WWE's Chaotic Booking Has Damaged Prestige of Intercontinental Championship

At least half of the field currently involved in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania will one day be inducted in the Hall of Fame.

The same can't be said for the Intercontinental Championship itself. Not in the state it's in now.

If championships and accomplishments had their own Hall of Fame, the Intercontinental Championship would be in the nosebleed section right next to the European title. It might even have to buy its own ticket.

WrestleMania 31 will feature a showcase of talent in what should be an entertaining match for the title. Regardless, the prize that will hang above is damaged beyond repair.

The incumbent, Bad News Barrett, is currently suffering a long losing streak. He is having just as tough of a time holding onto his championship as his foes continue to steal the title.

The hot potato does more to make the champion look like a buffoon than make the title appear in demand. How could anybody truly think it's a hot commodity? Dating back to 2007—when Santino Marella was presented as a handpicked fan who won the title—WWE's silver medal went copper. The Intercontinental Championship has little-to-no meaning, and viewers realize this. 

Champion	Date of First IC Title Win During Span	World Championship wins as of March 5, 2015
Kofi Kingston	May 23, 2010	0
Bad News Barrett	March 22, 2011	0
Ezekiel Jackson	June 19, 2011	0
Cody Rhodes	August 9, 2011	0
Curtis Axel	June 16, 2013	0
Big E. Langston	November 18, 2013	0
Luke Harper	November 17, 2014	0

For close to 10 years, fans have been trained to discard whoever holds that championship. The title used to represent structure. Stars on the rise held the Intercontinental Championship to prepare for a future world title reign. Those title matches took on a more athletic, hardworking pace.

It was an entirely different division—basically what the NXT Championship is now.

Since 2010, however, seven WWE Superstars who never held a world championship have become intercontinental champion.

To date, none of them went on to win a world title.

Eleven different WWE Superstars won the Intercontinental Championship in that span. Only Dolph Ziggler won the now defunct World Heavyweight Championship. At WrestleMania 31, he will once again be competing for the secondary title.

This trend figures to continue since WWE's current midcard and the intercontinental title are one in the same. That title, like many WWE Superstars in the midcard, once had promise but was later neglected to the point of obscurity.

Only a select few WWE Superstars would increase their status by becoming intercontinental champion. Most of them are enhancement talent. The rest are in WWE Developmental.

The only hope for the Intercontinental Championship is several years of dedicated booking. Storylines, angles and matches need to differentiate the midcard from every other division. The champion shouldn't lose until it's time to drop the title, which should come after a long reign.

None of this has happened in years. Until it does, describing the Intercontinental Championship as a secondary title is generous.

Should WWE have kept Daniel Bryan out of the Royal Rumble? Listen to PodNasty for more!

Follow @ThisIsNasty