Anybody else bothered that the prestige of the Intercontinental Belt keeps sinking ?

I definetely think that the Intercontinental title has lost alot of its prestige and needs to improve. I like Santino as well, but I agree that his gimmick will grow stale soon, if it hasn't already.

One of the big problems, and this extends to the United States championship on Smackdown, is that WWE focus so much on their two big world championships, that there really isn't that much screen time for anything else. The fans are always blasted with so much over-exposure to the main events that many of them end up not caring that much for anything else in WWE.

I know that its the big names like John Cena, Triple H and Batista that sell tickets and result in pay-per-view buys, but the overall product would be way better and much more balanced if they spread the focus around a bit. Obviously they should still concentrate primarily on the main events, but they should at least try to put some emphasis on the secondary titles.

If they ever do get around to doing that, and that's a big if, they have the talent on both shows to build two credible mid-card divisions that people would want to see. Kind of like the X-Division on TNA, only in WWE. For example, on RAW, you could have guys like Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, D-Lo Brown, Santino Marella, Jamie Noble, William Regal and heck, you could even make the arguement of CM Punk, although I think he's an ideal guy who can shift between the IC and World title pictures, that are all capable of being good Intercontinental champions. Another benifit to having a strong Intercontinental division is that it's a good way to build guys up that you want to push into the main event picture.

On Smackdown, there's even better guys. MVP, Shelton Benjamin, R-Truth, Chavo Geurraro, Umaga and even guys like Jeff Hardy and Mr. Kennedy, two others that I think can be world champions, could have a superstar U.S. division.

I'd love for that to happen. It really wouldn't take that much effort to do. By establishing distinct divisions and putting talented guys in them, they could have awsome IC and US titles without taking anything away from the world championships.

They should stop changing hands every now and then, and put effort into the feuds, make video promo's/compilation's to show they care, then we might as well. 1) Have a main eventer hold it. Somebody with prestige, not somebody like Punk who isn't fully established, but maybe somebody like Orton. That would also bring the IC to a higher "level" along with the other stars. 2) Have effort for the promo's, etc, and cut more segments. 3) Make it mean something, have tournaments, best of ?, etc. 4) Have a MITB winner cash in on that. 5) Like the "Day of Reckoning 2" storyline, have something happen to the WWE Championship (stolen, broken, etc) and thus, the IC title becomes #1, but all the midcarders are Main Eventers until the title is found by 1 midcarder (who the WWE choose to push into the Main Event). BQ: No, the IC champ once headlined, and won, against the WWF champ (Ultimate Warrior def. Hogan), if a midcarder (judging by the title) can headline WrestleMania (in a PG era) then that is a lot of prestige considering the IC is barely opening the show after horrible Tag matches. BQ2: No, unless they use main eventers to bring it up. The prestige that was there 20 years ago won't be there again.

I think the fact that the WWE is cheapening the value of the IC belt is simply an indication of the direction the WWE as a whole is going. The WWE has a lot of good wrestlers but the majority of them are not allowed to wrestle to their fullest potential so they seem mediocre compared to legends of the past such as Owen Hart, The Honky Tonk Man, Ricky Steamboat and Mr. Perfect.

Also it doesn't help that the WWE seems to choose the more entertaining wrestler to hold the belt rather than the best wrestler. In a perfect world, a man like Jamie Noble or Paul London would be holding the belt by now. But it's not a perfect world. It's the WWE.

I totally agree with you. The IC title hasn't had any decent matches in quite a while. It's all done with some type of humorous storyline, which I don't mind...but you have to have wrestling matches also. IMO the US title has surpassed as the IC title as the second title to win besides the World titles.

I understand Santino is funny and he attracts the fans attention, but make a wrestling match..or else the title becomes a joke.

Yeah, I'm bothered by it.

I mean the IC belt is obviously the second biggest title to earn on RAW and there was a time when it was treated like it.

The IC belt was held by top guys in the business and now it seems to be laughed upon and dealt as a low card, up and coming talent title.

All prestige of it is simply being spat on by the WWE,

I like Santino but he's so far been shown as nothing more than a comedian and now he's given the title to make people laugh, Therefore people look down on the title and think nothing more of it.

i agree with you 100%.. the credibility of the belt has indeed faded in great extent & i don't think people still see it as something of enormous value unlike before.. i also have nothing against santino but i think the wwe should orchestrate a match that would feature him(santino) against an equally popular yet credible wrestler & have them do a remarkable match & maybe by doing so, it'll be a good start in reclaiming the IC belt's lost glory..

I agree WWE has destroyed most of the credibility of the belt it should be taken more seriously i mean it can have a pretty good divison with likes of kofi,dlo brown,charlie haas,regal jamie noble, kane, mysterio ted dibase,cody can even come in the picture hell even cm punk WWE chooses not to use good talent and make the ic title a joke which really pisses me off

Yes it is, 15 years ago the IC title was the second most prestigious title it usually meant that the wrestler was worthy of being the world champ but now they just put it on anyone who is willing to take it.

Yes, the WWE is making the IC a joke (And not saying he is a bad wrestler and bad on the mic) but look who is holding it one of the goofiest jobbers in the WWE.

The only good thing about the "Honk-O-Meter" is that it acknowledges at least 3 former great I-C champions.

Other than that,yes, it's getting stale.