WWE: Can Christian Revive the Intercontinental Championship?

One of the major injustices in the WWE over the past couple of years has been the decline of the Intercontinental Championship. The belt, which has been a stepping stone to the WWE Championship since its inception in 1979, has become forgotten due to poor booking and a lack of solid mid-card talent.

Last Sunday, at the Over The Limit pay-per-view, Christian made his official return to action after missing six months with a neck injury.

Christian won both a "People Power Battle Royal" to earn a title shot at the Intercontinental Championship as the show began and defeated the current champion in Cody Rhodes later in the program.

While many see Christian's fourth Intercontinental Championship reign as more punishment for main eventing in TNA, the bigger picture is that he instantly adds credibility to a belt that desperately needs it.

Quick, name the last rivalry that involved the Intercontinental Championship and grabbed your attention. It's a pretty difficult task, isn't it?

That's where putting the Intercontinental Championship on a guy like Christian would do wonders. Christian is a two-time former World Heavyweight Champion and is capable of putting on an entertaining feud with the former champion Cody Rhodes or several other young talents on the WWE roster.

That last part has been the Achilles' heel of the Intercontinental Championship recently. No matter who they've thrown at Cody Rhodes, they haven't been able to make the IC belt an intriguing aspect of the show.

Since Rhodes took over the belt from Ezekiel Jackson last August, he has been booked in rivalries with Ted DiBiase Jr., Randy Orton (which was not for the IC belt), Booker T. and the Big Show. Many ideas have come, but almost all of them have failed.

A Rhodes/Christian feud would bring a lot to the belt as both could put on a series of solid matches that would bring the belt back to relevance.

Alas, it may not be Rhodes that helps Christian accomplish this feat, as he recently said on his Twitter account that he was going to take time off in the near future.

In addition, Rhodes may also be headed toward bigger and better things such as a WWE Championship feud with CM Punk upon his return.

That would leave the door open for other mid-carders to come and take a shot at Christian, who has developed a reputation of helping younger wrestlers get over (see his stint in the WWE's version of ECW as an example).

Adding Christian to the Intercontinental Championship is a move that may not get the belt all the way back to what it once was, but it will at least make the belt relevant, which is what the WWE needs to do to make things such as a three-hour Monday Night Raw work.