Let us bow our heads as we remember the life of the WWF/E European Heavyweight Championship - which was unified with the Intercontinetal/US Heavyweight Championship on Raw.
RIP 1997-2002.
I wish they kept the US belt as their #2 belt though. :)
Okay, so here goes. I think (and I think others agree) that there needs to be parity between the two shows. The Undisputed Champion, Women's Champion and the Tag Champions should float. Smackdown has cruisers and Raw has hardcore (which should be dominated by Dreamer, Bubba, BLACKMAN and Raven types with sanctioned weapon/table matches and not 24/7 stips and cowbells).
In addition, each show should have a heavyweight (or any contender) title. Raw has the IC title. Smackdown needs to have a similar title. We can call it the TV Title or the Smackdown Title, but it needs to be created now (since the European title is gone).
FANTASY BOOKING ALERT (Respond to only the above if nothing else)
Of course, we need a tourney now. I'll give them until next week to start this thing:
8/1 Chris Jericho over Hugh Morrus Lance Storm over Rikishi Kurt Angle over Mark Henry John Cena over The Big Valbowski
8/8 Randy Orton over Hardcore Holly Batista over D-Von Dudley Hogan over Christian Edge over Test (This or the last could end in a DQ)
8/15 Chris Jericho over Lance Storm (Finger Poke of Doom style) John Cena over Kurt Angle (DQ) Batista over Randy Orton Edge over Hogan (Mutual Respect Contest)
8/22 Chris Jericho over John Cena Edge over Batista
8/25 (SummerSlam) Chris Jericho over Edge I originally had Albert and Faarooq instead of Christian and Storm, but thought that having the Canadians in there made for better story. Brock Lesnar is intentionally left out, so that he doesn't have to take a loss. During the first two weeks, one of the matches from each card could be moved to Velocity (Cena/Val and Orton/Holly).
I agree that there have been too many belts in the past. Right now, though, I think the only useless title was the one created FOR Foley, the Hardcore Championship. Since other belts are often contested under Hardcore rules, there's no reason to have this as a separate title (unless you're going to make it MEAN something- see above).
However, since the split, the heavyweights on Smackdown not directly involved in the Unified chase, have had nothing to do. In this case, another title is warranted (Whereas the Euro title on Raw was useless).
"Making his way to the ring from Helsinki, Finland, the WWF European Champion, D'Lo Brown!"
No one had a better run than D'Lo (Except when Angle was Euro-Continental Champion-- "You'd think that the Intercontinental Title would be heavier since it represents more countries, but in fact, the European Title is the heavier belt.")
British Bulldog (Davey Boy Smith) 97/02/26 Berlin, GERMANY Defeats Owen Hart in a tournament final to become the first champion.
Shawn Michaels 97/09/20 Birmingham, ENGLAND
Hunter Hearst Helmsley 97/12/11 Lowell, MA Michaels ordered by WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaugher to defend the title against Helmsley and intentionally loses the match.
Owen Hart 98/01/20 Davis, CA Defeats Goldust, who dresses up as Helmsley; WWF Commissioner Sgt. Slaughter awards the title to Hart considering Goldust as a substitution for Helmsley.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley [2] 98/03/16 Phoenix, AZ D-Lo Brown 98/07/14 Binghamton, NY X-Pac 98/09/15 Sacramento, CA D-Lo Brown [2] 98/09/29 East Lansing, MI X-Pac [2] 98/10/18 Chicago, IL
Shane McMahon 99/02/15 Birmingham, AL Pins X-Pac in a tag team match; abandones on 99/04/04.
D-Lo Brown [3] 99/07/25 Buffalo, NY Jeff Jarrett 99/08/22 Minneapolis, MN
Mark Henry 99/08/23 Ames, IA Awarded by Jeff Jarrett as a present.
D-Lo Brown [4] 99/09/26 Charlotte, NC British Bulldog [2] 99/10/26 Springfield, MA
Val Venis 99/12/12 Fort Lauderdale, FL Defeats British Bulldog and D'Lo Brown in a Three Way Dance.
Kurt Angle 00/02/08 Austin, TX
Chris Jericho 00/04/02 Anaheim, CA Defeats Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in a three way match with a stipulation that the second man to get the pin wins the European title.
Eddie Guerrero 00/04/03 Los Angeles, CA Perry Saturn 00/07/23 Dallas, TX Al Snow 00/08/31 Fayetville, NC William Regal (Steve Regal) 00/10/16 Detroit, MI Crash Holly 00/12/02 Sheffield, BRITAIN William Regal [2] 00/12/04 E. Rutherford, NJ Test 01/01/22 Lafayette, LA Eddie Guerrero [2] 01/04/01 Houston, TX Matt Hardy 01/04/24 Denver, CO Hurricane Helms 01/08/27 Grand Rapids, MI Bradshaw 01/10/22 Kansas City, MO Christian 01/10/30 Cincinnati, OH Diamond Dallas Page 02/01/29 Norfolk, VA William Regal [3] 02/03/19 Ottawa, ON Spike Dudley 02/04/08 Phoenix, AZ William Regal [4] 02/05/06 Hartford, CT
And then you have to add Jeff Hardy as your final champion.
"YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?" - The chilling words of the Shockmaster!
"People frown on it...but that's everything these days." - Gene Hackman, The Royal Tenenbaums
"Lovin' you has gotten weird..." - Whiskeytown, The Ballad of Carol Lynn
Originally posted by RawLoI thought the Euro title was made for Davey Boy Smith back in the day... wasn't he the first champ?
Yeah, he was the first champ with a tourney victory over Owen (who he also held the tag belts with at the time). Even from the start the belt wasn't defended that much, or given that much attention. I don't know if they created it just for Davey, but it kinda seemed that way at the time.
I wonder how William Regal feels about this? I mean, he was soooo proud to be the champion of Europe, and even cried when he lost the belt a couple weeks ago.
The title never did much for me, but I wish they would have had Stephanie take Jeff Hardy over to Smackdown! with the belt.
Since everyone else is throwing in their choice for best Euro champ, I'm going to throw out the all-time worst champion: Mideon! Or would it be Mark Henry? Hmmm. Tough choice.
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No way, the best European title reign was Kurt Angle.
"Which do you think weighs more, the European belt? Or the Intercontinental title belt? I'd have to say the Intercontinental belt, because it represents more land mass..."
Or something to that effect. It was years ago, and still one of the funniest things I've ever heard on WWF/E television. So Angle gets my vote.
Wow, I don't remember like any of that Euro lineage. Awarded to Mark Henry by Jeff Jarrett? What the hell?
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