I'm more concerned about what happens to whoever the next IC champ is after Jericho, rather than what Jericho/Mysterio having a feud together does for the title. Jericho/Mysterio doesn't run the title into the ground, but it doesn't elevate it to an incalculable level either. It does get a bit of a boost, no doubt, but not enough that its suddenly above the WWE title or anything.
However, where do we go from here? Smackdown, despite being the more entertaining of the shows, is still trying to figure out who is midcard and who is main event. In some ways, that's great, as it allows people to switch things up. Ziggler putting up a minor fight against Khali but still losing is doing much more for him than if he was just beating Jesse, Jimmy Wang Yang, and Funaki over and over again and claiming that he's great (cough*Kozlov*cough). But with the IC title, chances are, some of those big main event guys won't be put in the position to take over a feud for that belt. It could happen, sure, but WWE probably won't go that route to have, say, Undertaker vs Dolph Ziggler for the IC title.
Who are your options to beat Jericho for the title? Out of the faces on the brand, you've got Jeff Hardy, Jesse, Jimmy Wang Yang, John Morrison, Cryme Tyme, Rey Mysterio, R-Truth, Undertaker, Khali. You can already eliminate almost all of them. Hardy and Undertaker are main event and staying there. Jesse, Yang, and Cryme Tyme have no business touching singles gold whatsoever. The Great Khali....no thanks, he's just not IC material. This leaves us with only three choices: Morrison, Mysterio, Truth.
Let's say Morrison/Jericho becomes a feud and JoMo walks out with the IC title. Who is his next feud? He's already been feuding with Shelton and Charlie Haas. Hawkins hasn't been on TV in months and is basically gone from the WWE at this point. Ortiz is a shitty jobber. That leaves Ziggler, Kane, and Knox. Ziggler and Knox unfortunately aren't at the level that they would need to be to make a feud with Morrison over the IC title seem like its a step above (or on the same level) for Morrison. It would appear as though he was going from a potential main event push and then downward to midcard hell. A feud with Kane on the other hand looks semi-impressive, especially if Morrison comes out on top, but at the same time, afterwards, who does he feud with? A step down for Ziggler and Knox and the like. Therefore, its not a good idea to put Morrison as IC champ, because if they're serious about pushing him as a main event face on the brand, he needs to be elevated feud after feud, not downgraded every so often.
Let's say R-Truth picks up the IC title, which immediately downgrades it from Jericho's level on the hierarchy. Truth is more of a "stuck in the midcard and won't go anywhere fast" type of guy. Naturally, if he feuds with Knox, Shelton, Haas, or Ziggler, it won't hurt him, because it'll be the same level he's at now. However, we've already seen him feud with Shelton, and on that list, Shelton's above the rest. R-Truth and Kane would make sense, but Truth is 37...Kane is 42...is it really worth Kane trying to put over R-Truth when you know he's not going to be around long enough to make something big out of it? Plus, for the IC title itself, giving it to R-Truth relegates it back to midcard status and it goes nowhere.
Best option is actually for Mysterio to win the title back. Now, the trick with Mysterio is that he's flexible in his position on the card. Nobody really ever expects him to win a world title anymore, but when he's challenging for it, it sort of makes sense, right? Nobody really questions it too much. Edge/Mysterio never seemed as if it was Edge facing JTG. Plus, Mysterio is - for some reason - perpetually over with the crowd and popular. This allows a much greater flexibility when it comes to losses and putting over younger stars. Mysterio serves himself, the roster, and the WWE company best if he wins the IC title back and begins feuding with some of the leftover heels from Smackdown. He serves himself because he can successfully pin guys like Dolph Ziggler whereas he'll always lose to someone like Edge. He serves the roster because he's a veteran passing his knowledge onto younger guys like Ziggler and helping them get over with the crowd. He serves the WWE because he's a popular star promoting feuds with these younger guys over the IC title, making it something that is wanted and on top of it, something the fans don't want Mysterio to lose, so they'll be pissed when a guy like Ziggler is able to take the belt away from Rey. This boosts Ziggler up a lot, especially if he can get on the mic and take shots at Rey to get the crowd to hate him, and what happens to Rey? Nothing. Rey doesn't find himself in a spot where nobody takes him seriously and he's jobbing to Ricky Ortiz, because he's Rey Mysterio.
For the sake of the IC title's credibility and the Smackdown roster (especially the midcard), I think the Jericho/Mysterio feud has to end with Rey winning back the title at the Bash. This allows him to start a fresh, new feud with Shelton Benjamin at Night of Champions. In the mean time, Dolph Ziggler can be put in a feud with R-Truth where he comes out on top, giving him a big enough boost that he's upgraded towards legitimate midcarder level. Mysterio goes over Shelton in their feud, and then starts a feud with Ziggler who beats Mysterio. Everybody wins in that scenario. Morrison moves up to a Jericho or Kane feud and is looked at as if he's a main event guy, Shelton feuds with Mysterio and is upgraded thusly, Ziggler is given enough momentum to successfully feud with Mysterio by going over R-Truth, and by the end of this cycle, you've got a new main event guy (Morrison), a new legit upper midcarder who could be a passing feud for CM Punk (Shelton), Mysterio in the same position he's in now, and Ziggler as Intercontinental champion.
