The Intercontinental Championship is a delicate flower, and as such, it deserves to be treated with respect. Unfortunately, the WWE have a hit and miss relationship with respecting title belts, so the credibility of the secondary title has taken some serious shots to the head over the last few years. Seriously, it hasn’t been pretty.
Over the course of the last seven years, the belt has changed hands an astronomical amount of times, which is hardly surprising given the nature of creative’s booking. Thankfully, there have been a couple of highlights amongst all the rubble, most notably The Miz and Cody Rhodes, but the lows far outweigh the highs on this occasion.
The problem that many will have with this list is that the Superstars involved are all incredibly talented, but the title switch in question just didn’t make sense at the time. They’ve all found a degree of success outside of these moments, but it does beg the question of “what were they thinking?” when we look back on these shambolic decisions. Oh well, at least Roman gets to keep looking strong right? Right?
With all of that being said, here are the five worst IC Title changes since 2010.
#1 Ezekiel Jackson – Capitol Punishment 2011
Ezekiel Jackson appeared to be doomed from the start, with the former Corre member being thrust into positions that he just wasn’t quite ready for. Case and point: Jackson defeated former mentor Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship at one of the most pointless PPVs in history: Capitol Punishment.
They rushed the break up of the stable because of its lack of success, which meant that they felt pressured into pushing the muscle of the group way too quickly. This felt like a severely watered down version of the Batista/Triple H dynamic from back in 2005, and thankfully Cody Rhodes ended this title reign before it gained any real momentum.
Also read: 5 greatest Intercontinental Champions of all time
#2 The Miz – WrestleMania 29
WrestleMania 29 wasn’t a great pay per view in many ways, with the treatment of the IC Title at the show being a prime example of that. It had been heavily rumoured that Wade Barrett would defend the belt against his former mentor Chris Jericho, which almost certainly would’ve been a better outcome than what we got.
A babyface Miz, which is instantly ridiculous, defeated Barrett in a subpar match on the pre-show. What’s worse is that Barrett won it straight back on the Raw after Mania, making the entire exercise positively ridiculous. Seriously, what did they think they’d achieve by doing this?
#3 Dean Ambrose – SmackDown 2017
The Miz as Intercontinental Champion was best for business in 2016, and the same should’ve been said for the start of 2017. Following a brief intergender feud, which was alright at best, Dean Ambrose won the strap on the first SmackDown Live episode in the new year. Looking back, we think we were fairly justified in hating the decision.
Ambrose did positively nothing with the belt, losing it back to The Awesome One around six months later. It begs the question of why did it happen in the first place because Miz’s program with Cena would’ve felt even bigger if it had the IC Title in it. It didn’t make sense, and unfortunately, our Miz-related entries don’t stop there.
#4 Kofi Kingston – Main Event 2012
Kofi Kingston and mid card titles equal mediocrity, which is a shame because he could be a great upper midcarder if allowed to showcase his New Day-esque personality. Unfortunately back in 2012, he was just another face in the crowd, which made this move even more surprising and all the more insulting.
Kofi managed to defeat the Miz, capturing his fourth Intercontinental Title. The worst part of it all, though, was that it happened on Main Event. Yup, the same Main Event that has been used as a pointless C-level show where jobbers can feel as if they’re contributing to the weekly product. It was a dumb move that was done purely to try and spike ratings.
#5 Wade Barrett – Raw 2015
Wade Barrett seemed to be cursed when it came to the IC title because every single time he held it, the Englishman seemed to suffer as a result. An example of how one of these reigns started came in 2015 when Barrett defeated Dolph Ziggler in a two-out-of-three falls match (a stipulation added by Corporate Kane) to become the champion.
Not only was a giant throwaway for storyline purposes, but it also made a mockery of yet another Ziggler title reign. The belt fell into a hot potato sort of routine, with the defeat marking the third time that good old Ziggles had lost the title in a span of just under four months. Embarrassing would be a dramatic understatement.
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