The 24/7 Championship becoming part of the WWE product seemed like a fun and harmless way to get more talents on the show at the start. Mick Foley coming around to make the announcement added importance and helped correlate it to the Hardcore Championship of the past. Even though violent weapons are not encouraged like in the past, the spirit of the comedic title changes happening at any point bonded the concept.Sadly, WWE has not found the same charm from the 24/7 Championship that names like Crash Holly, Raven and Al Snow discovered in the hardcore division of the Attitude Era. R-Truth, Drake Maverick, Reginald and many others have tried their best to make it work, but there are too many flaws in place. WWE may be better off scrapping the 24/7 Championship with the division now at the point of no return.
The Championship Has Jumped The Shark
There was some hope for the 24/7 division to provide a consistent form of entertainment for WWE television. The brand split and having five total prime hours of television to produce for the weekly product made a new belt worthy of a risk. WWE wanted to ensure that many more talents in the locker room would get a chance on television even without a push.
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Names like Akira Tozawa, Titus O’Neil and Drew Gulak have held the 24/7 Championship to show how that works. However, it was meant to be led by the comedic personalities, like how Crash Holly carried the Attitude Era shenanigans in the hardcore division. R-Truth was clearly the leader of this movement due to his longstanding humorous character.
WWE booked R-Truth to have some great moments with Drake Maverick, Tozawa, Mojo Rawley and many others. Unfortunately, those moments have started to jump the shark. WWE no longer has the buzzworthy title change like when R-Truth won it at Drake’s wedding or when Maria Kanellis won the belt while pregnant. The weekly segments with multiple title changes have become overkill.
The 24/7 Championship Scene Has Been Dominated By The Same Old Skits
WWE clearly started putting less effort into the 24/7 Championship when there would be gaps without it on television. There is a reputation for WWE booking shows at the last minute with multiple changes. The 24/7 Championship is typically the weakest segment on the show and fans are already conditioned to not care about it.
R-Truth hiding with a referee will only be fun so many times before the audience stops caring. Reginald has been an interesting addition to the 24/7 division after splitting from Nia Jax due to his skill set working here. The stunts to get away from others are entertaining, but that doesn’t mean much anymore. Quite a few talented wrestlers are just getting groans or sympathy laughter for the underwhelming segments today.
WWE not finding a way to make the 24/7 division unique will ultimately be its downfall. The consistent stream of segments with numerous wrestlers chasing the champ with a referee following them just feels like the laziest segment to book these days, since it happens just about every single week. WWE booking themselves in repetition makes it impossible to care about the division..
There Is No Path To Relevancy
There is no realistic way to imagine the 24/7 Championship meaning anything in WWE. The Hardcore Championship had the occasional credible champ or title reign used to stabilize the division. WWE putting the former belt on the likes of Rob Van Dam or The Undertaker would lead to them having great matches to remind fans that the division could switch up quickly. No one of upper card stature will even touch the 24/7 Championship due to the damage it can do.
There is not even a hardcore stipulation like with the old belt, so nothing really makes the matches come off unique. WWE has done the same thing for too long with the same talents for the division to have any chances at rebounding. The 24/7 Championship defenses of the champ running away is the most predictable and least cared about part of the show.
Mick Foley wasting an appearance to introduce this title a few years ago was a poor decision on WWE’s part. The idea was fine in theory, but everyone knew that they weren’t going to make the belt matter. Excitement for the comedy segments have fallen from hopeful to pessimistic to non-existent. WWE may need to get rid of the 24/7 Championship and division to save the talents involved and cut bait on something that isn’t working.
