to avoid going in that direction.
But I’m a firm believer that despite the trend for The Bloodline to go for unifying the world and tag team titles, we won’t see this continue with Jimmy and Jey Uso winning the United States and Intercontinental Championships. If there were two other people in the group, that could be a possibility, but that’s just not the case.
Granted, the belts don’t need to be unified within that faction for it to go down. I just don’t think WWE will be of the mindset to get rid of these titles right now regardless of the performers associated with them.
That may seem strange, as both titles were left off the WrestleMania card and are not in the best places right now. You’d think WWE would be looking at them as worthless and just be fine getting rid of them, right? While I’ll make no excuses for the company’s lack of forethought and attention to two titles that should mean more, but keep losing value with how much they’re neglected, I think we’re about to get a resurgence.
A Boost in Credibility
With Roman Reigns holding both world titles, that means less championship defenses on special events and television. WWE will need to pull out the marketing technique of a title being on the line once in a while and will focus even more on the United States and Intercontinental Championship to compensate.
If FOX and USA are upset that it seems there isn’t a champion on the brand, WWE will try to play it off that those titles mean more now. They’ll be the ones more regularly focused on for some of the stronger angles.
For example, instead of Big E, Bobby Lashley, Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens fighting for the world title at Day 1, that story would have likely revolved around the United States Championship, while Damian Priest—someone lower on the totem pole at the time—would just have a random grudge feud and not a title storyline.
We’re more likely to see someone like AJ Styles holding one of these midcard titles again with one less world championship to go around. It’s just the nature of the beast. Less prizes to win means a less watered down pool to pick from to challenge for each prize.
This same concept was mentioned in the women’s title section, which means there is also the same caveat problem that comes along with it…
A Decrease in Title Wins
The more top stars that get pushed down to the midcard titles, the less lower-card wrestlers are within the grasp of winning one of those belts. Suddenly, it has just become far more difficult for someone like Rick Boogs to potentially win one of them when he comes back, as you might see Drew McIntyre vs. GUNTHER revolving around the Intercontinental Championship in the coming months, instead.
Back in the day, it meant much more for someone to be a three-time intercontinental champion. That was huge. Now, someone like Dolph Ziggler won it six times and twice won the United States Championship. That’s not a knock on him, as he’s great, but if you cut that in half, him winning four of those belts probably wouldn’t happen, either.
Now imagine how unlikely it would be for him to get to four title reigns if there was one less of those to win, too. I think we’d be looking more at one or two reigns, as he’d have to be “the best alternative to the top champion” at multiple times on the roster. That’s saying a lot, instead of “one of the top 4 options” which allows for at least one of the Superstars to be an experimental choice.
At first, whoever wins the unified midcard title would be a big deal. The championship would get a boost in credibility just the same as any other unification. But it isn’t sustainable. Time wouldn’t be kind to the wrestlers of that era, as the history books show numbers, rather than context.
Think of it this way. If there were another world title around from the start, wouldn’t Ted DiBiase, Roddy Piper, Razor Ramon, Mr. Perfect and Owen Hart have won the title, most likely? If someone looks on the statistics and sees that Tito Santana won the Intercontinental Championship twice, it doesn’t seem like a big deal compared to Wade Barrett winning it 5 times. Odds are, if you were watching in both eras, the Santana runs mean more to you than all of Barrett’s combined, but Barrett comes out looking like the better star in the long run. Would you rather have Bret Hart’s 5 WWF Championship reigns or Randy Orton’s 14?
Unifying the Intercontinental and United States Championships would simultaneously create a boost and a void. Every champion would be a bigger deal, but plenty Superstars who could have used a title reign to legitimize their spot on the roster and be a career highlight would be missing many opportunities. Is it worth it?
Which Belt Sticks Around?
Assuming this were to happen, one of the title names has to go. Which one would (or should) it be?
My best guess would be that WWE would stick to tradition and keep the Intercontinental Championship. The United States title is inherently more patriotic, which is appealing to Vince McMahon, but it has more ties to WCW. Showing favoritism to that belt over the traditional WWE one would be strange.
That’s to say they would keep the territorial names in the first place. The Universal Championship and WWE Championship don’t have “world” referenced anymore and it would make sense not to bother with Intercontinental or United States just the same. These titles are defended across the planet and can be won by Superstars who come from any country. There is nothing at all tying it to a continent.
If they got rid of both names and created a new title, though, what would they call it? For the life of me, I cannot think of anything that would make sense. There’s no need for a Television Championship anymore, as the live events don’t matter as much. What else do you call it?
For the sake of tradition and with the lineage that is tied to the Intercontinental Championship, I would bet WWE would keep that title and disband the United States Championship, just as it did before.
Who Would Hold the Title?
If you told me the belts were being unified within a few weeks, my guess would be Austin Theory. Ricochet isn’t doing much with the Intercontinental Championship and it seems Finn Balor is poised to drop the United States title to Theory on Raw. Since Theory’s scored a victory over Ricochet, it would be only fitting for him to be the unified champion for that reason alone, on top of being positioned as Mr. McMahon’s protege.
But that’s if this were to happen. I’m firmly in the camp that this not only should go down, but that it won’t, either. I fully expect both titles to get a bigger push in the coming months until WWE eventually splits the world titles again, wherein they’ll slowly drip back down to being less important midcard titles.
Do you think WWE should or will unify these two titles? Let us know your thoughts and predictions in the comments below!
