The Champion of Crap – The Remix
After pondering the idea of an Intercontinental Championship and what exactly that means, I have decided to remix the original column I published on January 4th.
The Intercontinental Champion is often held in high regard.
Why?
A champion by definition is the best. In the case of the IC title it states that you are the best of what? The best woman holds the Women’s Championship. The best wrestler under 216lbs. is the Cruiserweight Champion. The best in the business is the World Champion. The name of the IC title itself declares that you are the best in North and South America. OK. However, how is it possible to be the best in this region when the World Champion is supposed to be the best in the world?
The debate of a continent based champion may not help solve world hunger but to a wrestle head it is a reasonable topic to argue.
Let us examine the Raw roster where the Intercontinental Championship is regularly defended. The top ten wrestlers (measured in TV wins, ii no particular order) would include: HHH, Batista, Orton, Benoit, Jericho, Edge, Eugene, Benjamin, HBK, and Christian.
Out of these ten Superstars, most of you would likely rank Batista (has he ever won a pay per view match one on one?), Eugene and Shelton Benjamin towards the bottom in terms of accomplishments. The other seven have accomplished a lot more over a longer period of time than the three aforementioned. It is somewhat strange then that one of the bottom three would be champion. Again, champion is defined as the best. We all know that the IC title is used as a stepping stone towards the world title but maybe this division should be defined.
Maven, Hurricane, Rhyno, Steven Richards, Val Venis and the rest of the Heat crew could make up the Intercontinental division. Some may argue that they already do, but why not define it as such?
Part of the reason that wrestling lacks mainstream appeal is that there is very little logic to booking. Some wrestlers appear in main events with no prior success. Career jobbers suddenly win titles (Bradshaw and Funaki). Many tag teams have earned the right to be the called the best after one match together.
By not defining the Intercontinental division the WWE is leaving themselves open to a weird and suspect system of “competition.” . What defines the Intercontinental Champion as the best? Are they the best that has yet to main event? What defines them. I challenge a reader to send in an answer that makes sense.
This again is not a debate for those interested in devising a way to end world hunger but an answer seems necessary.
The fact that the Intercontinental title is absolutely a piece of crap does not diminish the accomplishments of those that have fought and held the title. But please spare us of your impotent cries of foul once you have read this. HBK was former IC title holder. The man is a legend. The title did not do that for him though. Yes, he had a great match against Razor Ramon for the strap, but I can count hundreds of great matches where there was no title involved, many of these include the great Shawn Michaels as well. Remember the IC title has been held by some less than stellar performers, too. Albert, Test, Chyna, and Jeff Jarret.
The Bottom Line: The WWE and its fans would be best severved in a few ways. 1. Create a mid card division that is treated as a real division. 2. Rank the wrestlers. No more surprise title matches. 3. Log televised wins and losses for singles and tem wrestlers.
Unless these things happen the championship known as the Intercontinental Championship is and forever will be the Crap Championship.
