9. “WWE has done a great job with making the Universal Title more important with Brock Lesnar as champion” – Eric Bischoff
During a recent edition of Bischoff on Wrestling podcast, Eric Bischoff talked about Brock Lesnar being the WWE Universal Champion and why that’s a good thing. Below is what Bischoff said:
“Going back to my day that was one of the biggest complaints, “The title doesn’t feel as important.” Should you do a title change on television? Or should it only happen on a PPV? Then there was the Bills Watts point of view that I remember distinctly. When Bill Watts came into WCW we couldn’t draw flies at a house show if all of our talent went and rolled in cow manure right before the show. The flies would not show up. It was tough. Bill Watts’ 60s and 70s mentality was now in the 90s and he tried to revive a formula that worked back in his day before cable television and PPVs. When the audience’s expectations in the 90s were way different than they were in Bill Watts’ hay day. Bill Watts’ was like, “No! The title should only change hands on house shows!”
Well, that didn’t work (laughs) because the television audience didn’t see it or care about it. It was hard to make those stakes feel important. Then flip it to the other end of the extreme that I was guilty of and probably used to often. You are using that device to create emotion, interest and discussion and you change the title too often and that diminishes it. I think the answer lies somewhere in between. WWE has done a great job with Brock of not over exposing the title and making it feel important and building towards it’s defenses.”