Paul Heyman believes companies should not have too many titles unless they can make all of them relevant.
Having too many championships is a problem that has plagued both WWE and AEW in recent times. Fans have complained about ROH titles being defended on AEW TV on top of having multiple mid-card titles of their own. WWE has also been criticized for lack of tag team title defenses in recent months, while the company is gearing up to add two more women’s championships to their lineup.
The former ECW owner revealed his thoughts on the subject during a recent interview with Shak Wrestling. He was asked about his time as the SmackDown head writer and whether the reports of him opposing the introduction of a mid-card title were true. Heyman who believed that another belt would undermine the tag team and cruiserweight divisions explained that any championship should be given enough time:
“Yeah. I’m not a big fan of a multitude of titles unless you can give them enough time. We had proper focus at that time on the championships that we held and didn’t feel that we needed more championships to tell better stories, and felt that therefore, the introduction of more championships only waters down the championships that we already have the spotlight on at the moment.”
If You Can’t Make It Relevant: Paul Heyman
Though Paul Heyman explained that the increased number of titles is not directly related to their relevance. According to him, a company should add or subtract championships based on how well they’re able to maintain the division:
“What works, works. What doesn’t, doesn’t. If you can make it relevant, all pun intended to the island of relevancy, then it will work. If you can’t make it relevant, then it won’t. If there are 14 titles and they all mean something, then you should be looking at doing number 15.
If you have seven titles and you’re struggling to put relevancy on all seven, then you need to cut down the number that you have. What’s working? If it’s working, let’s do more of that. If it’s not working, change it.”
Heyman returned to WWE TV this week helping the team of Roman Reigns to recruit their fifth WarGames member CM Punk. The wrestling veteran would be accompanying the OG Bloodline members for their match against Solo Sikoa and their allies at the Survivor Series event this Saturday.
