10 Things We Don't Miss About WWE's Attitude Era
4. Massive Title Devaluation
In 1999 alone, there were no less than eleven Intercontinental champions.
With the belt changing hands at a rough rate of once per month, the belt became little more than a prop. It was demonstrably easy to wrest away from whomever was holding it at the time, and it lost the prized aura it took the likes of Bret Hart and Razor Ramon years to establish. Ratings were of paramount importance back in those days - title switches seemed to occur with such frequency purely to promote an environment in which anything could conceivably happen. With an increasingly meaningless title switch never too far away, the company's secondary title was devalued as part of an entrapment tactic.
Compounding matters further, the likes of the Godfather were awarded runs with the IC strap in its turn of the millennium malaise. P*ss-poor match quality only weakened the lustre of a once-legendary championship, which was even physically downgraded with an ugly redesign.
The WWF title fared even worse, changing hands twelve times in the same calendar year. At least those who held it were (mostly) a deep cut above the likes of Road Dogg.