Sunday night at World Wrestling Entertainment’s Royal Rumble was not a good night for Rusev, the first eliminated participant in the Royal Rumble match. But he still found something to be proud of.
. @LanaWWE go make history. And I did. I took the tv monitor. Therefore I’m the new TV CHAMPION
— Rusev (@RusevBUL) January 25, 2016
After brutalizing Roman Reigns at the behest of Vince McMahon, even crashing down on Reigns through an announce table, Rusev decided to take home a trophy. That trophy was a TV monitor. He decided that taking away that monitor made him the WWE Television champion. Funny joke, right?
What if it wasn’t a joke and WWE did decide to make it a legitimate championship?
Rusev: WWE Television Champion
Those clunky television monitors have been connected to announce desks since the 1980s, creating a lineage that exists longer than the World Championship Wrestling or Extreme Championship Wrestling’s Television championships. They are also inexplicable outdated technology that nobody doing play by play or colour commentary uses since computers started being used instead. Michael Cole doesn’t watch that tiny screen. He uses a tablet. Yet there’s a visual power in seeing those TV monitors pulled out or used as a weapon. They tend to be a greater weapon with wrestlers doing table spots or inadvertently hitting their heads on the jagged corners. That archaic TV monitor is a better weapon than a championship belt. Which means it makes a great championship title.
If Rusev wants to carry around the monitor and proclaim himself Television Champion, the WWE Board of Directors should acknowledge this as a legitimate championship, and wrap it in the lineage of the previously mentioned WCW and ECW championships. At one point, people came to ECW shows to see Rob Van Dam as Television champion, as it was a greater title than ECW Heavyweight champion. If Rusev defends that TV monitor week in and week out on Raw and Smackdown, it could build him up once again as a formidable threat, instead of just being another guy in the League of Nations. Maybe it feels unorthodox for him to carry around a metal brick instead of wearing championship gold around his waist, but we got used to spinner belts, the tattered remains of the Hardcore championship and that silly butterfly that dorns the Divas championship. Okay, we didn’t really get used to that one but you get my point. And hey, if you want him to wear an actual belt? Give him a belt!
It is small little moments like this that you can either ignore as a silly joke, or create something great out of. The WWE dropped the ball when Zack Ryder made the Internet championship something fans cared about, and could have made it a defendable championship. Instead, they just gave him the United States championship and proceeded to bury him. Rusev could be giving the WWE Universe something to watch for week in and week out, and it can either be executed upon or ignored.
Either way, credit to Rusev for finding some solace in what was an embarrassingly short Royal Rumble appearance.
Photo originally found on Botchamania’s Facebook Fanpage.
