A meaningless secondary belt isn't going to make anybody a bigger star. And it's not like they can make it the workrate title like the Intercontinental Championship in the 80s because pretty much every match in AEW is a workrate match.

You're telling me that if Darby was put over Sammy, Cody and Archer in a tournament for a new belt, he wouldn't get it over?

I would agree that if WWE decided to create a belt for the midcarders, the level of skepticism for its chances of getting over. AEW has done nothing really to make me think they would botch a Darby run or a Sammy run.

The audience like Darby but I don't think the clamour for him to be in the top mix has come close to it's peak yet. Whereas people want Cody to be the top star. I feel like there's more value in playing the long game with Darby until the fans are desperate for him to get over the hump instead of giving it away relatively early on shows with no fans.

2 hours ago, Slasher said:

You're telling me that if Darby was put over Sammy, Cody and Archer in a tournament for a new belt, he wouldn't get it over?

Only if he continues defending against top guys. I don't think it'll mean much if all of his defenses are against midcarders, just like beating the Young Bucks in the tag title tournament didn't do much for Private Party because there was no real follow-up.

58 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

Only if he continues defending against top guys. I don't think it'll mean much if all of his defenses are against midcarders, just like beating the Young Bucks in the tag title tournament didn't do much for Private Party because there was no real follow-up.

That I will agree with. The followup is the key. If Darby was booked like a midcarder who happened to win a belt, I would agree it wouldn't work. I don't think that is what would happen though.

Honestly I am looking at it from the perspective that you need to build new stars along with whoever you have that is established. I feel Cody is going to get his 15 mins a week no matter what he is doing, so why not give someone else a reason to be showcased? Best way is by being the secondary champion fighting different challengers every week. Cody could fit this but I'd prefer seeing someone else in this role.

I'm with Slasher on this one. The shows I've been enjoying the least are the ones where the Elite take up the bulk of the airtime and guys like Sammy, Darby, MJF, Mox, and Santana/Ortiz get shunted either off the card entirely or onto Dark. There's two full hours of airtime to utilize and they aren't utilizing it to their best as it is, so guaranteeing more of the same by putting the belt on somebody we already see enough of is counterintuitive to the long-term health of the product.