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| A match made in heaven (even if he doesn't win it at Hell in a Cell) Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Not only was WWE rehashing a questionable feud from two years ago, not only were they rushing Cena back from injury for a feud of questionable providence, but they were shunting him into a match for the secondary Championship. That last reason though is the entire reason why Cena's return is in the match for the Big Gold Belt. He may not need the belt, but the belt needs him.
As recently as 2010, the Big Gold Belt was on a similar plane as the WWE Championship. Since then, the belt has become the analogue to the 1990s variant of the Intercontinental Championship, while the IC and United States Championships have become dressy props for the most part. Macroscopically, I'm not sure health of the Championship belts should be too much of a concern if the other stories are firing on all cylinders, and WWE right now has plenty of good-to-great narrative going on, whether surrounding a Championship (WWE Title specifically) or not.
Still, if you're going to have a title be part of the fabric, it should have some kind of worth. WWE could stand to freshen up the credibility of every Championship they have outside the WWE Title if they plan on keeping all of them around. Obviously, several gigabytes of bandwidth have been expended on the dire state of the two secondary titles, but the World Heavyweight Championship feels like the first title that they should be working on rehabbing.
While the Big Gold Belt has taken a hit in the hierarchy over the last three years, it remains an equal option for the Royal Rumble winner to tackle. The belt also has its own Money in the Bank briefcase, which sets it apart from every other Championship other than the WWE. In essence, even if it's not equal to the WWE Championship, it should be held with some esteem and some respect, and the person holding it should receive even more in the way of protection.
Sadly, neither has been the case. The last time a match for the Big Gold Belt closed a pay-per-view was when Kane defeated the Undertaker at Hell in a Cell 2010. The titleholder routinely is subjected to WWE's asinine "everyone loses every non-title match ever" booking philosophy, and furthermore, the wrestler who holds the Money in the Bank briefcase oftentimes doesn't have a story to back him up and ends up losing a vast majority of matches before cashing in.
Usually, recovery takes a long time and rebuilding an aura can't happen with one match. However, if anyone in WWE has the magic touch, that man would be John Cena. No matter how much anyone wants to denigrate his role in WWE or claim the company needs to move on, he is still the franchise, the face, the top star. Attaching him to the World Heavyweight Championship scene may not be a panacea for its credibility, but his challenging for it is a start. To be fair though, since Alberto del Rio won the title again, his feuds have been of a higher profile than the last time he held it. Sorry Jack Swagger, you're not the kind of guy who should be wrestling for a top title at WrestleMania. Rob van Dam, however, certainly is.
I know worrying about the inanimate object over the wrestler seems a bit pedantic and weird, but at the same time, a title belt only has meaning when the people who hold it are also given the royal treatment. Putting Cena in the challenger's role for the Big Gold Belt is a great start, and honestly, if my lean on this situation is correct, he will be the second of bigger name guys attached to challenging for or holding it (RVD being the first). I mean, when the time comes to unify the WWE and World Heavyweight Championships, you can't just have one of the competitors be on the main event level, can you?
