Wrestling LogicLee Submitted by LoneLee on 09/09/2019 at 01:34 PM
Ugh. It’s been too long since I’ve composed more than a Tweet. Maybe it’s due to being held captive in my own personal purgatory of self-condemnation in the annals of my mind. Could be a much needed break from all of the tireless and subjective debating in the world as a whole. Perhaps I simply had something better to do with my life...ok, definitely not the latter.
Now that all of the fanfare of my much anticipated return to the NODQ Galaxy is out of the way, I wanted to take the time to give my very much needed opinions on something incredibly dear to me, The WWE Intercontinental championship. Alright, it’s not an astoundingly serious topic compared to all of the vehement debates making their rounds across the SJW universe, but it’s always remained special to me. Plus, with all of the hooplah regarding the anniversary of its inception I figured this is a good a time as any to dive deeper into the many, MANY problemswith its current state...and why it needs to die! Die! Die! DIE!! We always hurt the ones we love.
Let’s start with why the IC title is special to me and I’m certain my reasoning is the same for a lot of fans. Way back in the olden days of WW(F) they had but just 3 championships: A main World title, Tag belts, and the IC strap. It was crystal clear who would be in contention for what championship and what their spot on the card would be. The IC championship provided a window to the future of the company. A doubtless peek to future World champions and sure fire Hall of Famers. Some held the belt as a test run to audiences for a possible reign with the main gold while never actually reaching the pinnacle. The likes of Mr. Perfect, Razor Ramon, Goldust to name a few were infamous IC champs but never attained the richest prize in the game. Others would leave their mark as champion and never look back only moving forward to bigger and better things such as, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, the list goes on.
Then as the WW(F) grew so did it’s demand for more and more content, thus came the creations of more championships. The European, Hardcore, United States, Cruiserweight, 24/7, this, that, the other, and so on and so forth. You know what all of these championships have in common? None of them have any memorable reigns or matches. There’s no Wrestlemania ladder match to refer to for the US title. There isn’t a historical lineage of the European title since the belt went defunct after a five-yea life span. Most fans can’t even refer to the Hardcore title without making a joke of it. Factor in all of this with the addition of split brand World titles, NXT, NXT UK, and somewhere along the lines the IC got lost in the shuffle.
See, I can forgive all of that including the fact that everyone on the roster seems to need a title nowadays as some type of a participation award or prop. I can overlook that the belt has a stale design and has fallen lower and lower on the card position, sometimes relegated to the pre-show or not on at all. But the worst and most unforgivable offense is that the IC title has become nothing more than a consolation prize for Superstars that have fallen from the main event picture.
I don’t want to bore you with numbers but look at the recent history: In a five-year span dating back to the summer of 2014, there have 29 championship title reigns accrued by 14 different men. Of those Superstars, 7 of them had already held a World championship, 3 had been demoted from the world title picture as unsuccessful challengers floundering back down to the mid-card, and of the remaining 3 reigns only Kevin Owens would go on to become a Universal champion. Not only has the IC title become complacent among the “runners up” to the main event scene it has also lost its ability to create that next big star. I’d love to tell you the US title has been treated a little bit better during that same time period, unfortunately it’s been hot-potatoed nearly as much as it’s little sister 24/7 championship.
But I ask, is it too late to salvage the IC title and return it to its once valued prestige? In all honesty, I’m about 60/40 on it. But if you take my 60% and add my alter ego’s 50%, the chances drastic go down….not doing Steiner math, stop, stop!...Ok, where I was I? The problem with a company having a multitude of championships is, logically, if I can’t win one I’ll just go try for another! And that seems to be the case once someone leaves the World title scene. On top of that, when someone of the undercard rises to mid-card title claim they are often overlooked. Viewed as walking in shoes too big to fill because we’ve grown used to seeing some of the bigger names reclaim the title whenever they want. Remember Luke Harper’s reign as IC champion? Neither do I. Perhaps if some of the beloved workhorses of 205 Live graduate from the program and are gifted the opportunity to compete for and even hold the IC belt for a Honky Tonk Man-like reign We shall see. Couple that with this year’s KOTR match quality then we might have something to believe in.
There ARE future stars and there always will be. Aleister Black, Ali, Buddy Murphy, Ricochet, Andrade, Drew freaking McIntyre, The NXT roster. Don’t let them dwindle with transitional title runs or propel them to the main event scene far before they should be. It may be a rebuilding phase but let the IC title grow back to prominence with the future of the roster as it has once before.
