The Intercontinental Cup

[AhSpicyDrop]

I hope so... I think one of the major things missing from WWE today is the IC title being prestigious like it was in the late 80's and early 90's. I'm not sure when they got away from it, but they used to always have the title on whom they felt was the "work horse".

You may have gotten some really shitty wrestling back in the day but you were almost always guaranteed to see a great match if the IC title was on the line. I have always looked at the IC title as the wrestler's title, and the Heavyweight title as the entertainer's title. It's just a shame they've lost sight of that along the way.

 

[LODemolition]

I personally love the idea. Anything that puts more focus on the midcard and gives some prestige back to the IC Title can only be good. If they're only going to use midcard champs as a way to put main eventers over (Barrett losing to Orton and Cesaro losing to Ryback), then the titles should just be done away with.

I wonder who will be in this tournament. I think they said that it would be 8 guys. These would be my 8:

*denotes winner

*Kofi Kingston vs. Cody Rhodes
Zack Ryder vs. Damien Sandow*
*Christian vs. Justin Gabriel
Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger*

Kofi Kingston vs. Damien Sandow*
*Christian vs. Jack Swagger

*Christian vs. Damien Sandow

I think Christian and Barrett could put on a very entertaining program with eachother and even some better matches. This would make for a great WrestleMania feud.

Whatever you do, don't let Bo Dallas be the challenger at WM. Let him get his shot at EC if they're determined to give him one, but have Barrett beat him dominantly.

 

[Radical]

I am a HUGE supporter of tournaments in Pro Wrestling.

I think they give a good sense of credibility to the whole thing AND I think they are great tools for developing feuds.

There are so many ways a tournament can benefit a program. Just some that come to mind:

1.) The champion can sit at ringside on commentary and give his views on the challengers and perhaps get more involved in certain wrestlers' matches (furthering a feud)

2.) With a bracket-style tournament or even a round-robin style tournament it gives the ability for lower-card Superstars, who are very good but don't get a lot of chance to shine a opportunity to actually WIN a match and it won't really hurt anyone.

E.g. If it's Yoshi Tatsu vs Cody Rhodes in a first-round tournament match-up. Maybe Rhodes and Tatsu go back and forth but Rhodes mostly dominates until Tatsu quickly rolls him up for a victory. That should give a big boost to Tatsu (who NEVER gets to win) and it doesn't hurt Rhodes THAT MUCH because it was only a roll-up victory AND in Tatsu's next match Rhodes can interfere costing him the match and just like that everyone gets a little boost PLUS a mini-feud is created.

3.) Gives logical and reasonable credibility to the winner of the tournament. The winner of the tournament would have just won a series of matches against (likely) increasingly difficult challengers so right there you have built a strong challenger for the Champion.


As for the Champion, other than sitting at ring-side watching matches the GM can still give him a few matches against rivals opponents and even make it more interesting by saying "Don't think you can just walk away from these matches because they mean nothing ... If you lose more than you win then the new #1 contender will get to pick the match type for the Championship".

So many options are available when they set up tournaments. I wish they would do them more often but I'm glad to see when they finally do go ahead with them.

Even though this IC Cup tournament I cringe to think that Bo Dallas might win it and I don't really care for Barrett at champion ... Despite that I'm still interested in watching the tournament progress.

 

[theBec2101]

why not just have a king of the ring with meaning. Hate to tell ya but the Int and Us lost its presteige awhile ago. I say they need a bigger name to hold them and be in the mix it would help bring back value to the belts and help but mic card talents over. Maybe someone like Orton, Sheamus, Show or Kane.

 

[roethlisberger78]

I also hope they do end up going through with this. It makes for a whole good show and builds suspense as to if your pick will end up winning the tournament and you know you'll always get one match where its 2 guys you doubt would lose and one has to. This is kinda on the subject but a bit off so hopefully I dont get pointed for this but would you guys like if they used main event for the IC and US titles that way those title would be used more often. Hell if they had to they could show reviews of that on Raw and Smackdown for people that missed the show. Make Raw and Smackdown mainly for the big titles but still have the mid card of them because all the hours but mainly use main event for the two mid card titles. They could even defend the times a couple times on the show instead of only on PPVs.

 

[Wolf Pac]

I'm not sure what this Intercontinental Cup really is, I've heard it's a tournament where the winner becomes the #1 contender to the IC Title, but personally I hope it isn't. "Intercontinental Cup" just sounds too strong for a regular #1 contenders tournament, it sounds like it should be a tournament featuring former Intercontinental Champions only to crown a "King Of The IC Title" where the winner gets a cup. The current IC Champ could be involved in the tournament too - if he wins, he gets the cup, if it's a former IC Champ that wins, he gets the cup and gets a #1 contender shot at the title. That idea sounds a lot more exciting than just another #1 contender tournament.

 

[x iCame2Play x]

I hope it goes down. I was upset that they didn't go for it. I'm sure someone like Kofi will win it.

 

[I Heart Cena]

I prefer that it doesn't go down. It's too strange of them to use the name of a prestigious football cup for a WWE tournament. What's next, are they gonna have a Champions League too?

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Some big news coming out of WWE today:

According to The Wrestling Observer, WWE officials have discussed the idea of having the WWE Main Event program center around the Intercontinental Title, much like Raw centers around the WWE Title and Smackdown centers around the WWE World Title.

What this essentially means is that the Intercontinental Champion, be it Wade Barrett, Cody Rhodes, Damien Sandow, or whomever holds the belt, would have their own show once a week. I don't think WWE would ever come out and say "this is WWE Main Event, where we defend the Intercontinental Championship", much the same as they don't outright say "this is Friday Night Smackdown, where we defend the World Championship". But the focus and intent would be clear. Here's a few reasons why I'm in favor of this idea:

1.) It's unique. To my knowledge, a mid-card champion has never had his own show.

2.) The title itself needs to stand out. There's no way having a show vaguely dedicated to its existence can hurt the belt's prestige.

3.) Main Event is quickly becoming Superstars. Which, by the way, is still a show on Hulu Plus. That's not bad, in terms of quality, but it's not good in terms of keeping it on the air.

4.) More mid-card build going into the PPV. The more the title gets focused on, the more interest I'll have when it's defended on PPV. Simple as that.

So what do you think? Should WWE keep Main Event as a one-off extension of their regular product? Should it be a place for ALL mid-card titles, instead of just the one? Do you even like this idea, or is just another gimmick ala NXT that is destined to fail?

 

[thomasgj]

This is awesome. This will help the championship mean a lot more, hopefully they'll add in the US championship too. This might be good for all divisions, since there will now be more time for the mid-carders on ME and the maineventers on RAW/SD, and hopefully (I vainly add) the Divas.

 

[mustafa33]

its good but in long term it will hurt RAW because damn its three hours ,while smackdown is down in entertainment,

 

[MWRedskins]

that would be fine with me, BUT I also think they should throw in the US title as well, a show with US or IC title matches would help the title out and having a storyline that focuses on those two titles would help make those titles credible and help the titles' prestige.

 

[#hamler]

4.) More mid-card build going into the PPV.

With these few words, I'm sold.

No one gets more irritated when a mid card title is rushed into a feud only to be put on a pre show of a shitty pay-per-view. I'm certainly happy with this decision. With the severe decline in prestige involving the intercontinental Championship, it’s become an invaluable prop that does nothing for the superstar wearing it; it's been thrown around without any real feuds involved. Does anyone honestly remember anything memorable about the Intercontinental Championship within, say, the last five years? It's become meaningless. With focus being put on the Intercontinental Championship on WWE Main Event, there's certainly hope after all. With an entire hour to focus on WWE's midcard, it's probable we'll start to see more WWE Superstars thrown into the midcard and with the spotlight shining right on them, we could see some break out of their respective shells.

My only problem with this news is knowing WWE's history with dropping ideas; I fear this could be next. Are the WWE higher ups that invested into WWE Main Event? Are they invested enough to keep the show from slipping into another shitty WWE Superstars rip-off? I certainly hope they are. Nothing but good can come from this if the idea is kept around. An entire show to focus on the Intercontinental Championship and the feuds surrounding it is certainly an intelligent idea and there is an entire mid/lower card roster that can benefit from it.

 

[lenguy]

My only problem with this news is knowing WWE's history with dropping ideas; I fear this could be next. Are the WWE higher ups that invested into WWE Main Event? Are they invested enough to keep the show from slipping into another shitty WWE Superstars rip-off? I certainly hope they are. Nothing but good can come from this if the idea is kept around. An entire show to focus on the Intercontinental Championship and the feuds surrounding it is certainly an intelligent idea and there is an entire mid/lower card roster that can benefit from it.

This is what I was thinking as well. I mean,trust me,I do like the idea of a show centered around one of the mid card titles. However,WWE doesn't have a good track record when it comes to making a full investment in any one or two ideas they may have come up with. It's cool and the talk of the town one week and thrown to the way side the next. They never seem to fully have any sort of confident in any of their ideas to let things play out a develop before they are scrapped and I'm worried this could be one of those things.

If they do ultimately go through with this then does this mean the title is completely exclusive to Main event? Like how the WWE title is exclusive to Raw and the World title to SD? What I'm getting at is that Main event doesn't quite draw the viewer numbers that Raw or SD does. Sure you can have time devoted to the Title and the title holders but with less of a viewer input,will it help elevate the title any more than what the same amount of devotion could do on the A or even B show with more people to witness the salvation of a once glorious and prestigious title? Those people who do watch Raw and SD and not main event won't notice any of growth in the title or competitors if the title isn't give as much devotion and time as it possibly would on Main event if it isn't treated with the same amount of resplendence and radiate the same aura that it does on Main Event. It's like how you notice how some of the wrestlers on Main Event or even superstars who are given time to showcase their craft on a show with more focus around them and not big names like Cena,Orton ect ect. Then when they are brought up to ether Raw or SD,sometimes they aren't treated with the same amount of spectacle that they would on Main Event or Superstars. I'm worried that the Title and title holder could follow a similar pattern.

WWE shouldn't just focus and rely on one show to help boost a titles standing and stature in the public's eyes. What they should do is apply this planned format across the board onto all the shows so they can get more viewers invested into the title again. That way the I.C title or U.S title and it's holder doesn't just hold weight on Main Event but within the WWE has a whole.

Not disputing the idea. It's a nice place to start and I certainly hope it sticks but they should do much more to give the title some more value and weight to it than just give it a permanent place on the C show.

 

[HBsam31]

I think this is a great idea. It has already been said that it will given more mid card build going into the ppv, and that is a great thing. I have fore a long time wanted more focus to be put on the IC title and also the US. I hope they stick with this idea as it could really bring a lot of attention to the belt, and hopefully can expand the division. I loved the days when wrestlers really wanted to go after the IC belt. It sometimes felt equal to the World title. We may never get back to that, but this is a step in the right direction for the title.

 

[Code-Breaker]

Meanwhile the United States Championship continues to fade into obscurity.

I don't see how they will focus on US championship whilst having 3 different shows based of 3 different titles.

 

[GameOver]

Meanwhile the United States Championship continues to fade into obscurity.

I don't see how they will focus on US championship whilst having 3 different shows based of 3 different titles.

the US title is not WWE created so why should they care and noone should it's a meaningless title since WCW folded the IC/US titles are the same thing they only needed 2 cause they split the brands now there's less emphasis on split brands and more on champs going back and forth..

as for the topic at hand, thats all well and good but Main Event is only a 1hr show and over half of it is made up of RAW rebounds same as Superstars.
so that leaves room for Maybe 2 matches a week, hardly a show to put the IC title back on a pedistal and then what of the people who can't get Main Event for whatever reason, they miss out on the IC title except for PPV's or is the champ still gonna be on RAW defending aswell which defeats the purpose of having a seperate show.

RAW and Smackdown both have more then enough air time to feature the 2nd tier titles, hell they use to have 7 titles featured almost every week on RAW when RAW was only 2hrs and they all had meaningfull fueds and were respectable. Those 6 titles being the IC, WWF, Hardcore, European, Light Heavyweight/Cruiserweight, Womens and the Tag Titles and yeah i'm talking the Attitude/Invasion era. It's certainly doable, they just need to prioritize more and spend less time on drawn out talk segments and recaps of John Cena.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I merged this with the IC Cup thread as it's basically talking about the same thing. This thread was reinstated after it was announced that WWE was probably going to go forward with the IC Cup. It was also stated in the same report that Main Event was going to be used to really deliver focus to the IC title.

As I've said earlier, I'm all for it. The IC Cup in and of itself sounds like a fun idea and using Main Event to put more focus on the IC title, in my opinion, is a great way to make use of the show. I think it adds some stability to the show in that it generally gives it a purpose aside from simply putting on great wrestling action.

 

[Wrestling101]

If Main Event is really going to be the show for the IC belt, that's bad news for those that are wanting 'prestige to be brought back to the title', unless the title also appears on RAW every week and storylines are progressed on RAW.

That's good news about the IC Cup, but again, it needs to be heavily promoted on RAW, the show that has the most viewers, for it to mean anything for the belt....because if not, you'll have the small percentage of the IWC saying how 'the exposure has brought back prestige to the belt', while your average fan won't be able to tell you who is the current IC title holder or who they're feuding with at the time.