KB’s Review: Feel The Power of…..Inflated Records

When I try to come up with topics for this column, I try to stick with things that we’re sure are happening. Getting into fantasy booking is A, a bottomless hole that you can never escape from and B, really not my thing. However, earlier this week a rumor (which is kind of our thing around here) caught my eye and I started thinking about how it might be one of the worst ideas WWE has had in a long time.

Here’s the rumor that started the hamster wheel in my head start spinning:

https://wrestlingrumors.net/backstage-news-new-day-losing-smackdown-live-tag-team-titles/

The story is about the New Day, who lose their Smackdown Tag Team Titles in short order after winning them from the Usos at “Battleground 2017”. While it looked to be the start of another long New Day, the reign only lasted four weeks. The quick loss was a bit surprising, which is where the rumor came in.

Basically, WWE wants New Day to be viewed as the greatest tag team of all time. They already have the reign for the longest title reign in history but that’s not enough. Next up, they would also set the record for the most reigns as champions in company history. The current record is nine, held by the Dudley Boyz. New Day’s most recent reign was their third combined over their various Tag Team Titles in WWE.

Now this is where things get interesting. First of all, I can’t imagine WWE actually sticking to this plan. That would be seven title reigns and no matter what, it’s going to take some time to get there. If there’s one thing WWE has a tendency to do, it’s change plans in a hurry or drop an idea that only sounds good in theory until you actually stop to think about it. However, this one is plausible enough to warrant some thinking, but it depends on how WWE goes about getting there. I see two possible options, though neither of them is really a great idea.

This is the kind of match it could lead to.  A match to decide a match.

New Day vs. Usos - Winner chooses stipulation for Tag Title Rematch: SmackDown LIVE, Aug. 29, 2017

First, WWE might be planning on hot shotting the titles back and forth several times, giving New Day and whoever they’re feuding with (Likely the Usos, who are the only other viable option at the moment. However, they’re also currently up 4-3 in WWE Tag Team Title reigns) several reigns in a very short span of time. With new Day needing seven more title reigns to break the record, assuming a month per reign per team, you’re looking at over a year before this takes place. That’s a lot of title changes in such a short amount of time, which really wouldn’t shock me.

It’s not like WWE hasn’t done this several times before. Remember when Edge won eleven World Titles in five years? Or Randy Orton, Triple H and John Cena somehow managing to have twelve World Titles each? A lot of that comes from the fact that they had multiple titles to win at once and how fast so many of those titles were hot shotted.

How many of those reigns stand out to you as anything special? What do you remember about all those weeks or month or two reigns? My guess is nothing more often than not, because none of them had any kind of a chance to go anywhere. They didn’t feel special because it felt like they were designed to build up numbers instead of doing anything with the titles or using them to upgrade the people holding them.

Do you really want New Day having something like this?

John Cena's Greatest World Title Triumphs: WWE Top 10

That’s exactly what would happen if New Day were to suddenly go from three title reigns to ten (or more, depending on however high WWE thinks this needs to go). If WWE just has to do this, I’d prefer they do it in the same vein as someone like Miz or Chris Jericho piling up Intercontinental Title reigns. While some of them were quick changes, several of them had some time between them. Jericho won nine titles in the span of just shy of ten years. Miz won his seven in just under five years.

That’s a rather short amount of time to pile up all those title wins and, at least for me, neither Jericho nor Miz felt like they were being handed titles for the sake of being handed titles (most of the time at least). If New Day has to win the titles ten times, I’d prefer it feel more natural than having them win them and lose them over and over for the sake of getting to the record as fast as possible. It doesn’t do anything other than give them an accolade that they don’t need and that’s not a good idea no matter what.

The other option is having the push towards the titles take a long time, which doesn’t seem like the best idea either. New Day has been around for over three years now and, at least in modern times, that’s quite the ride for a tag team. How many teams make it anywhere near that long without getting a bit stale?

New Day could be perfectly fine doing stuff like this for years to come.

The New Day gives a sneak peek at the WrestleMania 33 set

New Day is still certainly worth keeping around for their merchandise sales alone at the moment but it feels like they’re starting to run out of things to do. When you’ve already held the Tag Team Titles for over a year (almost a year and a half) and broken Demolition’s record, you’ve reached the point where you don’t really ever need to win the titles again. The team could easily start going their separate ways with either Big E. or Kofi Kingston (who is already thirty six years old) starting to get a major singles push.

Do we really want several more years of New Day winning the Tag Team Titles over and over again like they’ve done three times already? At this rate (which isn’t realistic for any more they’ll win due to the huge outlier), it would take another seven years to get them to the ten title reigns. Even if it takes half of that, we wouldn’t even be on the second half of New Day’s run. I’m a fan of the team but sweet goodness that sounds like a very long time to have them do seemingly the exact same thing they’ve been doing for the last three plus years.

At the end of the day, I just don’t see why this needs to be the case. New Day is already one of the most popular and successful teams of all time. The Demolition record seemed to be one of the holy grails of tag team wrestling and that’s already come tumbling down. Without giving it a lot of thought, I couldn’t come up with the team to hold the record for most Tag Team Title reigns, at least not just with the WWE titles. It’s not exactly being a sixteen time World Heavyweight Champion you know?

New Day would be just fine winning another title or two and then moving on to something else. Just handing them a second record really doesn’t feel like it’s going to make them the best of all time. Ignoring the fact that they’re a trio instead of a regular team, handing them a bunch of titles makes them feel too manufactured for my tastes.

If a team is as great as they’re made out to be, you’ll know how great they are just by watching. New Day is already a great team and piling on accolades isn’t going to make them seem any more important than they already are. Stop messing with something that’s already working and feel the power of all the success they’ve already had.

 

 

Remember to check out my website at kbwrestlingreviews.com, follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up the Complete 2002 Monday Night Raw Reviews in either E-Book or Paperback. Check out the information here:

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2017/07/21/new-e-bookpaperback-kbs-complete-monday-night-raw-2002-reviews/

And check out my Amazon author page with cheap wrestling books at:

http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hall/e/B00E6282W6