Santino Marella is the best Intercontinental Champion of the last 3 years.
Since winning the title in april of 2007, the following stats are true about the IC Title:
1. Only Santino Marella, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, and Rey Mysterio have multiple reigns in that time span.
2. Santino's 162 days as champion are better than Mysterio (128), Jericho (132), and Kingston (61). Drew McIntyre, a one-time champion, has held the title for 161 days. So close.
3. Santino's wins were over Umaga and Kofi Kingston (sort of).
4. During those two reigns, you had the Italian underdog story and the Honk-a-meter, two of the better IC Title storylines in recent memory.
Say whatever you will about Santino being a "jobber," but he's the best IC Champ in 3 years!
A case could be made for Santino, no doubt. He really, really made people care about the title with the Honk-A-Meter story in particular. Sure, Jericho and Rey had some great matches, and the Drew McIntyre storyline could really go somewhere, and I love Kofi Kingston, but all those focused more on the wrestlers as opposed to the championship itself. Instead of the wrestler carrying the title around to get heat (McIntyre, Jericho when he wanted to become a record nine-time champion), or having it be more of a reward to a very over wrestler (Morrison, Kofi), Santino's segments focused on the title.
The wrestler brought focus to the title as opposed to the title bringing focus to the wrestler. That, combined with his long combined reign, can be used to argue that Santino is the best Intercontinental Champion of all the times.
That's really a tough thing to argue, while I do see that he held the championship more than anybody in that period of time (of the multiple times champions during that time, Jeff Hardy held the championship for 190 days straight after defeating Umaga as well)
The problem is with Santino that he won the championship after being helped win it by Bobby Lashley.
Just because Santino held the championship for 162 days surpassing the names you've already stated, I just wouldn't exactly say it's anywhere near enough to solidify them as being proper champions, now I can't exactly say that I know how and how often Santino defended the championship, but as you said yourself, Drew McIntyre came close to surpassing Santino's length of his two combined reigns, failing miserably.
But let's remember, Drew barely defended it.
And just because he held it for so long time doesn't necessarily make him the best, because just like the Honky Tonk Man who held the championship for the longest straight period of time, he's not regarded as the best Intercontinental champion, at least not in my eyes, a guy like Randy Savage could very well contend for that honor, but he didn't hold it for just as long, and on the other hand, we have someone like Shawn Michaels who held the championship multiple times in a period of 3 years as well, all of his reigns longer than any of Santino's reigns, yet he's also not considered the greatest Intercontinental champion (in my eyes).
Even back then Santino was made out to be a joke, and a jokester holding the championship isn't necessarily good for the legacy of it, but I do agree that it made the champion entertaining, and gave entertainment to revolve around the championship, but that's not necessarily something that we should regard as automatic rise to greatness, because it's been done before with the likes of the United States championship (Matt Hardy and MVP) but they as well shouldn't, and probably isn't, regarded as great United States champion's during that period of time.
Santino could be the best Intercontinental champion during that period, but he could very well not be.
While I agree that Santino has probably been one of the top 3 IC champions of the last 3 years, but personally I felt both Rey Mysterio and Chris Jericho were better IC champions with Mysterio probably being the best of the last 3 years. Santino was entertaining as champ (that Honk-a-meter was hilarious) but Mysterio did a good job carrying that title, and he had a few memorable feuds at the time (such as his feud with Jericho), as a whole, I would probably say that Mysterio was the best IC champ of the last 3 years just for the fact that his reign was the most memorable of the last 3 years.
Rey Mysterio wins in my book. Santino may have had a long reign, but he didn't do anything to add to the prestige of the title. Mysterio had good feuds and memorable matches with Chris Jericho, Dolph Ziggler, and others.
Ok his first win was due to Lashley helping him, his second one Beth Phoenix got the pin in the match, his average match was about 30 seconds against the likes of Snitzky and lost the belt eventually to William Regal in about 30 seconds and in turn wasn't even in the number one contender tournament. Whilst the IWC loved the Honky Donky whatever the fudge he called it meter, this did NOTHING for the belt whatsoever.
Look at the list of champions in the last 3 years:
Marella, Umaga, Jeff, Jericho, Kofi, Regal, Punk, JBL, Rey, Morrison, McIntyre. Look at the list, Umaga's dead so we won't count his future but he did main event a lot back in the day, Jeff is a former world champion, as is Jericho, Punk, Rey, JBL. Leaving Morrison (who's a former ECW champion), McIntyre (who's "the next big thing"), Kofi who had an amazing feud with Orton and is a definite high end midcarder and William Regal who won the belt aged 40 in his home town.
Look at the feuds, Rey had good ones, Jericho did, JBL did, Jeff did, Umaga did, Kofi did, Punk did, Regal did, Morrison did, Drew did...Marella's feud was against the Honky Tonk man, a man who was 55 at the time and he had one match with him at Cyber Sunday. Wow talk about quality! That leaves Santino as the one who stands out as being the worst competitor of the bunch....you're wrong on this note IC.
I'd say most entertaining, for sure. You could always look forward to a good Santino segment on Mondays, and it actually meant something since the was the Intercontinental Champion. If you weren't entertained by what he did, you just can't appreciate humor, that's all there is to it.
Of course, a case could be made for either Jericho or Rey due to their whole feud last summer. Pretty good stuff, if I remember. Personally, I'll always prefer Santino, but certainly can see the other side.
u make a good point and i have to agree i havent cared much for the ic title recently but the honk-a-meter stands out which cud have been amazin if given a few more weeks but it was fun while it lasted and it made me take note of the title. jericho and mysterio had some great matches but i dont think the belt made much impact on that and there fued wud av been good anyway
I would have to say Rey Mysterio here...I don't think, and i know people will back me up when I say, it doesn't matter how long someone held the title making them the best champion...thats like saying Honky Tonk Man was the best IC champion ever...and i know that's incorrect....So i have to disagree with this statement you have made...
I think Disarray hit the nail on the head when he said Santino is the most entertaining IC champion of the last three years. Not so much his first reign, but his second reign with the Honk-A-Meter stuff was pretty funny and entertaining. I just sort of knew that when I heard his music every Monday, I was probably about to have a few laughs. Having that amount of anticipation to watch the IC champion every week definitely shows that he was making the belt more relevant to the show, condidering his promos always highlighted the IC title and his desire to be the greatest one of all time.
However, I don't think that's enough to make him the best of the last three years when you compare it to Rey's reigns in 2009. His feud with Jericho was the best thing on WWE television and it produced some great PPV matches. He also did a great job with Ziggler and when he did lose the title, he lost to Morrison in a great match. I think the high standard of match quality and the interesting feuds makes Rey Rey the best IC champ of the last three years. However, I can certainly understand why someone would say Santino is, as he was no doubt very entertaining during his second title run.
The ic title has not meant much recently but you bring a valid point. Santino actually made me notice the IC championship was there with the honk-o-meter. I loved it. It was one of the bits in raw that made me want to watch it even more. I thought it was the best use of the ic title in recent years. Now to answer your question is he the best, no I think that role goes to the bigger superstars that are y2j or kofi or some other guy. He was the most entertaining not best. Got me more interested though.
i would def go with Jeff Hardy....he embodied what an IC champ should be.....he raised his game and became a main eventer with the title just like in the old days....he held it while facing for the WWE title and defended all the time against...he fought for it like hell because it was on most ppvs of the year in 07 where he was either the champ or challenger...he defended the title against all comers especially in Umaga and various other people...he fought for the WWE title while still the IC champ....how many other people in recent memory has done that? he feuded with Randy and only lost the IC title because he got suspended....Jeff Hardy best IC champion since...hell even before 07, he was bringing prestige to the title in 06 fighting against Morrison (Nitro) week in and week out....ladder matches and steel cage matches.....before Jeff the best IC champ for awhile was Orton because he propelled even further into the main event afterwards and had a great feud with Mick Foley over the title
I agree in the sense that he was much more entertaining than the stereotypical "Legend Killer Lite" gimmick all rookie champs go through (McIntyre, etc.). While Honky Tonk Man is not Shakespearean material by any stretch or purview of the imagination. But almost every segment that Santino is in, he proves to Cody Deaner that actual funny jobbers are a dying art in wrestling, along with the singlet and "BAH GAWD". He delivers the funnys and just once, just once, I'd wish WWE would give him a serious push with his same gimmick. Imagine Santino taking Matt Hardy's place in the current McIntyre storyline. And while you're at it, air it in this 3-D poppycock everyone is raving about. That's riveting material right there.
Santino Marella is the best Intercontinental Champion of the last 3 years.
Since winning the title in april of 2007, the following stats are true about the IC Title:
1. Only Santino Marella, Chris Jericho, Kofi Kingston, and Rey Mysterio have multiple reigns in that time span.
2. Santino's 162 days as champion are better than Mysterio (128), Jericho (132), and Kingston (61). Drew McIntyre, a one-time champion, has held the title for 161 days. So close.
3. Santino's wins were over Umaga and Kofi Kingston (sort of).
4. During those two reigns, you had the Italian underdog story and the Honk-a-meter, two of the better IC Title storylines in recent memory.
Say whatever you will about Santino being a "jobber," but he's the best IC Champ in 3 years!
You are right on the money with this one. I would go as far to say that Santino has been the best IC champion this past decade. Randy Orton may have held the belt for seven months but he didn't start actually doing anything with it until about two months after he lost it. The IC Title was secondary when he was feuding with The Rock and Mick Foley.
Looking at the other reigns in the decade, all I saw was crap until I noticed Santino's. His Honk-a-meter stuff may have been cheesy at time but it was one of the first where the wrestler actually cared about the title. It all started with Santino and I haven't seen anything like it since.
The win over Umaga was a way to get the IC Title off of the Samoan Bulldozer for his feud with Lashley, as a way to advance the "Battle of the Billionaires" storyline, as a way to create a new star in the company, as a way to make a shocking impact, and as a way to give the fans in Italy who don't get to see lives shows too often something to go batshit about.
That means the Santino win over Umaga accomplished 5 different things. Tell me the last IC Title change to have that kind of impact.
The tag team with with Beth Phoenix made sense because of the heel status of Santino and his odd relationship with Beth. It allowed the title to be moved around to a more entertaining champion, it allowed Kofi to continue developing without making him look weak, and it furthered the "walking on eggshells" relationship with Santino and Beth.
Does a title need to be won cleanly in order to make for a good / important / entertaining title reign? If so, then we have to eliminate a LOAD of title reigns from our databases, including Shawn Michaels' and Diesel's first IC Title reigns (both the result of exposed turnbuckles), and dozens more.
his average match was about 30 seconds against the likes of Snitzky and lost the belt eventually to William Regal in about 30 seconds and in turn wasn't even in the number one contender tournament.
I'll look past the clear hyperbole of the "30-second" match, but you make a valid point about dropping the title to Regal. That was a match in the UK and earned Regal a pretty massive pop.
The Honk-a-meter!? That was a highlight on Raw. And does a title reign have to do something for the BELT to be effective? Isn't the goal also to do something for the wrestler AND for the show he / she is on? In which case, mission accomplished.
Look at the list of champions in the last 3 years:
Marella, Umaga, Jeff, Jericho, Kofi, Regal, Punk, JBL, Rey, Morrison, McIntyre. Look at the list, Umaga's dead so we won't count his future but he did main event a lot back in the day, Jeff is a former world champion, as is Jericho, Punk, Rey, JBL. Leaving Morrison (who's a former ECW champion), McIntyre (who's "the next big thing"), Kofi who had an amazing feud with Orton and is a definite high end midcarder and William Regal who won the belt aged 40 in his home town.
You're WAY off the mark. I'm not debating the merits of each of the wrestler's entire careers. I am comparing them as Intercontinental Champions. The fact that Kofi feuded with Orton is irrelevant, as he was in the feud without the IC Title. The fact that Umaga is dead is even less relevant.
Look at the feuds, Rey had good ones, Jericho did, JBL did, Jeff did, Umaga did, Kofi did, Punk did, Regal did, Morrison did, Drew did...Marella's feud was against the Honky Tonk man, a man who was 55 at the time and he had one match with him at Cyber Sunday. Wow talk about quality! That leaves Santino as the one who stands out as being the worst competitor of the bunch....you're wrong on this note IC.
Somehow, though, Marella's feud with HTM stands up as being one of the more memorable of the bunch. I recall Jericho and Mysterio having a decent feud over the title, and a great deal of that centered around Rey's mask. Of course, Rey fucked it all up by violating the wellness policy, and dropped the title to Morrison. I don't hear you condemming Morrison's reign because he "only won it 'cause Rey failed a test."
Disarray said:
I'd say most entertaining, for sure. You could always look forward to a good Santino segment on Mondays, and it actually meant something since the was the Intercontinental Champion. If you weren't entertained by what he did, you just can't appreciate humor, that's all there is to it.
You just might be right.
Santino is a highly underratted talent. I really wish they'd allow him to actually do some better matches that he's capable of. He could still be funny on the mic, but no bullshit in the ring.
I'm just going to go ahead and say yes. He focused his reign on the title and people were interested. Sure, it wasn't the classic underdog, or the better athlete getting screwed over n over before he gets his but Santino made it worth watching. That's what counts.
I wanted to see the Honkey Meter keep on going. It was cut off way to soon IMO.
Santino is gold. I hope they start using him better. He deserves it.
Yeah, I'm gonna have to disagree on this. Santino has been funny a lot of times but, to some degree, I think he's been a good example of what held the WWE back. I'd almost have to categorize Satino in the same category as Hornswoggle, only Santino has proven himself to be entertaining at times. Santino Marella is and has been little more tha a comedy jobber during his entire time in the WWE and his overall gimmick is really the old "foreigner that has a poor grasp of English" routine. Not that it hasn't been funny at times, but Santino Marella is someone that brought the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship down in my eyes.
While Satino Marella may have the longest run with the title over the past 3 years, the quality of a reign has to be measured in more than just how long he held it. In my view, really up until around last summer, the IC title was pretty much a joke that had lost so much of its meaning. Myterio, Morrison, Jericho, McIntyre and Kofi have made me care more about the title over the course of this past year than I've cared for it in a long time. It's not perfect, I'm not saying that it is but I think it's much better than it used to be.
I don't believe i've read this correctly...past decade!!! your having a big laugh...did you even watch WWE the last decade, we saw amaizing title reigns and amazing matches been put on over the IC title during the last decade...how can you say Santino was a better IC champion than Jericho off all people??....hell, even william regal was a better champion than Santino!!
The win over Umaga was a way to get the IC Title off of the Samoan Bulldozer for his feud with Lashley, as a way to advance the "Battle of the Billionaires" storyline, as a way to create a new star in the company, as a way to make a shocking impact, and as a way to give the fans in Italy who don't get to see lives shows too often something to go batshit about.
That means the Santino win over Umaga accomplished 5 different things. Tell me the last IC Title change to have that kind of impact.
The tag team with with Beth Phoenix made sense because of the heel status of Santino and his odd relationship with Beth. It allowed the title to be moved around to a more entertaining champion, it allowed Kofi to continue developing without making him look weak, and it furthered the "walking on eggshells" relationship with Santino and Beth.
Does a title need to be won cleanly in order to make for a good / important / entertaining title reign? If so, then we have to eliminate a LOAD of title reigns from our databases, including Shawn Michaels' and Diesel's first IC Title reigns (both the result of exposed turnbuckles), and dozens more.
There's a difference between winning by cheating, and winning by having someone else make the pin for you. It would be like having a triple threat match with Kofi, Marella and say Jericho...Jericho gets the pin and Marella ends up with the belt...it's the same stupid thing that you know is off to a bad start.
I'll look past the clear hyperbole of the "30-second" match, but you make a valid point about dropping the title to Regal. That was a match in the UK and earned Regal a pretty massive pop.
All my points were valid. It's more for the quality of his opponents...In fact doing research an interesting thing is shown:
# ~~~~~~Santino Marella became the WWE Intercontinental champion and Beth Phoenix became the WWE Women's champion..
World Wrestling Entertainment - Glamourella (Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella):
# August 18, 2008--RAW: D-Lo Brown defeated WWE IC champion Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix by DQ in a Non-title match..
# August 25, 2008--RAW: Kelly Kelly defeated Beth Phoenix in a Non-title match after botched interference from Santino Marella..
# ~~~~~~~~~~~Santino Marella defeated Kofi Kingston with help from Beth Phoenix to retain the WWE Intercontinental title..
# September 1, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated D-Lo Brown in a Non-title match..
# September 8, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated Gene Snitsky in a Non-title match..
# September 22, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated Deuce in a Non-title match..
# ~~~LATER THAT NIGHT: Kelly Kelly defeated WWE Women's champion Beth Phoenix w/Santino Marella in a Non-title match!
# ~~~Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella threatened to double-team Kelly Kelly after the match, but Batista hit the ring to rescue Kelly!
# September 29, 2008--RAW: Batista defeated WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix in a Non-title match..
# October 3, 2008--SmackDown!: IC champion Santino Marella beat US champion Shelton Benjamin after distraction from R-Truth..
# October 5, 2008 - No Mercy: Beth Phoenix w/Santino Marella defeated Candice Michelle to retain the WWE Women's title..
World Wrestling Entertainment - Santino Marella vs. The Honky Tonk Man:
# October 6, 2008--RAW: Glamourella (Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix) defeated Jamie Noble & Mickie James in a mixed tag match..
# ~~~LATER: Jerry "The King" Lawler announced that fans could pick Santino Marella's opponent at Cyber Sunday on PPV..
# ~~~The choices were all former Intercontinental champions: 1) Rowdy Roddy Piper, 2) Goldust, or 3) the Honky Tonk Man!
# October 13, 2008--RAW: Santino Marella (w/Beth Phoenix) cut a promo on his three potential opponents at Cyber Sunday..
# ~~~Santino got into a confrontation with Johnny Knoxville, who insulted Beth, so she picked him up and slammed him down!
# October 20, 2008--RAW: Santino Marella hyped his match at Cyber Sunday and smashed a guitar over Jim Duggan's head! # October 26, 2008 - Cyber Sunday: Santino Marella was defeated by Honky Tonk Man via DQ but retained the WWE Intercontinental Title..
# ~~~Fans Voted For Santino's Challenger: 1) Roddy Piper [34%], 2) Goldust [31%], or 3) The Honky Tonk Man [35%]
# ~~~After the match, Goldust & Roddy Piper helped the Honky Tonk Man attack and humiliate the arrogant Santino Marella..
# ~~~~~~~Goldust & Roddy Piper got some shots in and Honky Tonk Man hit Santino Marella with the Shake, Rattle & Roll!
# October 27, 2008--RAW: Piper & Goldust blocked the exit so that Honky Tonk Man could smash a guitar over Santino's head! # November 10, 2008--RAW: William Regal w/Layla beat Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix to win the WWE Intercontinental title!
Look at the list, I took the libirty of highlighting the actual title defences he had. Three. He lost two (DQ and pin, and won another thanks to Beth). GREAT champion there
The Honk-a-meter!? That was a highlight on Raw. And does a title reign have to do something for the BELT to be effective? Isn't the goal also to do something for the wrestler AND for the show he / she is on? In which case, mission accomplished.
It was a cringe-worthy part of the show that was not funny at all, if TNA were to do the same thing everyone would piss on it. The reign has to do something for the belt to be effective, Marella's reign got the IC belt back in the spotlight, I'll give you that but to say he's the greatest champion of 3 years is absurd. One great defence does not a champion make.
You're WAY off the mark. I'm not debating the merits of each of the wrestler's entire careers. I am comparing them as Intercontinental Champions. The fact that Kofi feuded with Orton is irrelevant, as he was in the feud without the IC Title. The fact that Umaga is dead is even less relevant.
Somehow, though, Marella's feud with HTM stands up as being one of the more memorable of the bunch. I recall Jericho and Mysterio having a decent feud over the title, and a great deal of that centered around Rey's mask. Of course, Rey fucked it all up by violating the wellness policy, and dropped the title to Morrison. I don't hear you condemming Morrison's reign because he "only won it 'cause Rey failed a test."
You are honestly saying that Marella's feud with the HTM was better than the rey/JBL one? or the Rey/Jericho one? Or the Jeff/Umaga one? Pull the other one mate.
I don't believe i've read this correctly...past decade!!! your having a big laugh...did you even watch WWE the last decade, we saw amaizing title reigns and amazing matches been put on over the IC title during the last decade...how can you say Santino was a better IC champion than Jericho off all people??....hell, even william regal was a better champion than Santino!!
The misconception people have about Randy Orton is that he held the belt for so long that he must be a great champion. That is wrong. His title reign was meaningless until he faced Shelton Benjamin for it in June and lost it the next month to Edge. His feuds with The Rock and Mick Foley made the title a footnote. Benjamin's reign was a little better but he didn't even defend it at Wrestlemania and had forgettable matches before losing to Carlito. William Regal got himself disqualified twice and then the third time he lost to Punk and you say he was a better champion. I forgive you.
I've clearly just posted a list showing all of Marella's title defenceses he had durig hte second reign he had. He had three title matches, won one (kofi thanks to Beth interference), lost one due to DQ (v HTM) and the other one he lost in about 30 seconds to William Regal. Baring in mind Marella didn't pin the previous champ to win the belt. Regal at least pinned Marella to win the belt, so how can you say he was a better champion? It's like saying the Miz was a good US champion, he never defended it but kept going on and on and on about the belt.
Yeah that reign did make sense, I made a thread on it at the time. It's the second reign I hated.
There's a difference between winning by cheating, and winning by having someone else make the pin for you. It would be like having a triple threat match with Kofi, Marella and say Jericho...Jericho gets the pin and Marella ends up with the belt...it's the same stupid thing that you know is off to a bad start.
All my points were valid. It's more for the quality of his opponents...In fact doing research an interesting thing is shown:
# ~~~~~~Santino Marella became the WWE Intercontinental champion and Beth Phoenix became the WWE Women's champion..
World Wrestling Entertainment - Glamourella (Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella):
# August 18, 2008--RAW: D-Lo Brown defeated WWE IC champion Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix by DQ in a Non-title match..
# August 25, 2008--RAW: Kelly Kelly defeated Beth Phoenix in a Non-title match after botched interference from Santino Marella..
# ~~~~~~~~~~~Santino Marella defeated Kofi Kingston with help from Beth Phoenix to retain the WWE Intercontinental title..
# September 1, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated D-Lo Brown in a Non-title match..
# September 8, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated Gene Snitsky in a Non-title match..
# September 22, 2008--RAW: WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella defeated Deuce in a Non-title match..
# ~~~LATER THAT NIGHT: Kelly Kelly defeated WWE Women's champion Beth Phoenix w/Santino Marella in a Non-title match!
# ~~~Beth Phoenix & Santino Marella threatened to double-team Kelly Kelly after the match, but Batista hit the ring to rescue Kelly!
# September 29, 2008--RAW: Batista defeated WWE Intercontinental champion Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix in a Non-title match..
# October 3, 2008--SmackDown!: IC champion Santino Marella beat US champion Shelton Benjamin after distraction from R-Truth..
# October 5, 2008 - No Mercy: Beth Phoenix w/Santino Marella defeated Candice Michelle to retain the WWE Women's title..
World Wrestling Entertainment - Santino Marella vs. The Honky Tonk Man:
# October 6, 2008--RAW: Glamourella (Santino Marella & Beth Phoenix) defeated Jamie Noble & Mickie James in a mixed tag match..
# ~~~LATER: Jerry "The King" Lawler announced that fans could pick Santino Marella's opponent at Cyber Sunday on PPV..
# ~~~The choices were all former Intercontinental champions: 1) Rowdy Roddy Piper, 2) Goldust, or 3) the Honky Tonk Man!
# October 13, 2008--RAW: Santino Marella (w/Beth Phoenix) cut a promo on his three potential opponents at Cyber Sunday..
# ~~~Santino got into a confrontation with Johnny Knoxville, who insulted Beth, so she picked him up and slammed him down!
# October 20, 2008--RAW: Santino Marella hyped his match at Cyber Sunday and smashed a guitar over Jim Duggan's head! # October 26, 2008 - Cyber Sunday: Santino Marella was defeated by Honky Tonk Man via DQ but retained the WWE Intercontinental Title..
# ~~~Fans Voted For Santino's Challenger: 1) Roddy Piper [34%], 2) Goldust [31%], or 3) The Honky Tonk Man [35%]
# ~~~After the match, Goldust & Roddy Piper helped the Honky Tonk Man attack and humiliate the arrogant Santino Marella..
# ~~~~~~~Goldust & Roddy Piper got some shots in and Honky Tonk Man hit Santino Marella with the Shake, Rattle & Roll!
# October 27, 2008--RAW: Piper & Goldust blocked the exit so that Honky Tonk Man could smash a guitar over Santino's head! # November 10, 2008--RAW: William Regal w/Layla beat Santino Marella w/Beth Phoenix to win the WWE Intercontinental title!
Look at the list, I took the libirty of highlighting the actual title defences he had. Three. He lost two (DQ and pin, and won another thanks to Beth). GREAT champion there
It was a cringe-worthy part of the show that was not funny at all, if TNA were to do the same thing everyone would piss on it. The reign has to do something for the belt to be effective, Marella's reign got the IC belt back in the spotlight, I'll give you that but to say he's the greatest champion of 3 years is absurd. One great defence does not a champion make.
And I've shown that as an IC champion Santino Marella was abysmal during his second reign.
You are honestly saying that Marella's feud with the HTM was better than the rey/JBL one? or the Rey/Jericho one? Or the Jeff/Umaga one? Pull the other one mate.
You're actually throwing out the JBL/Rey Mysterio feud which probably lasted all of a couple of weeks as better than Marella and the HTM? The Rey/Jericho feud was more about Jericho trying to expose Rey by trying to take his mask than the belt itself.
The closest someone has come to giving a damn about the belt in the last decade besides Santino was Ric Flair and even in the first couple of months of his reign, he didn't do anything with it while feuding with HHH.
I have to pick Rey Mysterio over Santino Marella here as being the best champion out of the last three years. Santino was very entertaining during this period and made me watch him as the champion, but quite honestly I feel he did absolutely nothing for the belt... unless you want to count drawing humour to himself thus to the IC title as doing something.
Rey Rey's win for the championship had some pretty major implications. In essence, Mysterio was the one responsible for retiring JBL from the WWE and that happened at the biggest stage of them all, WrestleMania. Mr. Layfield once held the WWE Championship for over 10 months, which is much longer than Mysterio ever held a world title for... yet Rey was able to beat him in a very quick match. Mysterio went on to face Chris Jericho in what had to be feud of the year. These guys put on some clinics together and the storyline added into the fire made it that more worth watching. When championships bouts become personal, you know it'll be interesting. These guys perfected it, something that other personal feuds such as Triple H and Randy Orton could not capitalise on when the "big match" happened. Yes, Mysterio lost the title here but since this is about the greatest IC champion, not championship reign, I will keep going.
Rey moved on to defending the title against Dolph Ziggler in a pretty good feud as well. Every time that Ziggler was involved, he legitimately looked like a threat to Rey's reign. This in turn invoked the crowd to will on Mysterio and get submersed into their matches. Though Ziggler never was able to win the title, he still remained relevant in the WWE because of how he took it to the champion. Rey finally lost the title to John Morrison after getting hit with a suspension that has been questioned. The match they had elevated Morrison to a new level and kept Rey as a legit threat to the title when he were to return.
After all this, Rey Mysterio helped bring prestige back the championship by making more than credible feuds over the championships. He elevated the talent such as Ziggler (even though he lost) and Morrison, as well as making Jericho look excellent in the process. The entertainment was revolved around the matches and if the title would eventually slip from Mysterio's hands, not around comedic relief. When Regal defeat Santino for the belt, it did nothing for him and nothing for Santino. Whoever face Santino and lost made them look like complete shit. If they won against Santino, who cared? Anyone could have beaten Santino at any time for title. Mysterio has always been a tough individual and has never backed down.
So yeah, Rey Mysterio as the best IC champion in the past three years.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. Ok now that I got that out of my system.
Looking at the other reigns in the decade, all I saw was crap until I noticed Santino's. His Honk-a-meter stuff may have been cheesy at time but it was one of the first where the wrestler actually cared about the title. It all started with Santino and I haven't seen anything like it since.
There are a few things to me that go into a great title reign
1. Entertainment- With Santino I liked the Honk-o-Meter and that part of it was entertaining for a while but once the microphone was put down and the matches started the entertainment value went away.
2. Match Quality- Santino had a total of ZERO good matches during his title reigns. He was a comedy jobber with a belt and all of his matches reflected that.
3. Good Feuds- The only real feud Santino had in his first reign was against Chris Masters. It sucked, and nobody cared. The only feud in his second reign was with a 55 year old retired wrestler from the 80's. I don't even know if I'd consider it a feud since Honky only made like 2 appearances.
4. Make people care about the title (Prestige)- A comedy jobber holding a mid card title does nothing but make the title look bad. Santino as champion had matches with the likes of D'Lo Brown, Deuce, and Snitsky. He only defended the title 3 times, only had one victory in those defenses, and it was with interference. Nobody gave a flying fuck about the IC title at that time. It was a prop that was used so they could do the Honk-o-Meter thing with Santino. That's it.
Like I said earlier the Honk-o-meter was entertaining for a few weeks but after a while even that was getting old. And that ONE thing in know way made Santino a good IC champ.
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