Unfortunately, modern wrestling (again, especially WWE) is so focused on minute-by-minute numbers that any dip is cause for panic.

If this was true then why have they been doing basically the exact same stuff every week since 'Mania until Brock came back as ratings rapidly declined to 1997 type levels?

It's kind of startling how much more importantly they've treated the role of champion with the US and NXT titles than the World. The US has Cena as proud champion facing all comers, wanting to prove that he's the elite, whilst Owens clearly stated he wanted the NXT title because being champion meant he had more money for his family. Meanwhile, Rollins is just "there" as champion, the crown jewel of an authority that helped make him champion, but also have decided to put him up against an unstoppable Brock Lesnar for vaguely defined reasons.

And both of his first two feuds (Orton and Ambrose) were derived from personal issues that started over six months before he won the belt.

 

Even the PTPs and Ryback are doing better jobs getting their reigns over than Rollins has. I think that it's probably an easier job as faces, but I definitely feel like that it really matters to them that they're champs. What the title means for his relationship with the Authority is treated as being much more important than Rollins being the WORLD CHAMPION, and Rollins acts exactly the same as the WWEWHC as he did when he was "Mr. Money in the Bank" (add that to the list of reasons why it needs to go).

I think it's been mentioned before in this thread that the title is as important as the promotion makes it. I can apply that same idea to everything about wrestling, so it's not something that should elude any wrestling promotion. I think a lot of it is derived from the way the WWE is what is important and not the wrestlers, the titles, the feuds or the matches. I think a lot of the focus on the Authority also comes from that as they are representatives of the WWE and very much an ingrained part of what the company is and will be. You can say the same for Cena, Orton, Batista, Kane, etc. These are all things that have become as much a part of the backdrop the show is presented against that they are the things that will be focused on regardless of who has what title. It may drive a lot of us nuts, but it's how it is.