Ranking the WWE championships by Prestige 2018

So, I did this last year, and I'm doing it again these year. What wrestling titles are actually prestigious to win...and which ones arnt no matter how much the WWE wants you to give a shit. And how much has it changed since I did this in may of last year?

(Also note, as its never been defended on WWE TV (as opposed to NXT) , Im not including the UK title)

9 Universal Championship (down from 7)

Basically, take every single complaint I had about this titles legitimacy last year, add in the fact its now been held by a part timer (and therefore not on TV) for over a year, the fact that WWE cant seem to figure out how to put the belt on Reigns in a way he get cheered, and the simple fact that we all have been staring that inevitability of his reign in the face for over a year, to the point you just want to get it over with so we can see what happens next, and well things dont look good. Add in that to be honest the last 3 (of 6) universal title matches this year kinda sucked ass and yeah....this title is in horrible shape, and honestly the future looks worse, given the damn thing isnt even going to be defended until Summerslam according to reports. But hey, at least we know a Smackdown guy is winning Money in the Bank.....theres no point in giving it a RAW guy, since the champ and title are never there, they can never cash in.


8  Cruiserweight Championship (down from 6)

Why is this at the bottom? Well its because of a certificated G and bonafide sexual assault. More to the point its also because of how long it took to replace him as champ. If "Vacant" was a person, they would have the 3rd longest CW title reign of all times, behind the one Enzo was on when he got canned and Neville's first.  Speaking of Neville, I'll be fair, that first (and second reign) started this year out strong...even if the Tozawa reign that split them up seems kinda pointless.  But yeah, once Enzo got his hands on the belt, all the good work got wiped out. Simple fact was, Enzo couldnt wrestle the style needed to be a great CW champ...and it showed. Add in another blink and you miss it reign by Kalisto dividing Enzo's two reigns, you have all the ingredients to be boring as shit. It only got worse once WWE realized the Enzo experiment had failed....they seemed all set to put the title on Rich Swann....until he got suspended for assault. So then they switched over the Cedric Alexander....except Enzo got fired, and it took Alexander another 75 days to win a tournament to claim the vacant title. Now in fairness to Alexander, he is doing good as champ so far, and assuming 205 live can hold it together (and all indications are they improve every week) I doubt this title will be in the second to last spot next year. 

7  US Championship (down from 2)

This title started the year off well, AJ and Owens fighting for the belt, and if I'm being honest, I enjoyed Barron Corbin's run with the belt....and then Dolph Ziggler happened. When ever a title is vacated it hurts its prestige just a bit....when its done for seemingly no reason? Thats even worse.  Sure Bobby Roode held the belt for a few weeks and did ok with it...but after that? Bad booking, stupid ass story lines (the smackdown top 10 list) and hot potatoing the title. including between brands....and well at the moment, the thing looks more like a "resume builder" to get some more guys near the end of their careers who can claim to be grand slam champions. But yeah, on the whole from May to december, this belt would have made the top 5 slots...since January though...its near the bottom.

6 Raw Women's championship (down from 3)

When I did this last year, Alexa Bliss had just won the Women's title. and with the exception of 8 days, she held it the entire time, until Mania last month. Now Alexa Bliss is honestly the best mic worker in either shows women's division....but somehow that doesnt translate to her feuds AT ALL: IE Bayley this is your life, or her feud with Sasha Banks being so dull I forgot about it.  So yea, Alexa's good...but for this whole year basically shes also 95% of this titles history. And that means while shes a great character the last year is just too dull and boring and full of bad feuds to move it anywhere but the middle of this list

5 Raw Tag Team Championship (up from 8)

3 reasons explain why this title jumped so high 1) The Bar 2) Seth Rollins 3) the MIA univerisal title meant something had to get all the attention...and that Bar/Rollins +1 feud was kinda that for half the year.  Which really helped the championship gain attention and look prestigious. Of course then a 10 year old kid won the belt, it was vacated, and now exists on a brand whos tag division exists almost completely of throw together teams, former Smackdown or RAW jobber teams and the AOP. So the future isnt bright for these titles...I expect they may take their former position on this list by this time next year.


4 Smackdown Women's Championship (up from 5)

Honestly, I dont have much to say here...not much happened to affect the prestige of this title. Naomi, Natalya and Charlotte were all good to great champions, Carmella is the best cowardly heel in either womens division, and well outside of the Charlotte/Riott Squad feud, this titles been involved in pretty solid feuds...and even the Charlotte/Ruby Riott match was sold. Basically this belt was middle of the pack last year, and is basically middle of the pack again this year. Its a title, people want it, they put on good matches for it, and there isnt much else to say about it, though I admit it got a slight bump simply because Nattie and Charlotte are 2 of the best mat wrestlers on either roster right now, so having that level of skill in your champion has to help a bit.

3 WWE Championship  (down from 1)

Why only #3? Well to quote the Singh Brothers "The Modern Day MAHARAJAH! JINDER MAHALLLLLL!" Basically what it comes down to is his feud with Orton was boring as fuck, the less said about his racist angle with Nakamura the better,  and the rumor is he lost the title because everyone expected him to stink up the joint in a match with Brock Lesnar (though in fairness to Jinder, given the high number of lackluster and/or bad matches that Lesnars had in his run, its not entirely on Jinder that the match was going to suck)

And actually, as much as I hate to say it....even AJ Styles wasnt able to fix the mess left by the way Jinder was booked...mostly because until Wrestlemania AJ was booked just as bad, being totally overshadowed by the Shane/Bryan vs KO/Zayn angle in which he came out looking like an afterthough or a patsy the whole time. Luckily post Mania things got a bit better...but at the same time, 2 back to back PPV's with inconclusive matches really isnt helping. Its a shame really, because between AJ, Nakamura, Bryan, Miz, Joe and even possibly Benjamin, the WWE championship should be entering a goldern era...just the booking keeps getting in the way. 

2 Smackdown Tag Team Championships (up from 9)

Literally the exact opposite of the RAW tag titles, these went from being belts that no one seemed to care about and never had champions anyone really cared about to being the centerpoint of arguably the feud of the year in the New Day and the Usos. And really when 2 of the 3 best tag teams on the roster are fighting for a title...that makes that title prestigious.  Oh, and by the way, that 3rd of the best teams? its the Bar....and they are now on Smackdown too. Not to mention the current champs the Bludgeon Brothers, who despite the stupid ass name have clearly finally reached their full potential as a team, and they are hella good to watch. Given that the rest of this division is also major teams (Sanity, The Club) are serious contenders as well, this division might hold this spot again next year...if not even move up to the top spot (I know Im shocked). By the way, the sheer fact that the tag titles got more focus and attention and had a more impressive feud than the WWE title is justification enough for ranking them higher.

1 WWE Intercontinental Championship (up from 4)

So the last time someone was Intercontinental Champion and wasnt either the Miz or a former member of the Shield was November 15th 2016, the night Dolph Ziggler lost the title. I mention this because this would suggest a super static title scene, and well a lot of the belts below this one on the list got dinged for it.

It would seem to be a bigger issue when you realize in the 365+ days since I did this last year, Miz was the champion for all but 91 of them. But Miz did what other static divisions couldnt do...he made everything he did about the title, and had feuds with all comers ranging from Braun Strowman, both Hardy Boyz Finn Balor and Jason Jordan. And that doesnt even count the 3 members of the Shield...two of whom he'd lose the belt too.

And quite frankly when the guy whos supposed to be the top face of the company holds a title, as Reigns did when he beat Miz...thats a big fucking deal. Same when another of the guys who beat Miz is easily in the top 5 wrestlers in the company right now...and also when all 3 of those guys have been the defacto main event of RAW due to the absence of the Universal Title. And that was all before Seth Rollins started his weekly open challenge, which did wonders for the US title when Cena did it

And really...thats the big thing that puts the IC title over the top. For all intents and purposes IT is the top championship on RAW (as both Miz and Rollins have mentioned) not the midcard title as you might think, and again, what is the defacto top title on RAW is defended every week in an open challenge. Which means arguably the IC champion is on par as far as importance to the brand on a week by week basis to the WWE Championship. And while I suspect the WWE title will over take the IC title in importance by this time next year, before the brand split, you had more major names going for this belt than you did the WWE title....so yea, for the last year the IC title is the most prestigious title in WWE.