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.

MVP = decent U.S. Champion

Montel Vontavious Porter was the U.S. Champion the last time I did a long entry that addressed all the champions in the WWE. He is the only title holder to still be in possession of his title since then. He won the belt against Chris Benoit at Judgment Day in May 2007, and now in March 2008 he's surpassed the 300 day mark and is the fourth longest reigning U.S. Champion of all time. That sounds impressive doesn't it? Too bad his reign has stalled at times. As a performer and character, MVP is great. He's developed into a capable in-ring worker and he's consistently over with live crowds. The problem with his reign is the same problem that plagues most of the championships in the WWE these days, the bookers don't give him anything to do. MVP had a good thing going with a feud against Matt Hardy, but that got sidetracked due to repeated incident's (MVP's heart condition, Matt's numerous injuries). But now it feels like they are just waiting things out, not wanting to really do anything with MVP or the title until Hardy is back and ready to finish out their program. MVP went almost three months without defending the title on Smackdown once (between his Armageddon title defense against Rey Mysterio and his recent Smackdown defense against Batista). That just seems sad. In between, he faced Ric Flair in a non-title match at the Royal Rumble, competed in an elimination chamber match at No Way Out, and is scheduled to participate in Money in the Bank at Wrestlemania. The title is a complete afterthought. This isn't his fault, so I can't possibly bash his work as champion, but it's depressing to see another long title reign that only seems to be lasting due to the lack of championship activity.

Miz and Morrison = Decent WWE Tag Team Champions

I'll be the first to admit, when these two first won the belts I rolled my eyes. It was early in the era of Smackdown and ECW "exchanging talent" so it felt wrong that two ECW guys were now holding the Smackdown tag titles. Since they won the belts, they have primarily been featured on ECW, almost to the point where it feels like the titles switched brands all together. Miz and Morrison have joined a long list of tag team champions in the modern era where their reigns fall flat due to the lack of any tag division or real challengers. So far they have feuded with Shannon Moore and Jimmy Wang Yang, which produced a series of very solid television matches, but nothing that amounted to any heated pay-per-view appearances. Right now they seem to be doing the same in a rivalry against Jesse and Festus. On the bright side, Morrison and Miz work really well as a team and their matches are typically very solid, so despite them being thrown together, they are succeeding and doing the best they can in a rather sad situation.

Edge = Good World Heavyweight Champion

Edge has been reigning as the World Heavyweight Champion since December's Armageddon pay-per-view. As you can see, Edge enjoys being the champion. For years, Edge's character was driven to win a world title, and his opponents would use the fact that he hadn't as a tool to play mind games with him. I will always remember Kurt Angle commenting on the chapter in Edge's book where he won the World title, but oops, that didn't happen. Now Edge is a four time champion (2 WWE title reigns, 2 WHC reigns) and he's a good choice to lead Smackdown. He makes this title look good and his upcoming title defense against The Undertaker at Wrestlemania is drawing some interest. There is little doubt that Edge will drop the belt at Wrestlemania 24, but he will surely be a title contender for years to come.