10 Instant Wrestling Title Devaluations

10. From Bret Hart...To The Mountie (WWF Intercontinental Title)

The Mountie was a comedy character who would electrocute his jobber opponents after defeating them, in what was an effective heat-seeking tactic.

It was nowhere near effective enough, though, to warrant a run with what was then one of the most prestigious titles in the history of wrestling. In an instant, the Intercontinental championship became something that made the wrestler - and not the other way around - casually and indirectly kickstarting a trend which would devalue the very nature of what it meant to become a titleholder in the WWF.

Up until this point, a wrestler would rarely be given a run with a title until they were sufficiently over to justify it.

He wasn't even permitted to wrestle as the Mountie character in his home country of Canada - he was enjoined from doing so - which just underlined the short-termism at the heart of the venture.

Luckily for the WWF, who relied on the Intercontinental Title as both a star-maker and a means of diversifying their cartoonish cards with serious match quality, the damage wasn't permanent.

The lustre was restored almost as quickly as it was stripped away - Hart would reclaim it via Roddy Piper before the title would enter yet another golden age, shaping the very future of the company by being contested in the first PPV ladder matches.