Retrospective: WCW Television Title???

 

Back when WCW was running wild on TBS, they had four titles that represented the company.  They had the NWA/WCW World title, which Ric Flair generally held all of the time.  The United States title would usually be around the person who would be next in line to win the NWA/WCW title.  The Tag Team titles would usually go to a team like The Road Warriors, The Nasty Boys, The Freebirds, teams that had been together for years.  Then we have the WCW Television title.  I'd like to call this the Bobby Eaton/Arn Anderson title, because normally guys like them would hold it.  They would never be in contention for the World title, and they would probably never be given main event status.

For me, it reminds me of the useless title of the WWF European Title, a belt that was given to Davey Boy Smith to keep him happy, granted he dropped it as soon as Shawn Michaels gained power in the WWF.  The idea of the WCW Television title was that the champion could only defend it....on T.V.  How lame is that?  Every title was usually defended on T.V.....some on pay per view as well.  Don't get me wrong, guys like Steve Austin, Lord Steven Regal, Ricky Steamboat (after he already won the World title years before), Barry Windham, Lex Luger (bet that kept him happy), and so on.  WCW never had any interest in pushing Austin back then, Regal was a nice hand to have, but Bischoff wasn't about to place the entire company in Regal's hands, and Barry Windham was tough talented, but not marketable.  

Did the WCW Television Title have it's place in wrestling history, sure!  I just don't think that WCW handled the place that the title could have truly been used for.  Thank god Vince McMahon doesn't want go back to those times, he probably had his hands full with the European title, Hardcore title, ECW title, and even the World Heavyweight title....belts that have out lived their usefulness too!