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| Has the belt consumed him? Photo Credit: Scott Finkelstein |
You start out with the best intentions. The fans love you after you have your big moment, winning the Championship with great fanfare, usually defeating the most dastardly of villains. The honeymoon period is nice, and once you hit the six month mark, well, things start to hit a nice stride. The fans are ready for you to hold the title forever. Then, forever rolls around, or at least something approaching forever. The crowd gets a little bored, because hey, it's the same old thing. We're in a different era now. Time's compressed, thanks to cable television. So what do you do?
There are three paths, logically. First is to plow ahead like nothing's changing in the narrative. For some, this is the right choice, because their crowd reactions stay somewhat the same. John Cena got the same alternating chorus the day he won the WWE Championship in his year-long reign, and it was the same when he lost it. The second choice would be to do a title switch. Babyfaces are generally better challengers anyway.
The third option is something that doesn't seem intuitive to do, but it actually makes so much sense from a storytelling standpoint. That would be to turn the Champion in the middle of the reign. There has been precedent for this in the past. Most recently, CM Punk turned heel in the middle of his 434-day title reign. Friday night at Combat Zone Wrestling's WrestleCon event, Masada also nominally turned heel, enlisting the help of Christina von Eerie to keep his CZW Championship against Jun Kasai. Additionally, Saturday night, Johnny Gargano, unable to put away Shingo Takagi via legal means, used a low blow and a cord to take him out after 510 days of clean wins and heroic fanfare.
Sometimes, the pressure of being Champion just gets to a character, or at least it's a more-than-valid trope. The Championship belt becomes less an honor, and more a master to which the Champion is slave. It has to be kept at all costs, and the burgeoning crush of staying The Man makes people do things of questionable morals.
It's actually analogous to one of the most famous books-turned-movie trilogies of all-time, The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring has tangible power over the holder. Whoever holds it in their possession eventually becomes mad with the idea of being able to wield it's all-consuming might. An entity can hold the One Ring for some amount of time, but no one, excepting Sauron (who is the biggest heel in all of Middle Earth anyway), can hold it without it holding them. By the time letting go was inevitable, the holder, whether Isildur or Frodo Baggins, could not throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. They had to keep it at all costs. The same could be said for Smeagol, who never had designs on destroying Precious, even as it warped him and changed him into the vile abomination before nature, Gollum.
At some point, the Championship ends up taking hold on a longterm titleholder. It makes sense that someone who has held the Championship, has held onto not only the prestige of being Champion but having the extra added power of being Champion, would want to have those perks. Again, the era changes from when Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund held the belt. Back then, being Champion was reward enough. It was something to be defended. But around the Attitude Era, being Champion was somehow conflated with having some kind of authority. One belt to rule them all and in the politics bind them.
So at some point, it's very plausible that a change will take hold in the Champion. CM Punk can go from the Voice of the Voiceless Champion who didn't need the bullshit to keep his spot to cheating, swerving, and conniving his way into adding an extra 180 or so days to his reign. Masada can transform from the sickest fuck who would just out-hardcore his opponent into needing reinforcements to keep from losing that belt.
Right now, there's one other exceedingly long reigning Champion left in major wrestling. Eddie Kingston has been Chikara Grand Champion 512 days today. He also has potential to let his reign consume them. In fact, he's probably long overdue for some kind of shift. The question is, will he also succumb to the power of the One Belt, or is there something different in mind? I wouldn't mind the latter; variety is the spice of life. But there's also an inherent power in seeing the Championship corrupt a soul that up to that point was sterling, indefatigable in its quest for honor.
There are three paths, logically. First is to plow ahead like nothing's changing in the narrative. For some, this is the right choice, because their crowd reactions stay somewhat the same. John Cena got the same alternating chorus the day he won the WWE Championship in his year-long reign, and it was the same when he lost it. The second choice would be to do a title switch. Babyfaces are generally better challengers anyway.
The third option is something that doesn't seem intuitive to do, but it actually makes so much sense from a storytelling standpoint. That would be to turn the Champion in the middle of the reign. There has been precedent for this in the past. Most recently, CM Punk turned heel in the middle of his 434-day title reign. Friday night at Combat Zone Wrestling's WrestleCon event, Masada also nominally turned heel, enlisting the help of Christina von Eerie to keep his CZW Championship against Jun Kasai. Additionally, Saturday night, Johnny Gargano, unable to put away Shingo Takagi via legal means, used a low blow and a cord to take him out after 510 days of clean wins and heroic fanfare.
Sometimes, the pressure of being Champion just gets to a character, or at least it's a more-than-valid trope. The Championship belt becomes less an honor, and more a master to which the Champion is slave. It has to be kept at all costs, and the burgeoning crush of staying The Man makes people do things of questionable morals.
It's actually analogous to one of the most famous books-turned-movie trilogies of all-time, The Lord of the Rings. The One Ring has tangible power over the holder. Whoever holds it in their possession eventually becomes mad with the idea of being able to wield it's all-consuming might. An entity can hold the One Ring for some amount of time, but no one, excepting Sauron (who is the biggest heel in all of Middle Earth anyway), can hold it without it holding them. By the time letting go was inevitable, the holder, whether Isildur or Frodo Baggins, could not throw the Ring into the fires of Mount Doom. They had to keep it at all costs. The same could be said for Smeagol, who never had designs on destroying Precious, even as it warped him and changed him into the vile abomination before nature, Gollum.
At some point, the Championship ends up taking hold on a longterm titleholder. It makes sense that someone who has held the Championship, has held onto not only the prestige of being Champion but having the extra added power of being Champion, would want to have those perks. Again, the era changes from when Bruno Sammartino and Bob Backlund held the belt. Back then, being Champion was reward enough. It was something to be defended. But around the Attitude Era, being Champion was somehow conflated with having some kind of authority. One belt to rule them all and in the politics bind them.
So at some point, it's very plausible that a change will take hold in the Champion. CM Punk can go from the Voice of the Voiceless Champion who didn't need the bullshit to keep his spot to cheating, swerving, and conniving his way into adding an extra 180 or so days to his reign. Masada can transform from the sickest fuck who would just out-hardcore his opponent into needing reinforcements to keep from losing that belt.
Right now, there's one other exceedingly long reigning Champion left in major wrestling. Eddie Kingston has been Chikara Grand Champion 512 days today. He also has potential to let his reign consume them. In fact, he's probably long overdue for some kind of shift. The question is, will he also succumb to the power of the One Belt, or is there something different in mind? I wouldn't mind the latter; variety is the spice of life. But there's also an inherent power in seeing the Championship corrupt a soul that up to that point was sterling, indefatigable in its quest for honor.