WWE DVD retrospective of World Heavyweight Championship

[Izzy]

http://www.pwinsider.com/article/42625/complete-details-and-matches-on-wwes-history-of-world-heavyweight-championship-dvd-set.html?p=1

I've always understood the World Heavyweight Championship to be the NWA and the WCW belt seperated back from the Undisputed belt, and atleast part of the reason the commentators endlessly denigrate it

...this DVD would suggest the same (after all if it was about heavyweight belts in general it manages to forget the WWF/WWE title). Also notice the chapter names

I've always liked the idea the Heavyweight belt was preserved - seemed to show some respect

Disc 1: Documentary & NWA Matches

Chapters:
*Origins of Wrestling
*"An American Hero" Frank Gotch
*Ed "Strangler" Lewis
*National Wrestling Alliance
*Lou Thesz
*Buddy Rogers
*New Breed of Champions
*1970s World Champions
*A Flair for the Gold
*Crockett's World Champion
*NWA to WCW
*WCW Withdraws From NWA
*Revolving WCW Champions
*The Undisputed Championship
*World Championship Returns
*Legacy Lives

Matches
*Chicago 1961 - 2 out of 3 Falls: Pat O'Connor vs. Buddy Rogers
*Florida 2/11/69 - Gene Kiniski vs. Dory Funk Jr.
*Florida 12/10/75 - Jack Brisco vs. Terry Funk
*Florida 8/21/79 - Harley Race vs. Dusty Rhodes
*AWA SuperClash - Ric Flair vs. Magnum TA
*Great American Bash '90 - Ric Flair vs. Sting

Disc 2 - WCW

*Clash of Champions XIV - Ric Flair vs. Scott Steiner
*Great American Bash '91 - Lex Luger vs. Barry Windham
*Baltimore 8/2/92 - Vader vs. Ron Simmons
*WCW Saturday Night 10/16/93 - Vader vs. Ricky Steamboat
*Halloween Havoc '94 - Career vs. Career Steel Cage Match: Hulk Hogan vs. Ric Flair
*SuperBrawl VIII - Sting vs. Hollywood Hogan
*Nitro 7/6/98 - Hollywood Hogan vs. Goldberg
*Bash at the Beach '00 - Jeff Jarrett vs. Booker T
*No Mercy '01 - The Rock vs. Chris Jericho

Disc 3 - WWE
*Unforgiven '02 - Triple H vs. Rob Van Dam
*Taboo Tuesday '04 - Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels
*No Way Out '06 - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker
*SmackDown 4/7/06 - Rey Mysterio vs. Randy Orton
*Armageddon '07 - Batista vs. Undertaker vs. Edge
*Survivor Series '08 - John Cena vs. Chris Jericho
*Extreme Rules '09 - Ladder Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Edge

[Hammy]

Despite using the same belt (or a similiar one), for years the belt has been treated as a new one, including wwe.com's title histories section having nothing for it prior to Bischoff bringing it to RAW, but now they want to do a DVD so they've decided to re-write their own history, fair play, it means the DVD will be decent, but still, its history should have been mentioned and been there before this cash-in.

*No Way Out '06 - Kurt Angle vs. The Undertaker

Superb match, great to see that put on the set.

[BlowUpYourVideo]

Despite using the same belt (or a similiar one), for years the belt has been treated as a new one, including wwe.com's title histories section having nothing for it prior to Bischoff bringing it to RAW, but now they want to do a DVD so they've decided to re-write their own history, fair play, it means the DVD will be decent, but still, its history should have been mentioned and been there before this cash-in.

Yeah, I think the WCW World Title and the current WWE World Title have always been classed as different championships.


Seems odd to put the HHH/Michaels match from Taboo Tuesday on there. If I remember right, that was the one where Michaels was legitimately injured and basically wrestled the match on one leg. I would've gone for their 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match from Armageddon '02 or possibly their Last Man Standing Match from the '04 Royal Rumble.

[Izzy]

Yeah, I think the WCW World Title and the current WWE World Title have always been classed as different championships.

Untill now it seems

One of the chapter titles is even the World Championship Returns....(also notice its placement after the undisputed championship chapter)

[Hammy]

Seems odd to put the HHH/Michaels match from Taboo Tuesday on there. If I remember right, that was the one where Michaels was legitimately injured and basically wrestled the match on one leg. I would've gone for their 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match from Armageddon '02 or possibly their Last Man Standing Match from the '04 Royal Rumble.

I remember at the time thinking they'd **** themselves with the concept since they couldn't remove him from the match, from what I remember it was still a damn good match, testament to HBK that even on one leg he is a great wrestler!

[James Lofton]

Funny how the wrestling media NEVER considered the WWF title to be a world title, and now WWE doesn't even consider it one either.

Mcmahon owning the rights to all the federations in the graveyard allows him to **** on his own legacy while trying to prop up others. It's just more proof that Mcmahon knew NWA/WCW was the superior product even though WWF got more attention.

[Hammy]

Funny how the wrestling media NEVER considered the WWF title to be a world title, and now WWE doesn't even consider it one either.

Sorry how does WWE not consider the "WWF/WWE" title to be a World title?

The first "W" stands for World.  Or did the point bypass me again? 

[Izzy]

Funny how the wrestling media NEVER considered the WWF title to be a world title, and now WWE doesn't even consider it one either.

Sorry how does WWE not consider the "WWF/WWE" title to be a World title?

The first "W" stands for World.  Or did the point bypass me again? 

careful, he'll ban u!

The World Title was brought back for Triple H - so it must mean something, after all - whichever belt he goes for has to be the one the company cares about

...odd that for so long that was the old WCW belt

[James Lofton]

Funny how the wrestling media NEVER considered the WWF title to be a world title, and now WWE doesn't even consider it one either.

Sorry how does WWE not consider the "WWF/WWE" title to be a World title?

The first "W" stands for World.  Or did the point bypass me again? 

Yeah, it bypassed you. 

Example....

All the wrestling mags in the old days had rankings. Pretty cool actually and would have created great discussions had there been the internet in those days.

NWA

World Champion: Ric Flair

1. Nikita Koloff
2. Dusty Rhodes
3. Magnum T.A.
4. Tully Blanchard
5. Terry Taylor
6. Abdullah the Butcher
7. Jimmy Valiant
8. Manny Fernandez
9. Wahoo Mcdaniel
10. The Barbarian


AWA

World Champion: Ric Martel

1. Greg Gagne
2. Nick Bockwinkle
3. Stan Hansen
4. Curt Hennig
5. Sgt. Slaughter
6. Jerry Blackwell
7. Baron Von Raschke
8. Larry Zybsko
9. Jimmy Garvin
10. Kamala


WWF

Champion: Hulk Hogan

1. Randy Savage
2. Andre the Giant
3. King Kong Bundy
4. Big John Studd
5. Superfly Snuka
6. Tito Santana
7. Roddy Piper
8. Greg Valentine
9. Don Muraco
10. Iron Sheik


In wrestling circles the WWF title was never regarded as a true world title. Probably due to the fact Hogan didn't defend it all over the world, although more likely because the 30 day rule was never enforced during his reign.

Twenty years later, the WWF/E places more emphasis on the NWA/WCW title than it does its own former title. The topic of this thread is proof of that, and so are the matches listed.

Mcmahon owns all this stuff. He could easily rewrite history and ignore almost all aspects of that belt and place more emphasis on the WWF title. It had a long history as well.  He doesn't, and I have always found that odd.

[Hammy]

The WWF/E Title has already got the "DVD Treatment" and trust me, its considered the more important of the 2 belts.    Although the theory is they are meant to be equal.

[Izzy]

The commentators say (i.e Vince tells them...) that the WWE title is the no. 1 belt 'the richest prize in our business'

...and it's return to Raw strengthens that

...but it spent years and years on Smackdown

I just don't think the writers know what to do...

Merge the three belts for gods sake - u managed it with the tag belts dammnit

a main event at wrestlemania with a winner takes all stipulation would be great - 2 titles guarenteed to change hands, have it as an elimination match too and then a king of the ring qualifying tournament before

[James Lofton]

The WWF/E Title has already got the "DVD Treatment" and trust me, its considered the more important of the 2 belts.    Although the theory is they are meant to be equal.

When I watched this stuff, the belt that Triple H, HBK, Goldberg,etc. wore was considered the real world title, which is the NWA/WCW title.. That Smackdown belt was treated as small potatoes.

Put that Smackdown belt on Benoit at Wrestlemania instead of the World Title, his career doesn't take off towards the stratosphere.

Merge the three belts for gods sake

Should have happened YEARS ago.

[Hammy]

The World Title is more Smackdown than RAW.

RAW is treated and billed as the "A Show".  The belt on there will generally get more recognition.

The Benoit moment was all down to the great match and the fact that the match went on last, it could have been either belt, really it wouldn't have mattered, and his career post that match for the most part didn't really go places, he'd lost the belt by Summerslam and even during his short title reign didn't always headline the PPVs he defended the belt on.

Wasn't that "Small potatoes" Smackdown "WWE Belt" fought over by Angle and Lesnar in the WM Main Event while lower down the card Triple H squashed Booker T for the "World Title"?

Seriously, I'm not trying to say, lets compare histories and say which is better, but for the most part WWE treat their original World Title as being THE belt, heck it got a DVD set a few years back, it was the priority after all....

[BlowUpYourVideo]

I always thought the two championships were considered be fairly equal. If the WWE is split into two brands (well, three but I don't think anyone gives the ECW Championship 'world title' status...), they need two world titles surely? To merge all the 'world' titles would mean to end the brand extension which is a whole other topic which has had its pros and cons discussed before....


I think the WWE have rewritten history a bit with this DVD. Though I guess "The History of the Big Gold Belt" isn't a particularly catchy name...

[Izzy]

Regardless of the situation now...

...in 2002-2005 the WCW belt was the no.1 - Triple H held it for...well....forever

It would suggest that for a time Vince saw it as superior to his own

Which goes to show how nuts he is

Subsequently the WWE title is no.1 and is used on whatever brand needs a kick start - its move to Smackdown was a desperate attempt to get that showing going again

...as is Vince's current appearences