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This past week on Raw, the WWE began a tournament to determine the number 1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship. I have one question – why?
I have never been a big fan of tournaments to determine number 1 contenders or champions, simply because it seems creatively lazy. The Intercontinental Championship was once a prestigious title that was able to propel a superstar to the next level and to become a future headliner. These days it seems more like an accessory.
Big E has the ability and the look to become a future main-event superstar, but if he isn’t inserted in to a meaningful feud sooner than later, then the audience isn’t going to invest their time into believing he could one day be the WWE Champion.
If Big E had one or two challengers fighting over the championship in a feud that is solely based on becoming the champion, then it could benefit a few mid-card stars immensely. I am not talking about a feud that would last until the next PPV/Special Event, I mean a feud that would last 3-6 months and have a big pay-off at one of the major events.
A tournament does nothing to help establish Big E, or whoever the winner will be, as a major player. It seems as though it’s a way to pass a few weeks and give Big E something to do at Extreme Rules, until the creative team can come up with a suitable storyline. Maybe the creative team actually think a tournament will help bring prestige back to the Intercontinental Championship, in which case they are sadly mistaken.
No-one is seriously going to care about this tournament because we have seen it so many times before and the formula is always the same – it starts with 8 mid card talents, one wins, the championship match takes place at a PPV and then all is forgotten. During this short period the champion spends most of the time sat at the announce table or is seen standing at a monitor in the back looking on.
There’s only one man who should win this tournament and that is Cesaro. This is the perfect time for him and the Intercontinental Championship to mean something to the fans. Cesaro with Paul Heyman is the perfect partnership, add the I.C. Title and then you give Heyman something to brag about.
Paul Heyman is one of the best talkers the business has ever seen and one promo from him, with Cesaro at his side as champion, will make people believe that he is a future headliner. Together they could easily remind the fans just how important the Intercontinental Championship is, and always has been.
A meaningful, long-term feud for Cesaro as champion would surely set him up to take a step up the ladder into the main-event picture. By the time the Royal Rumble comes around, Cesaro could have had a good feud in which he would lose the title later in the year and then go on to win the Rumble match. Once again, Paul Heyman would be managing a superstar in one of the main-events at Wrestlemania.
The meaning and the purpose of the Intercontinental Championship would have been restored if the WWE were to do this with Cesaro. Right now, he is the only superstar who can salvage the reputation of the title and the only superstar who could be elevated from holding it.
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