Should WWE merge the Intercontinental and US titles?

Big E Langston and Dean Ambrose

In the case of the mid card titles in WWE, the WWE Intercontinental and United States Championships, fusing the two struggling entities could create a strong, singular one.

It is always painful to say goodbye to history and there is inertia towards change, but the potential of having a new title which people look forward to be defended would add a lot of interest among all.

WWE clearly doesn’t have the space on its schedule for both titles. Those champions get bypassed too often to keep their titles relevant. Over a decade after Edge unified the U.S. and IC titles by beating Test at Survivor Series 2001, it’s time to repeat that piece of history.

The prestige of both championships can’t be maintained when they aren’t defended regularly. Once pay-per-views are filled with world title bouts, grudge matches, comic relief and tag team clashes, there is time and time again not enough room for the midcard champs. The company focuses so much on the top of the card that the United States and IC champions don’t get enough airtime.

Too often the so called champions are sitting on the bench when the PPVs are going on. The fact that Dean Ambrose has not defended the title in a 2014 PPV although he was a part of all of them says a lot about it.

Dean Ambrose is left off so many shows as the US Champion that it was easy to forget he was champ, he comes off more as a regular shield member. Cesaro, as the US champion back last year, couldn’t make it to WrestleMania 29.

Sometimes carrying a title only managed to get a titleholder to the pre-show of a pay-per-view. The then intercontinental champion Wade Barrett face The Miz on the pre-show(and still titles changed hands), Ambrose battle Rob Van Dam before SummerSlam 2013 and since then he has only faced Mark Henry and was unable to get a clean result. The match ended in DQ after other shield members came in.

Another problem with midcard titles are the lack of challengers and the supposed lack of interest among the challengers themselves towards the title. The champions are more often booked for non title feuds and end up jobbing to the big guns. There are no real challengers in the sense, the challengers who have risen through ranks to challenge for the title.

A prime example is the current Intercontinental champion, Big E. E came in a feud with Paul Heyman and out of nowhere he started the feud with the then intercontinental champion, Curtis Axel. A week later he won the title on free Television. With so many moving parts on any given Raw or SmackDown, the midcard champs are given too few stories and too few rivals. Their title bouts end up being uninspired as a result.

Dean Ambrose has had only 3 successful title defenses of which one was the mark henry match which again had no story to it.

That’s not the route to prestige nor is it the way to honor those championships’ history.

Top championship(s) and two midcard belts that are at the same or about the same level made sense when WWE was split into two distinct brands. Raw could have the WWE and U.S. titles while SmackDown featured the World Heavyweight Championship ,which is currently held with the WWE title, and the IC title.

It’s harder to balance all four belts now that the brands have become one. WWE took the right step with the unification of the two top titles. It led to some intriguing television and was also needed to maintain the pecking order at the main event.

The Intercontinental Championship once swallowed the European Championship; it appears that it is time for it to feast again. A championship which is just a tier below the main championship, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, can actually serve better to the fans and the superstars and would benefit all.

To place better focus on a single midcard champ, to simplify and improve the midcard in general, either Ambrose or Big E’s title must similarly fall prey to WWE evolution.

Edge