During most of our childhoods, the intercontinental championship meant lot and it was considered at one point the second most important championship in WWE, however, this is not the case anymore. There are many factors to this and why such a prestigious title got to this point.
One of the first factors that led to the intercontinental championship to be considered unimportant and later worthless is the booking of the championship during the Attitude Era. For those who don’t remember, the IC title, as well as most titles during this era were pretty much hot potatoes. It also didn’t help that the top talents were focused on the world title than the IC championship.
Another reason was the introduction of the World Heavyweight championship back in ’02. WWE having two world titles and the state the IC championship was during that point were the end of the IC championship as a major title in WWE.
Many wrestlers over the years tried to elevate the IC championship, but at the end of the day, the perception of being a secondary title and not on the same level as the two world titles was never going to change.
Nowadays, some people fall in the trap of thinking an IC championship run is a push. That hasn’t been the case for the longest time, let’s look at Ricochet’s case: He barely got any TV time and for that matter PPV matches. Ricochet’s IC push was non-existent.
The IC stopped meaning something a long time ago, but we as wrestling fans hold that championship to a high standard WWE doesn’t think the IC championship belongs to. IC championship will never be a major title in WWE again.
