The World Heavyweight Championship in decline.

Triple H circa 2002. The WHC was treated quite well when he was in the title picture.

Created in 2002, WWE's World Heavyweight Championship has had quite the decade. I initially considered the belt to be a joke, due to the way it was introduced: Eric Bischoff opened a briefcase and handed it to Triple H. It wasn't until a few years had passed that I took the championship seriously and even considered title holders to be legitimate "World champions." For a time, I truly believed the value of the WHC was on the level of the WWE Championship. I would point to Batista's first win and reign as the turning point in the upward direction.

Let's fast forward to 2011. The World Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestlemania OPENED the show. Since then, the belt has not main evented a single pay-per-view. John Cena vs. so-and-so has headlined every show and been placed higher on the card than the WHC. Also, recent World Champions have included Christian and Mark Henry, who are still career midcarders in the eyes of many. This past summer, Smackdown stars were added to Raw in an attempt to simultaneously boost Raw's ratings and Smackdown's house show attendance. Since then, it's given WWE another opportunity to have the World Champion play second (or even third) fiddle to ongoing Raw storylines. Smackdown, the home of the WHC, as fallen even lower as far as being a serious brand within the WWE Universe. More fans have caught on that Smackdown is a generally meaningless show, usually full of filler and unimportant happenings. The current climate in WWE has lead me to believe that the WHC is not a true "World" title anymore and has become the modern day secondary championship, which the Intercontinental title used to be.

While things are bad for the championship these days, the last few years of WWE booking have not been kind for the title either. WWE has fallen into a bad habit of having what I like to call "midcard World champions." These are guys who might hold the title for a few months or so but are not really elevated to main event status. When their reigns are over, they are right back to the midcard. The perfect example of this would be Jack Swagger. Swagger was a surprise Money in the Bank winner as his push had seemed to cool off in the months leading up to his big win. Two days later, he cashed in and became the new WHC. From there, Swagger had a forgettable title reign in which the Smackdown writers did not seem to put any serious effort into getting Swagger over as a top tier star. Fast-forward to today, since Swagger lost the title he has been lost in the midcard shuffle and the commentary team even makes jokes about most fans forgetting he ever had the WHC. That's a fantastic way to bury Swagger, Smackdown, and the WHC in one fell swoop.

So I'm going to leave it at this: WWE has made it clear in the past year that the WWE Championship is the end all, be all in wrestling gold, and that the World Heavyweight Championship is a World title in name only. I'm half-expecting them to drop "World" from the name and just bill it as the "Heavyweight title" the same way they demoted the ECW Championship in 2007. Until WWE starts seriously investing in Smackdown again and throws them a bone by letting them headline some pay-per-views, I just can't take their championship or roster all that seriously.

Thoughts, questions, snide comments? I welcome them all.