Kevin Owens' IC Title Bout at WWE WrestleMania 32 Damages Legitimacy of Belt

It seems that all it takes to qualify for a shot at Kevin Owens' Intercontinental Championship at WWE WrestleMania 32 is to be medically cleared.

Thanks to WWE's making the IC title bout a get-everybody-on-the-card ladder match, the belt set to hang above the ring has lost value. It's not a prize awarded to those who have climbed up the ranks, but the trophy that the bottom feeders fight over.

The path that Owens' opponents took to contention is an indication of how much of an afterthought the IC title is right now.

The Miz, Dolph Ziggler and Sami Zayn earned their way into the ladder match by first demanding title shots and then later getting involved in a brawl. Owens had teased that he would ask The Authority to book a Triple Threat between those men to decide the No. 1 contender. 

Instead, he trotted out Sin Cara, Stardust and Zack Ryder.

Ziggler and company showed up at ringside, and chaos soon unfolded. Punches flew. Bodies were a blur. At the end of all of it, Stephanie McMahon announced that all six men would be facing Owens at WrestleMania.

There will be no Battle Royal or tournament or sustained winning streak that has Owens' challengers earn the right to battle for gold on WWE's biggest stage. Instead, WWE went with a haphazard approach that feels random and hollow.

On the WINC Podcast after Raw, Vince Russo said, "I can't believe we are 13 days from 'Mania, and they're pulling matches out of their absolute arse."

That's what it felt like the company did. While Ziggler and Zayn have had issues with Owens of late, and there was a story to build on with those rivals, Stardust and Sin Cara have simply been thrown in. The oddest element of the bout, though, is Ryder.

He is in a championship match at WrestleMania for all the wrong reasons.

Firstly, Neville's injury opened the door for him. Secondly, it feels like a reward for being a good soldier for the company.

Scott Fishman of the Miami Herald believes that Ryder is worthy of this spot, noting that he's a hard worker:

From a kayfabe standpoint, however, Ryder doesn't feel worthy in the least. How do you go from rarely appearing on TV to taking on a champion at the biggest show of the year? Ryder and several of his fellow challengers have paltry records heading into the marquee event. 

Wrestler	Record	Winning Percentage	Wins on Raw
Dolph Ziggler	9-10	.474	2
Sami Zayn	5-2-2	.556	1
Sin Cara	3-8-1	.250	0
Stardust	5-13-2	.250	0
The Miz	2-12	.143	1
Zack Ryder	6-9-1	.375	0

Six of the seven men facing Owens have records under .500. Sin Cara, Stardust, The Miz and Ryder have one win on Raw between them. Ryder last won in singles action on the premier show in 2014.

If that's good enough to get an IC title shot, then what does that say about the prestige of the belt?

The NBA wouldn't allow the Phoenix Suns (currently boasting a .271 winning percentage) to play for the title this year. You wouldn't see Angelo Dawkins getting a crack at Finn Balor for the NXT Championship. 

Those championship opportunities have to be earned by stringing together victories. The IC title chase apparently doesn't require any such accomplishment.

It's a baffling move to shove so many lower-rung stars into this match when the roster is so thinned by injury. That guaranteed that the caliber of opponent would be low. As Benjamin Tucker of Pro Wrestling Torch pointed out, a smaller field would have made the match more significant:

The IC title match feels like a second Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, the match where the roster's leftovers get tossed in after all the important matches are set.

This is the second year in a row that the United States Championship match will be a singles bout at WrestleMania, whereas the IC title clash is a crowded, less substantial contest. 

There's no doubt that Owens, Ziggler, Ryder and everyone else will make the ladder match a fun ride, but the bout simply lessens the IC title's prestige. The match is not a culmination of a rivalry or the climax of a well-told story.

It is the dinner you make at the end of the week with whatever odds and ends are left in the fridge.

That's miles away from the IC title being at the heart of the feud between Randy Savage and Ricky Steamboat, a different species than Roddy Piper and Bret Hart's hard-fought battle for the belt at WrestleMania VIII.

WWE is doing Owens and his championship a disservice. Throwing the gold into a meeting of low-ranking midcarders sends its stock heading in the wrong direction.

All win-loss statistics courtesy of Cagematch.