The Intercontinental Title: What Comes Next?

So in a horrible case of deja vu, last night saw Daniel Bryan turn up on Raw and hand over his Intercontinental Title because of injury.  Nearly a year on from him doing the exact same thing with the World Title, this somehow feels even worse.  Two major injuries so close together suggest that Bryan’s body might not be able to keep going and you can’t help but worry that his career is drawing to a close.  However, as I am not Bryan’s doctor and even if I was would be completely unqualified to talk about whether his injury was career threatening, that’s not what we will focus on here.  Instead, lets take a look at the IC Title.

It’s no secret that the IC Title has taken a bit of a beating over the last few years.  Being hot potatoed around mid card wrestlers and at times seemingly forgotten full stop.  Wade Barrett is already a five time IC Title champion, now I like Barrett, but the only people who have held it more times are Y2J, Jeff Jarrett and RVD.  Barrett should not be at that stage already.  It needs a makeover and the general opinion seemed to be that by putting it on Bryan, that was exactly what they were trying to do.

Which made perfect sense, Bryan could have brought the title back to its roots as the wrestler’s title.  The man shits out great matches before breakfast and if things had gone to plan he would be involved in feuds with the likes of Barrett, Sheamus and so on and would probably be stealing the show week in, week out.  We are seeing with the US Title how easy it can be to start rebuilding a title, defend it on a regular basis in good matches and people will start to care.

However, Bryan is now gone.  So where do we go to now?  How do we decide who holds the IC Title next?  Well lets start with how it shouldn’t happen.  No one should be handed the title, it shouldn’t be won in a Battle Royal and it probably shouldn’t be done in some storyless multi-man encounter.  All of those are just shorthand ways of getting the belt onto someone else and quickly as possible, they don’t do anything for the belt and if anything devalue it instantly.

So what do they do?  If it wasn’t for the fact they have only recently held a King in the Ring tournament then I think it would be obvious, a tournament makes perfect sense.  However, you do wonder whether WWE would want to do the same again, particularly with it likely to be the same men involved.  Despite that issue, I still think it is the way to go.  To distinguish it from KOTR however, I think you set it up for one PPV.  Have people wrestle multiple matches in one night and it will feel like real wrestling, because in a strange way WWE has actually protected the idea that a man who can go out and do it twice in one night, is worthy of anything he achieves.

Importantly however, to make this tournament work you need to make people care about.  Therefore, they can’t fill it with all the crap they usually do.  Adam Rose and Fandango should stay far away and if R Truth is even let into the building then it is pointless from the start.  You need real wrestlers involved who have a connection with the crowd.  You need Sheamus, Neville, Barrett and Ziggler (all who are conveniently feuding together already) and you need guys who can go with them.  Let the likes of Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and co go out and put on great matches.  A PPV packed with quality matches between quality wrestlers will make the IC Title seem important again.  It’s really as simple as that.

Of course, relying on WWE to do the simple thing is like relying on the weather in Scotland, it’s never going to work.  The IC Title should be the jewel in the crown of the WWE mid-card, but with Bryan’s injuries scuppering their plans, lets pray that it doesn’t go back to being the joke it so often has become.