5 Steps To Save The WWE Intercontinental Championship

Baron Corbin and Dean Ambrose
Image Source: Cageside Seats

Quiz time, wrestling fans. First question: what is the WWE Intercontinental Championship for? It’s a question which seems to plague WWE every few years. What to do with this old belt now that there’s so many others being passed around.

In a previous age, the Intercontinental Championship was the realm of Randy Savage, Razor Ramon and Shawn Michaels. But let me confess something – as much as I respect those names as icons of a business I’m obsessed with, I don’t remember them. I was five years old last time Shawn Michaels held the belt, and Randy Savage’s legendary 414 day reign ended three years before I was born.

In those before-times – in the long, long ago – the Intercontinental Championship was where midcard wrestlers proved if they could or could not cut it as a main event star. It was a gateway to the WWF Championship. That’s not how it works anymore. Current champ Dean Ambrose had an 84 day WWE Championship reign a matter of months before winning midcard gold.

Perhaps WWE thought Ambrose, a recent main event star, would bring some prestige to the Intercontinental strap. If so, they were wrong. The championship feels like a mere accoutrement on Ambrose’ shoulder. The Intercontinental Title match at Wrestlemania 33 was the main event of the pre-show. That’s like being the champions of the Arena Football League. It’s nice for the winners, but the Super Bowl is still what everyone tunes in for.

We’re at a crossroads. The Intercontinental Championship has a place in WWE, but it’s obvious something needs to change. Here is the definitive way to do it.

 

Step 1 – Know What it’s for

Seth Rollins in NXT
Image Source:
WWE

The Intercontinental Championship is no longer about testing new stars on their road to a world championship. Only two men in the last eight years have held the Intercontinental Title on the road to winning their first WWE Championship. More former NXT Champions have gone on to win have their first WWE Title reign during that time.

In 2017 WWE makes it’s stars in other ways. The Intercontinental Title is a midcard utility belt, and nothing more. Sure, it can hint at future star quality, as it did with Kevin Owens, but WWE are past using it as a testing ground. Right now the IC title’s best chance is as the midcard championship. A bauble for those outside the main event to aspire towards. And I know that sounds obvious. It sounds like something WWE have been using it for anyway. But it’s the second step that really matters.

 

Step 2 – Build a Midcard Around It

Finn Balor

What’s the most interesting title picture in WWE right now? If your answer is anything other than the United States Title, take a look at yourself in the mirror and realise how wrong you are. Right now, Smackdown’s main event is the miserable Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt feud. That means the midcard is full of interesting guys: Kevin Owens, AJ Styles, Baron Corbin and Sami Zayn. Rather than have them mill about without direction, Smackdown threw them all together in pursuit of one championship. You build a midcard around the belt, and suddenly it matters again.

Raw has decided to put its top belt on Brock Lesnar. This means a new belt we should be learning to care about is AWOL, and the main eventers who should be fighting over it must spend the next year milling about in between Lesnar showing up at major pay-per-views. Luckily though, it also means there are plenty of top stars who could set their sights on the Intercontinental Championship.

In lieu of a Universal Championship shot, both Samoa Joe and Finn Balor would benefit hugely from holding IC gold. And this would also be a surefire way to give younger guys a real direction. Throwing Elias Samson, Apollo Crews and Big Cass into the same arena as the Demon King would make the IC title feel like a bigger draw and give newer faces a shot at character development.

 

Step 3 – Make it Mean something to the Holder

Image Source:
inquisitr.com

This bugs the shit out of me. Why does the Intercontinental Championship matter to Dean Ambrose? Goofy Dean Ambrose who spends his time pulling pranks on the heels and throwing weird punches? It’s an afterthought. Ambrose is a company guy and probably shifts decent merchandise, but him and that belt together do nothing for either.

To save the Intercontinental Championship, it needs to matter to whoever holds it. Hell, if Miz really is going to be Dean’s next feud it’s a story which should write itself. The Miz’s Never Ending Intercontinental Championship World Tour cemented what that belt will always mean to Mike Mizanin’s character. But it doesn’t even need to be that big of a deal. Maybe Samoa Joe wants the IC belt because it proves he’s better than the other chumps on Raw. Elias Samson might want it so everyone has to listen to his crappy music. This is not hard, people.

 

Step 4 – Have Regular Title Defenses

Zack Ryder
Image Source:
WWE

Since winning the Intercontinental Championship on January 3rd, Dean Ambrose has defended it twice on television. Once in a twelve minute Lumberjack Match on Smackdown Live, and again in an eleven minute match on the Wrestlemania preshow.

Does anyone know what happens in boxing when a fighter doesn’t fight the next contender in time? They lose it. Sometimes this happens in WWE, and sometimes it doesn’t, and that’s super annoying. The belt can matter to the guy holding it, and the Raw midcard can all want to get their hands on it, but unless the champ is taking on contenders on the regular it doesn’t mean anything.

 

Step 5 – Follow Through

Vince McMahon
Image Source:
WWE

Tomorrow, Vince McMahon could be scrolling through Twitter, find this article and decide to do exactly what I’ve suggested. It means nothing unless WWE creative are willing to stay the course. To save the Intercontinental Championship from irrelevancy it must always have a midcard chasing it. It must always mean something to the wrestler who holds it. And it must always be defended on a regular basis.

Too many times the Intercontinental Championship has stepped meekly from under the shadow of irrelevancy, blinking at the light of attention, only to be buried in darkness a moment later. Now more than ever, with the Universal Championship gathering dust in Minnesota, the IC belt is a prize most valuable. If used consistently for the next twelve months it could have a prideful place at Wrestlemania 34. Just as easily though, it could become ever more irrelevant.

If WWE want to save the Intercontinental Championship, they have to follow through.

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