Since winning the Intercontinental Title in September, Dolph Ziggler has lost five televised one-on-one non-title matches. Before that, The Miz held the title for one day. When Miz won the title earlier in July, he lost both of his televised non-title one-on-one matches before dropping the title to Dolph a month later. And Curtis Axel? Yikes. He lost 10 matches (three of them to CM Punk alone). So what gives? When a top guy beats the Intercontinental Champion, they never ask for a rematch for the title. So why should fans ever take the title seriously if the wrestlers themselves don't? When someone becomes the new champ, why do they magically turn into a loser? The WWE Champion hasn't competed in two months, with no clear indication of when he'll defend the title again. By default, shouldn't the Intercontinental Title mean more now? How about when the World Heavyweight Title went away, shouldn't the Intercontinental Title have taken it's place in prestige? Nope. WWE gives us the same four or five guys in the main event every week. But if they simply treated the Intercontinental Title with more care, then they could have title defenses close out their shows. It's worked in the past for the company and there's no reason it couldn't work again, except for lack of trying.
As Rust Cohle from True Detective said "Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you're good at."
Sadly, I can't solve a murder like Rust...or change a tire, or even tie a tie. But I do know all the lyrics to Hulk Hogan's "Real American" theme song and can easily name every Natural Born Thriller from the dying days of WCW. I was once ranked 21st in the United States in Tetris...on the Playstation 3 version...for about a week.
Follow along @AndrewSoucek and check out my podcast at wrestlingwithfriends.com
