10 WWE Stars Who Saved The Intercontinental Title

2. Rey Mysterio, Jr.

kevin owens ic title
WWE.com

After Benjamin's first title reign, the Intercontinental Title fell back into a state of flux. While talented stars like Jeff Hardy, Umaga, and Kofi Kingston would all hold the championship, it was once again no guarantee of future success.

The title looked to be on the way back up when CM Punk won it, but he was soon beaten by John Bradshaw Layfield. JBL lost the title to Rey Mysterio in a 21-second match at WrestleMania 25, and from there, the belt was back on its way to prominence.

Mysterio wasn't a long-running or particularly successful champion, but he soon entered into what was arguably the last great Intercontinental Championship feud.

Mysterio was singled out by Chris Jericho (who was in the midst of his career-redefining heel run), and the two former world champions engaged in a program that became extremely heated. Jericho won the belt when he pulled off Mysterio's mask and rolled him up, then the two met in a title versus mask rematch.

Mysterio beat Jericho to win the title back, then defended it in an underrated program with Dolph Ziggler before a Wellness Policy violation and 60-day suspension forced him to drop it to John Morrison.

In this post: 
Kevin Owens
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013