I agree with every single fucking thing you said... like, I wouldn't change a word.

And even though I was defending Swagger before, something about that feud got stale to me. It might be how unbelievable ADR is big upping America now or something else but yeah... I'm not excited. At least Jericho made Swagger look good on Smackdown, but not sure if that will translate to ADR and Swagger looking good.

And yeah... the belts. Stroud explains it best here:

Worst: WWE Is Just Trolling Me Now, Aren’t They

Wade Barrett is the Intercontinental Champion. Because of this, he gets put into a series of non-title matches against guys who are seen as “better” than him — Sheamus, Randy Orton, etc. — and he loses them. Cleanly. Usually in only a few minutes. He has these EVERY WEEK, sometimes three or more times (on television) a week, and when he gets a chance to be in a movie, the people who MADE THE MOVIE spend long portions of their show having “better” wrestlers — Sheamus specifically, even though he’s not involved in a feud with Barrett whatsoever — talking about how unimportant Wade is. Still, he retains the Intercontinental Championship, and that tricks you into thinking those losses is what’re devaluing the belt.

But nope! What devalues the belt is that when Wade DOES have to defend it, he KEEPS it. This is the chance where you go “okay, we don’t like Wade Barrett, let’s give the belt to Jericho or The Miz,” have Wade lose his regularly scheduled loss, cut YOUR losses and try something with somebody else. Instead, they put Wade over in the ONE MATCH OUT OF TWENTY with the goddamn belt on the line. The cycle continues, and next week Wade will lose to, I don’t know, Big Show or whoever, and keep his belt.

So … what’s the deal? Why does this happen? Why give him the belt? Why have the belt at all? What does it mean to you? Do you WANT it to mean something? Why are people competing to hold a championship held by a guy who loses 20 times more than them? They haven’t mentioned shit like “increased pay” or “increased visibility” in years. This is the company that puts John Cena matches on after its WWE Championship matches. Why have belts at all? Darren Young could be doing what Wade Barrett’s doing right now and nothing would change. Absolutely nothing. No difference in match quality, ratings, t-shirt sales, nothing. You’re wasting money AND a belt AND television time AND a wrestler’s talent AND the talent of OTHER wrestlers who could hypothetically do something interesting or compelling or important with your secondary championships with no positive results. What is wrong with you. Stop it.