A return to intercontinental glory?

In late 2008, when William Regal was the champion, they set up an Intercontinental tournament to see who would face him for the title. This was an effort to help restore the prestige to the title that has been lost in recent years. It made for some quality matches involving both new and old talent which made people think that this is something the wrestlers cared about again. CM Punk ended up winning the tournament and after a few meh matches on RAW against Regal was able to capture the title.

This was supposed to be the beginning of a return to greatness for the title. I was hoping for the current mid carders to really turn it up and put on some show stealing matches at pay per views, cut some quality promos on RAW, make themselves look like they could someday win the world or WWE title. It would be like how it used to be with the IC title being a stepping stone to the major championship. I tried to ignore the fact that the history of the IC title dvd set came out the same time the tournament took place, hoping this wasn't just a marketing scheme.

Instead CM Punk got a fashion accessory. He defended the title against Regal one more time which ended up being the blow off for the feud. After that he didn't defend it all, not on RAW or a pay per view. I still held out hope though knowing that Wrestlemania 25 is right around the corner. Perhaps this could be CM Punk's big moment to have a show stealing IC title match at Wrestlemania much like Savage Vs. Steamboat. He needs a high quality match for his career, in my opinion anyways. What better place for him to do it than the grandest stage of them all with the IC title on the line? It's a win win!

Instead he beats John Morrison and The Miz in a three way to qualify for the money in the bank match at Wrestlemania. Seriously? We just spent months talking about how important and prestigious the title is and then you have the current champion say to hell with it, I want the world/wwe title instead? That is the opposite of what you were trying to do! I look over at my IC title history DVD set and feel as if Vince got the drop on me.

More time goes by and I hope that maybe CM Punk will get into a feud with someone and drop out of the MITB match so he can defend the IC title at Mania 25. I begin to lose hope until I see that he will defend the IC belt against JBL on the 3/9/09 edition of RAW. I thought it was kind of an odd pairing but JBL did need a match for Mania so I had my fingers crossed. Instead of building a feud JBL just wins the title in another meh match. It was good in a way because now the IC champ wasn't in the MITB match...but JBL? I'll take anything at this point as long as we start getting some serious matches involving this belt.

Now my hopes and prayers rest in JBL's hands. Will JBL defend the IC title at Mania and maybe, just maybe, put on a stellar match? I certainly hope so for the sake of the title itself. It was supposed to be a return to greatness in recent months but it has only been a large reminder as to what is wrong with the IC title scene. It has become irrelevant in the eyes of the bookers. Which is sad due to the amount of young talent they could be prepping for the world/WWE title scene in the future. Maybe the bookers and writers should go watch the DVD set they just spent so much effort getting you to buy, maybe then they will get it.

May the wrestling god himself find a way to save it.