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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Champ or Chump?

The forgotten titles
By Kevin Hunsperger

Unless there's a couple of matches added to the Extreme Rules pay per view, which begins in less than 3 hours, there will be no U.S., Intercontinental, or Tag Team title matches.  This shouldn't be a surprise though.  I've done a little research, and here's what I've discovered.

The last time the U.S. title was defended on PPV was at Survivor Series.  That was November.  Daniel Bryan defeated Ted DiBiase.  The WWE had scheduled a U.S. title match between Sheamus and Bryan at Wrestlemania, but it was dropped from the card and was the dark match of the night, but quickly turned into a battle royal instead.

The last time the Intercontinental title was defended on PPV was at Tables, Ladders, and Chairs back in December.  Not quite as long ago as the U.S. title.  Dolph Ziggler beat three others in a fatal four way match.

The tag titles were defended more recently, at Elimination Chamber, in February.  But prior to that, the tag straps hadn't been up for stakes on PPV since Bragging Rights in October.  In case you forgot, John Cena and David Otunga beat Cody Rhodes and Drew McIntyre that night.  Ugh.

Why does the WWE have champions if they never have them defend their titles on PPV?  I remember back in the day, you saw the champion defending their title on each PPV.  I can understand why no tag team title match.  That division is horrendous right now, and there's no way you could construct a PPV quality match that we haven't already seen on Raw or SmackDown! already.  But why not introduce Wade Barrett and Sheamus to a new challenger tonight?  I really thought they'd have at least one of them defending against a Raw guy to take one of the belts to that show.  To be fair though, WWE has been known to throw together a match like that at the last minute.  Maybe they're just waiting... that's a complaint for another post.

What do you think?  Should the tag, US, and IC belts be defended more regularly on PPV?  Weigh in here or join us on Facebook or @my123cents on Twitter.

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