Another year in WWE, and another year of woe for the Intercontinental Championship. Wade Barrett defeated Dolph Ziggler at the beginning of January for the strap to begin his fifth reign as champion, and one thing we've learnt about Barrett is that when he holds the classic belt nothing good can come of it. The same was true this year, as a number of superstars stole the belt from Barrett. Along with the losing streak gimmick this is another trope WWE seems to go to that benefits nobody. The babyfaces look ridiculous having to steal a championship rather than winning it, and the belt itself is devalued constantly. All of this led to a seven man ladder match at WrestleMania that proved to be very entertaining, with Daniel Bryan coming out on top. Once again there was renewed optimism for the strap, only for that to be snuffed out when Bryan was injured once more. Once more up in the air, the IC Title was won by Ryback in an Elimination Chamber match. Ryback entered a nothing feud with Big Show and Miz, and promptly got injured himself. Now, injuries in such circumstances are bad luck, but WWE's continual inability to properly book this championship is now beyond a joke. It is especially frustrating considering how well the United States title was booked for most of the year, although it being in the hands of John Cena surely helped. Kevin Owens currently holds the Intercontinental Championship, and the usual optimism for it begins again. Owens is the sort of performer who can truly re-establish the strap, but I wouldn't bet against WWE botching the booking of its secondary championship once more in 2016.
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.
