Talking Points: The Last Great Intercontinental Championship Reign
I haven't done a Talking Points segment in a while, so I wanted to do one just to change things up. This is an article I've been meaning to do for a while, for a number of reasons. One: the Intercontinental Championship no longer means as much as it used to do. Remember the days of Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, The Rock, Triple H, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin? Those were the days when the title meant something. Now, even though it's the second-most prestigious title in sports entertainment, it really doesn't feel like it. The IC title was seen as a stepping stone to the World title picture, but those days have passed us by. Two: we don't see a lot of great reigns these days. Think about it: the last great WWE/WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign was CM Punk's 434 day reign from 2011-2013.
So what makes a great title reign? It's hard to define exactly, but there are some defining characteristics. One, the title must be a long one. It's hard to make an impact in a short reign. Second, the champion has to be positioned in a key role. A champion who isn't portrayed by the WWE as a star doesn't help anyone. Third, the champion must win consistently. A champion who constantly loses just hurts the title. Fourth, the champion must do great work with the title. If the champion is doing lackluster work with the championship, that can't be part of a great reign. Fifth, the title reign must elevate the champion and the belt itself. After all, isn't that what a title reign is supposed to do? Now that we've laid down the guidelines for a great reign, let's identify the last great Intercontinental Championship reign.
So what is the last great IC title reign? Come on, I'm not going to just tell you. You'll have to read on for that. We're going to go through each IC title reign of the last six years until we find the special reign we're looking for.
We start with the current Intercontinental Champion: Bad News Barrett. This could go on to actually be a great reign, but the fact that it's less than a month old automatically disqualifies it from contention. This is also the reason we throw out the reigns before that: Dolph Ziggler's reign and Luke Harper's reign. The reign before that was another reign from Ziggler. It was actually shaping up to be a great reign. It originated from the surprisingly entertaining Miz/Ziggler feud, featured some very good matches (including Ziggler's successful defense against Cesaro at Hell in a Cell, and was shown as one of the top faces in WWE when he was involved in the Cena/Authority feud. Unfortunately, the reign only lasted 56 days, so this does not count as a great reign.
The three reigns before that (which alternated between Miz and Ziggler) were all too short to be considered great. Miz won the title at Battleground after Barrett was forced to vacate the title due to injury. Barrett's reign had the potential to be great, as he was really over with the crowd and doing great in-ring and mic work. Oh, what could have been. Barrett took the title off Big E, who held the title for 167 days. Length-wise, that certainly qualifies as a great reign, but the former NXT Champion didn't have a great reign. He was really over when he first picked up the title, but cooled off over time. He didn't have any great matches and didn't look great in either the Rumble match or the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The reign before that was Curtis Axel's only IC title run. Like Big E's reign, the reign was of good length (155 days), but the reign failed to elevate Axel. As soon as he dropped the title to Big E, he slipped down the ranks.
Prior to Axel winning the title, it was traded off between The Miz and Wade Barrett. They had three reigns between them, with the last two combining for 70 days. The first reign, the second IC title reign of Barrett's career, lasted 99 days, but is fairly unremarkable. We're going to disregard the last five reigns (belonging to Kofi Kingston, The Miz, Christian, Cody Rhodes, and Big Show) because they were all forgettable. That takes us to the longest reign of the last decade: the reign of Cody Rhodes from August 2011 to April 2012.You would think that this qualifies for a great reign, but it doesn't. It obviously was long enough, and Rhodes was a Survivor at Survivor Series, but there's not much besides that. He had only three successful PPV defenses: against Ted DiBiase at Night of Champions (this was not even announced prior to the event), against John Morrison at Hell in a Cell (this match was not announced before-hand either), and against Booker T at TLC (and Rhodes attacked Booker before the match). He did have a great performance in the Rumble match and did compete inside the Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship, but didn't have any great matches. Also, he lost a feud to Randy Orton, and that feud was based off the fact that Rhodes was not satisfied by being IC Champ, he also wanted the WHC. Finally, Rhodes was not elevated by this feud. He should have been competing for the World Heavyweight Championship, but the closest he got was a Money in the Bank Ladder match. In fact, Rhodes has not competed in a World title match since losing the IC title. So, his reign does not qualify as a great reign.
Rhodes won the title from Ezekiel Jackson, who held the title for only 51 days, so that's obviously not a great reign. Jackson won the title from former stablemate Wade Barrett, who did not look like a big star at all during his reign. Barrett won the title from Kingston, who lost constantly while champion. However, he did end the last great Intercontinental Championship reign. Yes, it's finally time to reveal the big winner. The last great IC title reign belonged to... Dolph Ziggler. That's right, The Showoff can lay claim to the last great IC title reign. Let's see how his reign stacks up against the requirements. Length? 160 days is great. Positioned in a key role? Ziggler was aligned with Vickie Guerrero and the two were one of the biggest heels on Smackdown at the time. Also, at the time of the Bragging Rights PPV (remember that?), Ziggler was rightly portrayed as one of the most important guys on the Smackdown roster. Win consistently? Check, including multiple successful PPV title defenses, including a Triple Threat Ladder match at TLC against Jack Swagger and Kingston. Great work? Major check, as his match with Daniel Bryan at Bragging Rights was one of the best matches of the year. Were Ziggler and the belt elevated? Yes, because as soon as Ziggler lost the title, he was elevated into a feud with Edge over the WHC (he even won the belt in February). This also elevated the IC title, as it was shown as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
So there you have it. The last great Intercontinental Championship reign started in 2010. That was the 128th reign in the history of the IC title. The current reign is #150. There's clearly a problem if more than 30 reigns are seen as unimportant. Every single reign doesn't have to be important, but this gap is ridiculous. If there's one thing we've learned from this, it's that the WWE needs to focus on restoring prestige to its championships.
So what makes a great title reign? It's hard to define exactly, but there are some defining characteristics. One, the title must be a long one. It's hard to make an impact in a short reign. Second, the champion has to be positioned in a key role. A champion who isn't portrayed by the WWE as a star doesn't help anyone. Third, the champion must win consistently. A champion who constantly loses just hurts the title. Fourth, the champion must do great work with the title. If the champion is doing lackluster work with the championship, that can't be part of a great reign. Fifth, the title reign must elevate the champion and the belt itself. After all, isn't that what a title reign is supposed to do? Now that we've laid down the guidelines for a great reign, let's identify the last great Intercontinental Championship reign.
So what is the last great IC title reign? Come on, I'm not going to just tell you. You'll have to read on for that. We're going to go through each IC title reign of the last six years until we find the special reign we're looking for.
We start with the current Intercontinental Champion: Bad News Barrett. This could go on to actually be a great reign, but the fact that it's less than a month old automatically disqualifies it from contention. This is also the reason we throw out the reigns before that: Dolph Ziggler's reign and Luke Harper's reign. The reign before that was another reign from Ziggler. It was actually shaping up to be a great reign. It originated from the surprisingly entertaining Miz/Ziggler feud, featured some very good matches (including Ziggler's successful defense against Cesaro at Hell in a Cell, and was shown as one of the top faces in WWE when he was involved in the Cena/Authority feud. Unfortunately, the reign only lasted 56 days, so this does not count as a great reign.
The three reigns before that (which alternated between Miz and Ziggler) were all too short to be considered great. Miz won the title at Battleground after Barrett was forced to vacate the title due to injury. Barrett's reign had the potential to be great, as he was really over with the crowd and doing great in-ring and mic work. Oh, what could have been. Barrett took the title off Big E, who held the title for 167 days. Length-wise, that certainly qualifies as a great reign, but the former NXT Champion didn't have a great reign. He was really over when he first picked up the title, but cooled off over time. He didn't have any great matches and didn't look great in either the Rumble match or the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. The reign before that was Curtis Axel's only IC title run. Like Big E's reign, the reign was of good length (155 days), but the reign failed to elevate Axel. As soon as he dropped the title to Big E, he slipped down the ranks.
Prior to Axel winning the title, it was traded off between The Miz and Wade Barrett. They had three reigns between them, with the last two combining for 70 days. The first reign, the second IC title reign of Barrett's career, lasted 99 days, but is fairly unremarkable. We're going to disregard the last five reigns (belonging to Kofi Kingston, The Miz, Christian, Cody Rhodes, and Big Show) because they were all forgettable. That takes us to the longest reign of the last decade: the reign of Cody Rhodes from August 2011 to April 2012.You would think that this qualifies for a great reign, but it doesn't. It obviously was long enough, and Rhodes was a Survivor at Survivor Series, but there's not much besides that. He had only three successful PPV defenses: against Ted DiBiase at Night of Champions (this was not even announced prior to the event), against John Morrison at Hell in a Cell (this match was not announced before-hand either), and against Booker T at TLC (and Rhodes attacked Booker before the match). He did have a great performance in the Rumble match and did compete inside the Elimination Chamber for the World Heavyweight Championship, but didn't have any great matches. Also, he lost a feud to Randy Orton, and that feud was based off the fact that Rhodes was not satisfied by being IC Champ, he also wanted the WHC. Finally, Rhodes was not elevated by this feud. He should have been competing for the World Heavyweight Championship, but the closest he got was a Money in the Bank Ladder match. In fact, Rhodes has not competed in a World title match since losing the IC title. So, his reign does not qualify as a great reign.
Rhodes won the title from Ezekiel Jackson, who held the title for only 51 days, so that's obviously not a great reign. Jackson won the title from former stablemate Wade Barrett, who did not look like a big star at all during his reign. Barrett won the title from Kingston, who lost constantly while champion. However, he did end the last great Intercontinental Championship reign. Yes, it's finally time to reveal the big winner. The last great IC title reign belonged to... Dolph Ziggler. That's right, The Showoff can lay claim to the last great IC title reign. Let's see how his reign stacks up against the requirements. Length? 160 days is great. Positioned in a key role? Ziggler was aligned with Vickie Guerrero and the two were one of the biggest heels on Smackdown at the time. Also, at the time of the Bragging Rights PPV (remember that?), Ziggler was rightly portrayed as one of the most important guys on the Smackdown roster. Win consistently? Check, including multiple successful PPV title defenses, including a Triple Threat Ladder match at TLC against Jack Swagger and Kingston. Great work? Major check, as his match with Daniel Bryan at Bragging Rights was one of the best matches of the year. Were Ziggler and the belt elevated? Yes, because as soon as Ziggler lost the title, he was elevated into a feud with Edge over the WHC (he even won the belt in February). This also elevated the IC title, as it was shown as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
So there you have it. The last great Intercontinental Championship reign started in 2010. That was the 128th reign in the history of the IC title. The current reign is #150. There's clearly a problem if more than 30 reigns are seen as unimportant. Every single reign doesn't have to be important, but this gap is ridiculous. If there's one thing we've learned from this, it's that the WWE needs to focus on restoring prestige to its championships.
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