Only One True World Title?

Everywhere you go in the wrestling world, you’ll find men claiming to be world champions. No matter where they are, in a high school gym, in the middle of nowhere, or in the biggest arenas, you’ll always find someone claiming to be the true world champion, even if they haven’t left their home town in years.

So what promotion in this mixed-up crazy world can really lay claim to have a true world heavyweight title? Let’s look at the usual suspects, taking into account where these titles are defended, and who against.

Let’s start off with both of WWE’s main titles, the WWE and World titles. Many of you will probably say that these are the rightful world titles because they are part of the biggest wrestling promotion in the world, and they’re defended all over the world, wherever WWE hold a show. Now, that may be the case, but can anyone answer this question? When the WWE last toured my homeland, was a Brit given a title shot? There are currently three Brits on the Smackdown roster in William Regal, Fit Finlay and Paul Burchill. Will they get a shot at the World title when the WWE tours over here next month? Probably not.

A few years ago, the NWA could lay claim to having the real world title, but not these days. For decades, the champion would travel around the various territories, including trips abroad, defending the title against the top stars of those territories, but even though the NWA has countless affiliates all over the world, I don’t think we’ll ever see the likes of Christian Cage or Jeff Jarrett defending the belt against UK affiliate Hammerlock’s top stars soon.

The Ring of Honor title is one of the few currently active titles to have been defended overseas, when Samoa Joe faced the Zebra Kid at the FWA’s Frontiers of Honor show in 2002, but even though Brits Doug Williams and Nigel McGuiness have wrestled for the title, it’s mainly been defended in America, and mainly against North American talent.

Over in Japan, the IWGP, GHC and Triple Crown titles may be defended against North American, British and Japanese stars, but these belts are never defended overseas.

So what makes a true world title? It should be a title that is defended around the world, and against the stars of the various countries it’s defended in. And for me, there’s only been one title that’s met this criteria in the past year.

In February 2005, Takao Omori won a tournament in Japan to crown a new AWA World Champion. A few months later, Steve Corino won the title, becoming the first man to have ever held both the NWA and AWA versions of the title. Corino would go on to defend the title all over the world, in America, Canada, Japan and Britain, facing stars from those countries, before losing the title to Shinjiro Ohtani in Japan this past January. The AWA World title may not be as prestigious as it was twenty or thirty years ago, but there’s no denying that Corino did a hell of a lot in raising the profile of this once great championship, and by defending the belt all over the world, he became a true World Champion.

So the next time you see John Cena or Kurt Angle going on about how they’re true champions, just think of the likes of Corino and Ohtani, and wonder if someone like Robbie Brookside will get title shots when the WWE tours Britain in April, instead of being jobbed out to the likes of Simon Dean and Gene Snitsky.