Decline of the Intercontinental Title

............and the US title as well.

Although in my opinion both these belts have been losing prestige for a long time now, it was evidently clear at this years Wrestlemania. The US Title was fought in a dark match, and the Intercontinental champion was involved in a bit part role in a match simply to showcase a celebrity.

I cannot pin point an exact time when the Intercontinental title started to go down drastically (maybe when Ric Flair won it a couple of years ago), but it is clear that it is not the stepping stone to the main 2 titles as it once was.

What with the Tag Team titles now being worth nothing (although this is simply to do with a lack of good tag teams), it does seem as if the WWE only has two significant titles.

Do you guys feel, for all the history that surrounds it, that the WWE should do away with the Intercontinental title if it is treated with so much disdain as it is currently? Or that the title still holds some power, and should be used to "try out" future headliners before the big push to the WWE and WH titles?

Do people maybe feel that the decline of the two titles is because of the general decline of the WWE?

There is more talking and acting nowadays than actual wrestling, to the point were it hurts every other area than the main two titles.

Everyone keeps banging on about the attitude era, but I love this era purely as all areas of the business, divas, tag titles, intercontinental etc were all well thought out.

I used to love as a kid the hardcore title when every week there used to be a brawl in some randomn area of the arena and outside just to win the title! Tag temas such as Edge and Christian and the Hardyz. All missing.

I feel that the reason for this is purely because the WWE now want to be "Entertainment", which sadly for the Wrestling fans, the current product is NOT entertaining at all.

The decline of the titles began when the WWE dropped single brand PPVs, they then had to put all their effort into pushing two World Titles and the other main eventers from both shows each month

Also, with 13 PPV's a month there isn't enough airtime to give to the IC/US titles. This means that while they may have good matches, feuds can rarely develop for these titles as they did back in the day when guys like Jericho and Benoit were competing for them.

Reading the RAW spoilers today I saw that Ziggler pinned Kofi in a non-title match.

Why not have these belts defended more regularly on RAW/SD like the TV title? At least we'd get decent matches out of them regularly, and they will never be what they once were.

No one wants to win the IC belt anymore - the WWE don't care who the champion is and if you have it, it is probably a hinderance to main eventing!

The only way to get it back to where it was once is to have top superstars actively going after the belt in lieu of WWE title shots, and actually building feuds around it. Otherwise, why should we care about it?

I'd unify the IC and the US then bring back the Light Heavyweight I'd also make the Tag Titles RAW only and bring back the 6 man Tag titles for SmackDown

I would go another route. Have one definitive World Title. Keep the Intercontinental and get rid of the US. And then bring back the Light Heavyweight.

That way you have 3 distinguishable levels.

You have 1 World Title then you have to end the brand split

xTwisTx wrote:I would go another route. Have one definitive World Title. Keep the Intercontinental and get rid of the US. And then bring back the Light Heavyweight.

That way you have 3 distinguishable levels.

They would / could only do that if they dropped the split brands and went back to the old system of Raw/SD with everyone competing on each show. It would be obvious which was the A show and which the B show if they didn't and you would see a major talent drain to the world title show as well if they didn't.

I do like the idea though, and I am sure most of the IWC do as well, but cannot see them actually doing it. Despite the pre-determined nature of the product many egos are built and fettered on the idea of holding belts and it would be much harder to push multiple faces without them. Then again it would just mean that the booking would have to be better.

I wouldn't get rid of the US belt though, I would have two mid card titles in the way there used to be the IC/European ones.

With the number of Luchadors coming into the WWE I think that they should reintroduce a cruiserweight / LH championship belt, but if doesn't mean that they will.

Vince has done all he can to direct the product at kids, all those kids know is the split brands and 2 World Champions, I'd say they'll consider changing that far to risky

While I would probably agree with you gaffer, I would like to play a bit of devil's advocate....

Cornette's 7 Year Rule came about because it was said that fan turnover was high enough that they didn't remember anything further back than that. As such it is not as if they have to protect long term, loyal fans as they will assume that once kids reach a certain age they will stop watching before potentially returning later in life. All the same a new generation without the knowledge of past events can come along to take over.

As such it would not be the biggest of leaps to to this, though it would require the kind of careful planning that I am not sure if the WWE is prepared to invest.

It would also require a huge storyline... maybe Rock v Cena at WMXXVIII? This could be for the undisputed title with the winner unifying the belts. A rivalry could build between the two GM's in the build up with the loser being forced to admit that their product cannot work without a world title and then is merged into the other.

With this there could be battles for the next few weeks with superstars from the losing show fighting to gain entry into the new single roster etc (though don't emphasise this too much beforehand as it would be rather cliched...)

The WWE dont do to much long term booking these days, I'd also say Vince McMahon wouldn't use Cornettes "7 year rule" as he wouldn't get credit for it, for this to happen the WWE would need to hire wrestling bookers instead of "weekly episodic drama" writers, I just don't see McMahon scrapping the WHC just to promote the IC Title, single brand PPVs are the only way to promote the lesser titles and with it making the brands as different as possible

The problem with the i.c belt,simple really.

because they have 2 world titles,ake away whc and the i.c belt will become more credible as would the u.s

There have been times when the mid-card belts have gotten better, only for them to lose all momentum. Think Jericho and Mysterio fighting for the Intercontinental title, they made it mean something, but it quickly fell back into obscurity when they left it.

It's been on the decline since 2006. For me it used to be that if you won it or actually contested a match for it that it was a sign that the superstar/s involved were of Mid-Card standard being groomed for a main event push in the future. Where it's died is where previous champions at main event level were being handed the title which for me robbed it of dignity because it has clearly a statement that the mid-card could not carry the title. At that time you had MVP, Ken Kennedy, Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley and the Hardy's that could've feuded for it for 18 months at least. Instead people like Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, JBL all holding the title as post WWE/Heavyweight championship reigns and it was silly.

legendkillar wrote:It's been on the decline since 2006. For me it used to be that if you won it or actually contested a match for it that it was a sign that the superstar/s involved were of Mid-Card standard being groomed for a main event push in the future. Where it's died is where previous champions at main event level were being handed the title which for me robbed it of dignity because it has clearly a statement that the mid-card could not carry the title. At that time you had MVP, Ken Kennedy, Shelton Benjamin, Bobby Lashley and the Hardy's that could've feuded for it for 18 months at least. Instead people like Ric Flair, Chris Jericho, JBL all holding the title as post WWE/Heavyweight championship reigns and it was silly.

I don't agree with that, the title was already in decline at that point and I think a push from a main eventer holding it was good for it, showed that it was still important to top guys. It wasn't people holding the title post-world championship reigns that was the problem, rather WWE didn't use this to give a push to a midcarder by having them beat the 'main eventer' for the title.