Man the IC Title was on lock in the mid-10s

[Deleted]

Just saw this posted.

And I gotta agree. I said it in a previous thread but we had an era where the IC Title felt like it was as important as it was in the 90s and 00s and that's this era.



Man, that was a dope era for that title. All of these champions were legit.

[Lizuka #BLM]

I'd say the real hot point for the belt during that period was starting from the 2016 draft (since before that Miz wasn't doing shit with it) and probably up until Moxley got moved to Raw. Then you had Roman carrying it around like a kid with an embarrassing backpack then the slog of a Seth / Dolph feud then it being tied up in the Seth / Mox feud for no real reason.

Though what really killed it I think was bailing out on Dolph's reign after beating Miz. It rendered pretty much that entire storyline completely moot that in the end Miz was completely right and Dolph just wound up choking as always.

[Nosnorb]

Really?

Wade Barrett, who when he had the belt lost nearly every single match and had his arse kicked on a weekly basis? Legit?

Ryback, who won the title in that truly abominable Elimination Chamber match (and in Corpus Christi too, so the crowd didn't give a crap) and whose reign was mostly feuding with Big Show and spent a good chunk of it battling a staph infection? Legit?

Zack Ryder, who won the title by virtue of being the last dude alive in a ladder match that he was only in due to half the roster being out injured then lost it the next night? Legit?

Sure, there were some great champions, but some of those runs were just wretched.

[A Platypus Rave]

Most of Miz's reigns were he walks around with it and never defends it.

Hell he left to film a movie for like 2 months while still champion...

[Deleted]

I really loved what Seth was doing with the IC Title during his first reign. It's still my favorite IC Title reign since I started watching again. I'm actually surprised it only lasted just a little over 2 months.

[The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM}]

I dunno, I feel like this might be nostalgia for those wrestlers and that period talking. I distinctly remember Miz treating the title amazing for one of his reigns, but all the other reigns were marked by losing streaks, no defenses, non-sensical title switches, and various other things the IC title's been known for since the mid-90s.

[häšhtå.gdālėÿ]

Miz / Retired DBry Talking Smack era was too good.

[Jindrak Mark]

I would say there was only about a combined 6 months during that period it was actually treated well.

Take the Wrestlemania 31 ladder match. On paper you might look at that years later and think wow the IC title must have been hot but the build was complete shit. Remember they literally ended a show at one point with someone (maybe Ambrose?) calling Bryan a turd?

[sarkerpolseng]

I loved that Ziggler/Miz feud for the IC title.

[chrom]

Like Charlotte, Miz was the de-facto status quo for it. He seemed like the only reason he held it for so often was that no one else wanted it

[Jonathan Michaels]

Wasn’t the last time Roman Reigns lost a feud to The Miz over the IC title in 2018?

[This Player Hating Mothman]

Feb 6, 2022 16:54:46 GMT -5 The Legendary Ring Troll {BLM} said:

I dunno, I feel like this might be nostalgia for those wrestlers and that period talking. I distinctly remember Miz treating the title amazing for one of his reigns, but all the other reigns were marked by losing streaks, no defenses, non-sensical title switches, and various other things the IC title's been known for since the mid-90s.

The disconnect is a matter of how Miz and others treated the title like it was the greatest prize in wrestling while Vince and the writers treated it like it was crap on the bottom of a shoe. Unless Miz is a god-tier believable actor, he really did treasure the IC title every time he got it around his waist and saw his role as one of elevating it by caring about it as hard as he could, but the booking never really lived up that commitment. The man talked that title up like it was worth its weight in gold though, and even through ping-ponging reigns and questionable writing, he never once lost that fire. That definitely isn't what the title deserved, and if it had lived up to the goals he set for it the title would have had some all-time runs, it was still more care than a lot of people ever put into it.

Danielson was also a guy who believably would have taken the belt places if he'd been able to, and him having to retire really cut the legs off of a run where the guy maybe actually had the fire to take it places, given him getting the belt at all seemed like an attempt to placate.

[dbrussel]

That looks better on paper than what it was in reality.

The Miz had 5 or 6 title defenses in 350+ days as champion.

Ryback reign was a lol. Same with Ryder.

They botched Bad News Barrett big.

Cut Harper wings.


Still better than today, sure.

[krozor]

It's kind of amazing that they have multiple ready-made angles for the IC title and seem to have zero interest in any of them:
-Cena and Sheamus have never held the IC title despite having essentially ticked off every other accomplishment they could, and trying to cross that last thing off their lists seems like it would have been an easy angle for Cena on his way out and an easy angle for Sheamus at any time, especially going into a Wrestlemania
-Miz is one win away from tying the record for IC title reigns, and even if you don't want to mention that record yet (because it would require mentioning Jericho), he's also less than a month away from breaking the combined days record held by Pedro Morales, something you could have him gunning for to give him something to do and give the belt some shine

[Dub H]

The fact no one is gffiving props to Ziggler for making the title matter is a crime, his storyline in SD! 2016 where he basically laid his life on the line for it was amazing


And then The Miz won and did diddly squat with it.He is actually the one that makes it matter less because they ALWAYS defaulted it to him, cutting short every single other mid carder that won, and he never did anything

[Chiral]

#MizvsZigglerShouldHaveMainEventedNoMercyNotThatBoringOrtonWyattMatch

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Feb 6, 2022 15:09:57 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Most of Miz's reigns were he walks around with it and never defends it.

Hell he left to film a movie for like 2 months while still champion...

And that was after an absolute ripper of a Fatal 4-Way IC title match he had with Owens, Zayn and Cesaro, legit one of my favourite matches of all-time. Give it to one of those guys to hold for a bit, like, any one of them would’ve done fine with it.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Feb 6, 2022 18:01:02 GMT -5 Jindrak Mark said:

I would say there was only about a combined 6 months during that period it was actually treated well.

Take the Wrestlemania 31 ladder match. On paper you might look at that years later and think wow the IC title must have been hot but the build was complete shit. Remember they literally ended a show at one point with someone (maybe Ambrose?) calling Bryan a turd?

Him and Ziggler both.

People thought that it was WWE wanting crowds to chant it at Bryan for some reason, but it was dead in the water when not even JBL on commentary, the guy who spent more time putting down Bryan than anyone (aka the direct line to Vince, aka "THIS IS WHAT VINCE REALLY THINKS OF HIM"), was willing to play along there.

[A Platypus Rave]

Feb 7, 2022 0:13:00 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Feb 6, 2022 15:09:57 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Most of Miz's reigns were he walks around with it and never defends it.

Hell he left to film a movie for like 2 months while still champion...

And that was after an absolute ripper of a Fatal 4-Way IC title match he had with Owens, Zayn and Cesaro, legit one of my favourite matches of all-time. Give it to one of those guys to hold for a bit, like.

Yeah, that match was amazing... the three guys were white hot coming out of it the IC title looked like a big deal... so Miz disappears with it for months so it no longer felt important at all...

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Feb 7, 2022 0:19:16 GMT -5 A Platypus Rave said:

Feb 7, 2022 0:13:00 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

And that was after an absolute ripper of a Fatal 4-Way IC title match he had with Owens, Zayn and Cesaro, legit one of my favourite matches of all-time. Give it to one of those guys to hold for a bit, like.

Yeah, that match was amazing... the three guys were white hot coming out of it the IC title looked like a big deal... so Miz disappears with it for months so it no longer felt important at all...

Trying to remember what the other three did after that…

I think Owens started the pairing with Jericho not long after that and was about to end up with the Universal belt after Balor got injured, so it’s a bit of a mystery whether or not he was better off or not given whatever original plan there might have been ended up abandoned, and what actually DID happen was a bit of a poison chalice. Cesaro, I believe, starts the feud with Sheamus that leads to The Bar forming, so he ends up all right for a year or two after this. So it’s Zayn that could’ve used the run, because he’s the one that ends up treading water the most within the next year.