Santino the Best IC Champ in the Last 3 Years!?

[Little Jerry Lawler]

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahaha. Ok now that I got that out of my system.




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.

Nobody gave a fuck about the title because the wrestlers themselves didn't give a fuck about the title because they put the belt on wrestlers who had feuds in which the belt meant nothing. Since the IC belt was brought back, there has only been one damn IC title match at WM and that lasted 21 seconds. Santino was one of the few who actually cared about keeping the title and that to me makes him the best. JBL didn't always have great matches as world champion but he cared about keeping the belt which made him a good world champion to me.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

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.

The Mysterio/Jericho feud was one of the most overrated feuds in the past couple of years. All that feud boiled down to was Jericho trying to expose Mysterio while all the time trying to add another pointless title reign to his list. Then Mysterio threw a bitch fit and refused to drop the title to Ziggler and then got busted and had to drop the title to Morrison. It didn't elevate Morrison at all because he went back to the same spot he was.

 

[Big Sexy]

Nobody gave a fuck about the title because the wrestlers themselves didn't give a fuck about the title because they put the belt on wrestlers who had feuds in which the belt meant nothing. Since the IC belt was brought back, there has only been one damn IC title match at WM and that lasted 21 seconds. Santino was one of the few who actually cared about keeping the title and that to me makes him the best. JBL didn't always have great matches as world champion but he cared about keeping the belt which made him a good world champion to me.

What the fuck do you mean no one else cared about the title? That is a very asinine statement. Just because no one else had a meter keeping track of how long they'd been champion they didn't care? If guys like Mysterio, Hardy, Benjamin, Orton, and Morrison didn't care about the title then why would they go after it and why would they defend it multiple times? All of those guys brought legitimacy to the title. The IC title was used as a prop for Santino to start a little comedy feud with the HTM. It culminated in one horrendous match at Cyber Sunday and two weeks later he lost the title.

 

[MoxViolence]

from an entertainment stand point yes...santino was the most "entertaining" IC champ of the last 3 years. from a wrestling and prestigous (spelling) stand point....no, no, no, HELL NO! please explain to me how santino marella is a better intercontinental champion then the likes of jeff hardy, rey mysterio, jericho, cm punk, kofi kingston, JoMo, and McIntyre? the honky tonk meter was "entertaining". santino is...."entertaining" on the mic. but if i may say so myself, santino is a bad wrestler, and will be nothing more than a laugh. and to put him ahead of former world champions/future world champions/ future hall of famers is absolutely absurd. of course IMO.

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

What the fuck do you mean no one else cared about the title? That is a very asinine statement. Just because no one else had a meter keeping track of how long they'd been champion they didn't care? If guys like Mysterio, Hardy, Benjamin, Orton, and Morrison didn't care about the title then why would they go after it and why would they defend it multiple times? All of those guys brought legitimacy to the title. The IC title was used as a prop for Santino to start a little comedy feud with the HTM. It culminated in one horrendous match at Cyber Sunday and two weeks later he lost the title.

None of them bought legitimacy to the title. Let's examine.

Orton: Won the belt in Armageddon 2003. His first real feud with the belt happened in June of 2004. The belt was an afterthought in his feuds with The Rock and Mick Foley. Just to try to make the belt mean something, they put it on the line at Backlash and that failed miserably.

Benjamin: Would have been nice for him to defend at Wrestlemania since he was at or near the biggest point of his career but he had to be the spot monkey we all know and love and participate in the Money in the Bank match at WM 21 and WM 22 while holding the belt both times.

Mysterio: His feud with Jericho was more about the mask than the actual title. He refused the drop the title to Ziggler which was a foolish move and dropped the belt to Morrison only because he got suspended.

Jericho is another example too. Won the belt in 2008 because Hardy was suspended and I can't remember one match from him in that three month reign that involved the belt because he was busy being involved in the Batista/HBK feud.

 

[Big Sexy]

None of them bought legitimacy to the title. Let's examine.

Orton: Won the belt in Armageddon 2003. His first real feud with the belt happened in June of 2004. The belt was an afterthought in his feuds with The Rock and Mick Foley. Just to try to make the belt mean something, they put it on the line at Backlash and that failed miserably.

Evolution faced Rock and Foley at Mania. Orton didn't have a feud with The Rock at all. He was just thrown in as part of the Foley feud. His feud with Foley was the first major feud he ever had and it helped to elevate him to a higher status then where he was currently at, thus making the title look good in the process. Orton also defended the title many times during his reign. Not many were on ppv because of the brand split ppvs so there weren't many opportunities but he still had plenty of defenses and some good feuds. Let's also not forget that shortly after losing the ic title he won the World title. What could bring more legitimacy to a mid card title then having the most recent champion win the world title one month later?

Benjamin: Would have been nice for him to defend at Wrestlemania since he was at or near the biggest point of his career but he had to be the spot monkey we all know and love and participate in the Money in the Bank match at WM 21 and WM 22 while holding the belt both times.

Yes, let's blame Benjamin for the fact that he was booked in the MITB match instead of a title match at Mania. He still had multiple defense and solid feuds over the course of his reigns, especially during his first reign which lasted 8 months.

Mysterio: His feud with Jericho was more about the mask than the actual title. He refused the drop the title to Ziggler which was a foolish move and dropped the belt to Morrison only because he got suspended.

The mask was part of their feud but it was used to add emotion and make the feud better. Just like Jericho's feud with HBK when Michaels wife and overall well being was brought into the feud.

Jericho is another example too. Won the belt in 2008 because Hardy was suspended and I can't remember one match from him in that three month reign that involved the belt because he was busy being involved in the Batista/HBK feud.

Which is why I didn't mention Jericho. Still a former world champion holding the title adds more then anything Santino did with it.

Another name you didn't mention was Jeff Hardy who had a very good reign until his suspension. The title was really elevated with him as champion.