Checklist for WWE to Restore Intercontinental Championship Prestige

The Intercontinental Championship is off life support thanks to WWE showing a renewed interest in the title.

Daniel Bryan won it from Bad News Barrett in a chaotic, excellent Ladder match at WrestleMania 31. That's step one in the recovery process for a championship that has been too often neglected.

To further this rejuvenation of the title, WWE needs to keep it in the spotlight, make sure to feed its champion foes and avoid its recent habit of making the IC belt more of a curse than a prize.

None of the things the company needs to do to elevate the title are complicated. None of them are wild, out-there ideas. A return to tried-and-true booking techniques is the key.

Let's begin with how long the champions keep their gold.

Allow Longer Reigns

Credit: WWE.com

Randy Savage

The company can't play hot potato with the title. When it gets won and lost too often, those victories lose their meaning and so do the reigns in between.

It becomes more prop than means to elevate a wrestler.

WWE.com's list of IC champs shows a drastic move toward shorter title reigns as time has gone on.

Early on, men such as Pedro Morales and Don Muraco held the belt for over a year. In the late '80s, so did The Honky Tonk Man and Randy Savage.

Fast-forward to 2012. That year saw six IC title changes. 2014 saw seven of them.

That's too much turnover. 

Allow the champion to gain momentum, to look mighty hard to knock off before moving the belt to another man's waist. That will up the power of the champ's eventual loss and make the title feel like less of a toy that all the neighborhood kids keep grabbing from each other.

Produce Classic Matches, Include Prominent Stars

Compile a list of the greatest IC title matches. Inevitably, it will include Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III, Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog at SummerSlam 1992 and Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X.

It's much harder to find IC matches of that quality in the last decade. 

A part of that has to do with WWE not putting top stars in the title hunt. Kofi Kingston vs. The Miz was never going to result in a classic. Those matches listed above featured some of the best wrestlers on the roster. 

Having Bryan hold the belt certainly addresses that.

His first title defense, a showdown with Dolph Ziggler on Monday's Raw, was excellent. Imagining him following that up with more success is easy to do with as good as he has been over the years.

Sheamus got involved in that action after the bell. He's among the men WWE should have vie for the title. Former and future headliners alike need to be involved in the title picture to up the chances for high-quality bouts.

Building those contests around great stories is vital as well.

Write More Stories, Build More Feuds

In Bad News Barrett's five IC title reigns, there was not a single archenemy opposite him. Dolph Ziggler, Luke Harper and Big E all fought guys while holding the championship but didn't have full-on feuds.

Instead, the chase for the belt has too often felt thrown together.

The WWE title gets intricate stories. The IC version, not so much.

In the '80s, Tito Santana and Greg Valentine had physical battles over that strap. The gold was at that center of Randy Orton and Cactus Jack's intense feud in 2004. WWE needs to return to these kinds of wars, ones that have strong narrative bases.

Bryan and the men who are champion after him need to dive into rivalries rich in animosity. That will increase interest in the title hunt and likely lead to better matches.

Book Lots of Title Defenses

Don't let the champion go on a long drought.

If he's not putting the title on the line, it hurts the belt in several ways. For one, he's not being showcased, and secondly, it feels as if the title isn't worth much if a succession of challengers aren't clamoring for their chance at it.

Make the IC champ a fighting champ since the WWE titleholder is more of a special attraction.

The more times the champ can fend off foes, the better. This will inevitably lead to classic matches with wrestlers having more chances to compose classics. It also makes the champ look stronger, more deserving of the crown if he's busy battling fellow warriors all the time rather than sitting on his thumbs for weeks.

Avoid Non-Title Losses

When he was champion, it felt certain that Bad News Barrett would lose each night. Despite the title around his waist, he was WWE's version of the Philadelphia 76ers. All that did was hurt his perception and the title's as well.

He's far from the only champ who found himself in capable of victory in non-title situations.

WWE simply has to do away with this strategy. Make the titleholder look strong, and the belt he wears will benefit as a result. Have his reign be the best run of his career.

It should be wrestlers with great momentum who remain champ, not bumbling losers.

The company didn't have Brock Lesnar lose on Raw and SmackDown each week when he was champ. It shouldn't have Daniel Bryan or future IC champs do that, either.