10 Reasons Wrestling Will Never Ever Top The 90s
9. Titles Meant Something
It's hard to define what the Intercontinental Championship is in 2017.
The list of holders, read in descending order, is curious. Dean Ambrose, former WWE Heavyweight Champion, wears the gold at time of writing. When Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels and Steve Austin wore it before, in the midst of and after the WWF's much misunderstood New Generation era, it was a symbol of ascension and a seal of match quality. It allowed their fans to invest in them because it was a transmogrified promise. Ambrose wears it because his main event run was a failed experiment and he needs something to do. The title has gone literally backwards; it exists now as a symbol of regression.
It's almost as difficult to determine who is actually eligible for it. The Miz held it before Ambrose as some sort of half-hearted heater device. Zack Ryder was given a 24 hour run with the strap in 2016 as a social media PR stunt. In the year before that, the gold adorned the waists of Daniel Bryan and Ryback. With Bryan, the idea was to restore prestige to it in parallel with John Cena's United States belt.
When WWE tired of that - as they all too often do with too many ideas - it was awarded to Ryback under the misapprehension that it meant anything, that it was capable of restoring his damaged aura.