5 Worst WWE Intercontinental Champions Since the Attitude Era Began

Sept. 1, 1979. Pat Patterson defeats Ted DiBiase in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, thus unifying his North American Heavyweight title with a phantom "South American Heavyweight Title," and renaming it the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

This was the beginning of a long, prestigious legacy of what is now simply named the WWE Intercontinental Championship.

Nearly 33 years, 68 champions, and 134 reigns later, we have seen wrestlers solidify their mark in the history of this title by holding records that are very hard to break.

Chris Jericho holds the most reigns with nine, the Honky Tonk Man holds the single longest reign of 454 days, and Pedro Morales holds the longest total time as Intercontinental Champion with 619 days.

One more interesting stat that proves how important this title is to propel the careers of WWE superstars: since its inception, 25 Intercontinental Champions have been a World Champion. 11 has held both the WWE and World Heavyweight Titles, and 20 became a World Champion after becoming IC Champion.

With all of these remarkable statistics, unfortunately there are a small number of title holders that have tarnished the legacy of the title.

These are the worst Intercontinental Champions since the Attitude Era became popular, c.1997.

5. Road Dogg

Now there were a few wrestlers that could have made this spot, but Road Dogg gets it simply because his reign was two weeks long, and didn't do anything to help his career.

This doesn't take away from the "Road Dogg" persona, because he was fairly popular during the Attitude Era. But he was popular with Billy Gunn as the New Age Outlaws tag team, not as a transitional IC Champion.

The Road Dogg's IC title reign is rather forgettable, and even then, came as a surprise. As a singles wrestler, the Road Dogg did not do much to be a recognizable wrestler, and he definitely didn't do anything to consider being used as a top guy.

4. The Godfather

The Godfather as Intercontinental Champion was a bad decision by the WWE.

He was mildly popular around the time that he became IC Champion, but the entrances and prematch speech became less interesting than seeing a dog chase its tail. They were boring and redundant every week.

Thankfully, we only had to bear with about a month and half of his reign. He never became IC champ again, nor was he even in the title picture.

The Godfather was a decent contributor to the fiber of the Attitude Era, but only as a gimmick; not a singles champion.

3. Albert

Albert's win against Kane to have his first and only reign as IC champ was a failed attempt to push a big guy who could be labeled as a monster heel (Lord Tensai, anyone?).

After tag team runs with Droz and Test, he joined a faction that should have never existed called "X-Factor" with X-Pac and Justin Credible.

Albert only was champion for less than a month, as Justin Credible turned on him to become a member of the Alliance, representing his ECW roots.

Albert would only achieve mediocre success in the WWE, reaching the pinnacle of his career (then known as A-Train) being a part of one of the Undertaker's worst WrestleMania matches, teaming with the Big Show in a losing effort at WM 19.

2. Test

Test just about had what it took to become a top guy in the WWE. The physique, the athletic ability, the look. But one thing that he lacked was charisma.

He had some decent feuds in his WWE tenure, most notably with Shane McMahon and the Mean Street Posse.

His career in ECW had a ton of promise as well. Unfortunately, he experienced an untimely death in 2009 at the age of 33.

During his career in the WWE, Test experienced glass ceiling after glass ceiling, and he never managed to break past any of those ceilings into becoming a top guy.

His Intercontinental title run proves this inability to advance to main-event status, as his first and only reign lasted only 13 days.

1. Ezekiel Jackson

Too much, too soon. This best explains the career of Ezekiel Jackson. Although he has a great physique to become a dominant wrestler in the WWE, his ability to put on a good match was pretty much nonexistent.

The WWE first tried to have him be a top guy on ECW, as he won the ECW Championship on the final episode in 2010.

The steam that he gained from this win lead to a mild push on Raw, being a part of Team Raw at the Bragging Rights pay-per-view in 2010. He got drafted to SmackDown, joined The Corre, left The Corre, and eventually became Intercontinental Champion.

His reign was the most irrelevant since the Attitude Era, due to his inability to wrestle, his severe lack of charisma, and his obvious regression during his title run.

Proof? We've barely seen him on TV since his loss, and when we do see him on TV, he is usually on the losing end.

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