10 Great WWE Championship Reigns (That Ended In The Worst Way Possible)

6. The Honky Tonk Man - WWF Intercontinental Championship

Honky Tonk Man Intercontinental Championship
WWE.com

It was either a fantastic end to an iconic championship reign or the dud of all duds, it is difficult to tell. The Honky Tonk Man divides opinion in general, eliciting grunts of disgust or nostalgic adoration, depending on who you ask. Honky was a huge character at a time when WWE was all about characters, a legendary performer who was all style, no real substance. Yes, the Elvis stuff was great, but the matches? Largely humdrum.

The Honky Tonk Man is the great shadow that lingers of the history of the Intercontinental Championship, which is saying something when you take into account how cursed that belt is. After defeating Ricky Steamboat for the championship, Honky held onto it (by any means necessary) for a whopping 454 days. He was arguably the weakest champion in the title’s history, losing the vast majority of his matches by count-out or disqualification.

454 days of eye-rolling defences came to an end at SummerSlam 1988. After Brutus ‘The Barber’ Beefcake was sidetracked by Ron Bass, Honky was left with the prospect of a mystery opponent. The ‘TBA’ turned out to be The Ultimate Warrior, and it took Warrior all of 31 seconds to end the longest Intercontinental Championship reign in history, a record that still stands today. Booking genius or a lazy payoff? You either remember the relief of Warrior winning or the disappointment at Honky holding the title hostage only to drop it in a flash.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.