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The days of george Hackenschmidt, and Frank Gotch are long gone, but it was this era that was the start of professional wrestling as we know it. Frank Gotch defeated George Hackenschmidt to become the first ever true World Wrestling Champion. He retired the World HeavyWeight Champion, and was undefeated. To me that sets a pretty high mark for the next champion to hold that title. Fast forward to modern times, well the 1980's, and the beginning of Hulkamania. Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik, and held the WWF Championship title for over four years. Once again setting the bar very high for the champion that followed him. Down south in the NWA the championship title was held by a blonde haired self centedered man by the name of Ric Flare. Although Flare won, and lost the title over many years. He almost always held it for at least six months to a year each time. The titles these men wore, and defended helped them as much as they helped the prestige of the title.

A titles prestige is what it is worth, and is brought up by two main things. The first is the strength of the person defending the title. I don't mean strength as in how much can you bench press. I mean strength as in what is there drawing power. Can they sell tickets, and fill large areas. The more popular the wrestler the better. Another part of strength is how well they worked in the ring. Could they get thier opponent over in a match? Could they tear the house down with anyone? These two things make up two thirds of the equation. Drawing power, and work ability is a hard combination to find in a single wrester. Even some of the greatest champions only had one, or the other. The third thing is believablility. Making the champion 5 foot something, and under 200 pounds, and putting him in the ring with someone over 7 feet tall, and 500 pounds sounds like a squash. Now if the smaller of the two manages a clean win that is not believable. A count out I could see, or a disqualification, but not a clean win.

The other half of this is how often the title has changed hands. It is human nature to want what we can't have. The Holy Grail, the Arc of the Covenent, knowledge about life on other planets, and so on. These are just examples of things that as part of the human race we want. We covet what is not in our posetion. The same rings true with professional wrestling titles. The longer a champion holds his title the more it is sought after. Once again people want what they can't have. So they go to extreme lengths to get what they want. The things that a champion must endure to hold on to his title is the other half of this part. The harder the challenge is for the champion, or the challenger to regain, or win the title ups the value. Imagine climbing a very tall ladder. Once you have reached the top of that ladder someone at the bottom begins to shack it. Your doing everything you can not to fall. This is what it is like for the champion with every challenger that comes along.

This is where the titles have gone down hill. The champions we get now are lucky to hold a title for six months. Normally the title will change hands by the second to third month of that champions riegn. In the divisions such as the tag team division the teams don't stay together for very long, and then they are torn apart to seek out success in singles competition. So the idea of a long title in as a tag team is vertually non igistant now a days. As for the men who hold the titles well they are not the men previously stated. They run a program with one, or two wrestlers at a time, and it is only for a couple of months. This leaves no time for build up, anticipation for the final blow off match. This is why the titles in the WWE have become so cheap.

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