WrestleMania 28: 5 Reasons Cody Rhodes Must Lose the Intercontinental Title

Cody Rhodes will defend his Intercontinental Championship against The Big Show at WrestleMania 28, and most wrestling fans believe that the WWE will use this as an opportunity to put Rhodes over.

That was my initial belief, too. But the more I thought about it, the more I began to change my mind. 

While it would be good for Rhodes to get a win over an established veteran on the grand stage of WrestleMania, it might actually make more sense for him to lose the title instead.

Before you call me an idiot, let me explain to you why I think that.

Here are five reasons why Cody Rhodes must drop the Intercontinental title to The Big Show at WrestleMania 28.

 

5. To Give Someone Else a Run with It, Even If It's Not Big Show

Cody Rhodes has done the unthinkable and held the Intercontinental Championship for a whopping 219 days, which is the longest reign with that title since Shelton Benjamin held it for 244 days from October 2004 to June 2005.

It's time to give someone else a run with it.

I don't even care if it's The Big Show at WrestleMania 28 or someone else at some point down the road who takes that Intercontinental title away from Rhodes. The idea is still the same: Give a different superstar an opportunity to hold that belt and see what he does with it.

Plenty of superstars could use that title to reignite their careers, while someone like The Big Show could use it to help elevate some other young mid-card heels who are trying to rise up the ranks of the WWE.

The bottom line is that no one is going to hold onto any title forever, and Rhodes has held the Intercontinental title since last August. A title reign of that length rarely happens in today's WWE, and while it's nice to see, it also means that the time has come to move on.

Get the belt off Rhodes, put it on someone else, and then let Rhodes start his journey toward bigger and better things.

4. The Belt Doesn't Mean What It Used to

At least traditionally, the Intercontinental Championship has either been a coveted belt that the top superstars in the WWE wanted to win, or it's been the stepping stone to the Word title scene.

Way back at WrestleMania IV, Ricky Steamboat battled "Macho Man" Randy Savage in one of the best matches ever, and what was on the line? Well, the Intercontinental Championship.

But now, the Intercontinental title doesn't mean anything close to what it once did. A combination of the way the strap flip flops from one wrestler to another and the fact that the creative team places little to no emphasis on it, the Intercontinental title has gone from one of the WWE's most prestigious titles to one of its most overlooked.

Although Cody Rhodes has tried to restore some of the credibility to it (by bringing back the all-white retro design, etc.), it's largely been a lost cause. The belt just doesn't have the same value now that it did 20 or 25 years ago.

While Rhodes would have benefited in a major way from holding this title in the late 1980s, it's now hardly anything more than a prop.

3. Rhodes Hardly Ever Defends It, Anyway

At Hell in a Cell last October, Cody Rhodes vowed to defend the Intercontinental Championship as much as possible, but I'm not even going to pretend like that's happened.

Rhodes' biggest feud since winning the title last August was his rivalry with Randy Orton last fall, and not once did he defend the title against "The Viper." In fact, Rhodes has hardly defended his belt at all over the last several months.

He defended it twice against Booker T during his feud with the SmackDown commentator, but the last time that happened was way back on Jan. 6. So, for those keeping count, Rhodes hasn't put the Intercontinental title that he vowed to defend as much as possible on the line in more than two months.

Ummm. Whatever happened to the "30-day"rule where you lose your title if you don't defend it for 30 days? I guess the WWE will just sweep that one under the rug, huh?

Anyway, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there's no point in keeping the Intercontinental Championship on Rhodes when he doesn't defend it, anyway.

2. It Might Actually Improve His Character

In 2011, Christian went absolutely crazy when he lost his World Heavyweight Championship.

Ultimately, this would lead to a fantastic heel turn, a dramatic improvement in Christian's character, a great series of matches with Randy Orton and arguably the best year of Christian's career. Yes, all that happened just because Christian lost his title.

Well, I could certainly see something similar happening with Cody Rhodes.

The great thing about Rhodes' masked, "Undashing" character was that he was a little more psychotic than his current one; he was so emotionally scarred that he thought he looked hideous when he really looked perfectly normal. Now, if Rhodes loses the Intercontinental title to The Big Show at WrestleMania 28, he might get back to his roots as a bit of a lunatic.

Even if he doesn't revert back to something similar to his "Undashing" character, however, Rhodes could definitely use a title loss to Show to adapt his character, perhaps grow more intense and go on a mean streak where he wreaks havoc on SmackDown.

While some say that a loss is never good, that's not true in professional wrestling. A loss could, in fact, be the start of something very good.

1. It's Holding Him Back from the Main Event

Holding the Intercontinental Championship could help elevate a WWE superstar, but it could also hold him back—that's what it's doing to Cody Rhodes.

For a while now, Rhodes seems to be stuck in the unfortunate situation of not having a firm spot in the World title scene (thanks to his Intercontinental title) and not having anyone to feud with in SmackDown's midcard. As a result, he's basically been stuck in No Man's Land, without any real direction or rivalry for his belt.

The solution to that problem is simple: You have Rhodes drop what's holding him back, the Intercontinental Championship.

With no midcard title to worry about, Rhodes would be free to feud with the likes of John Cena and CM Punk and to rise to the main event/World title scene. It would be a classic case of "Drop the mid-card title, head to the main event."

We saw this happen just last year when Dolph Ziggler lost the United States Championship, immediately rebounded it from it and found himself competing for the WWE Championship at the next pay-per-view.

And guess what? We could see it again this year if the WWE does the right thing with Rhodes.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions on Formspring.