Brock Lesnar is the current WWE Universal champion, even though he only works part-time--no house shows, barely any television, and only select PPVs. Up until now, WWE has sold fans on a shaky, flawed premise: that because a Lesnar appearance is rare, it makes the title an exclusive treasure, defended on the biggest stages only. According to WWE, this increases the title`s importance rather than decreasing it.But the opposite is true. The current booking renders the title meaningless. The WWE Universal Championship is, like every other title belt, a storytelling device, and WWE has not given fans a reason to care about who wears it and why. By keeping it on Lesnar, the company squanders any opportunities to correct this problem.Getting the fans to care was never going to be easy. When the Superstar Shakeup went down last summer and the roster was split between Raw and SmackDown, WWE had to figure out how to divvy up the existing belts. There were two midcard belts--the Intercontinental Championship and the United States Championship--so it was easy to split those between two shows. But there was only one main event world title: The WWE Championship. So, WWE created the WWE Universal title as a second world title and made it a Raw exclusive.The WWE Championship, which is currently exclusive to SmackDown, has a long, distinguished history. Buddy Rogers held it for the first time in 1963. Bruno Sammartino held it, collectively, for over a decade. Hulk Hogan held it. Bret Hart held it. Steve Austin held it.It`s part of WWE`s institutional memory. When fans see the WWE Championship, they`re seeing something weighted with history, blood, and sacrifice. Even when there`s a weak champion--like Jinder Mahal, who is the current title holder--it doesn`t diminish the title`s importance. It would take a lot to undo over 50 years of storytelling.The Universal title, on the other hand, has none of that historical context to fall back on, which made it important to build the ti ...
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