Ranking The Last 10 WWE Intercontinental Champions From Worst To Best

9. Shinsuke Nakamura

Sami Zayn Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

Some fans are going to get all antsy in their pantsies about Shinsuke Nakamura following Zack Ryder here, but his lengthy Intercontinental Title reign was by far the least invigorating for long-term fans of the secondary belt. Across his 201 days as champ, Naka defended the thing on TV exactly four times.

One of those was on the short Network special 'Smackville' (against Ali), one was at Clash Of Champions 2019 (The Miz), another came against Roman Reigns on an episode of SmackDown last October, and the fourth was that eventual loss to Braun Strowman in late-January.

Perhaps the only thing of note Shin did was debut a brand new design for the 40-year old title.

There's no denying that the belt suffered with him at the helm. His reign felt like a complete waste, and WWE directly failed to make the IC Title an important part of SmackDown's jump to FOX. In fact, it barely featured at all. That says everything.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.