Spoiler for next weeks Smackdown episode!
 

Sami Zayn is new Intercontential Champion

I like it! Too bad for Nakumara. One of the most underused guys ever. Zayn is more interesting now. Good move.

Dumb. Put the IC title on Sami just so they can have him feud with Johnny Knoxville over it going into Mania. So. Dumb.

Let us take this moment to remember and appreciate all the amazing moments/feuds of Nakamura's 180+ day reign as champion, though.

Bad take. This is a good business move.

Jackass comes from a time when WWE was actually popular, if they can get some eyes on the product from some Jackass fans that are lapsed wrestling fans we’ll be looking at a ratings renaissance.

Pretty predictable. Nakamura was a fine IC Champion, but he’s held the belt for ages and has mainly been teaming with Boogs. I can see them being the team that eventually unseats The Usos, probably at Mania.

I’m not even sure Zayn holds the belt for that long. I can see Knoxville screwing him out of it. I can see Cesaro getting a little run with it, maybe defending it against Sheamus at Mania.

As much as I love Nakamura, he was not a fine champion. Like his previous midcard title reigns, nobody will remember this. Cesaro is jobbing left and right on Smackdown, he’s definitely not winning the strap anytime soon.

Let's all take a moment to remember the 1 time Nakamura defended the title in a televised matchup.

I didn’t realize we were pretending to be marks?

Nakamura has been protected really well by the company.

Holy shit! I know his run with the belt has been lacklustre but I fully expected this to be hyperbole. He legit last defended the belt on TV in September. Amazing.

He’s knocked off challengers in contenders matches and tag team matches. He also defeated Damian Priest in a champion vs. champion match at Survivor Series (albeit by DQ). Most of his defenses as champion happen on house shows. He successfully defended the title 12 times.

Conversely, in Japan Nakamura’s longest IC Title reign was 313 days and it shared his most defenses in a single reign with 8. He once held the belt for 224 days and defended it 3 times.

Lol, this reminds me of when people used to bitch about how shit Lesnar was as champion because he was never around and never defended the belt. He was actually defending it more frequently than Okada was as IWGP Champion in Japan, which is of course a darling doing darling things in a darling promotion.

Perspective is important. Maybe the average fan sees Nakamura being featured pretty constantly on television and is counting the times he doesn’t defend the belt and thinking “This is damn bullshit!” before throwing their beer can at the TV and swearing off wrestling forever. But maybe some are looking at him being presented in a good light (most of the time anyway) and are getting the impression that he must be a pretty good wrestler.

From what I can tell he had 1 contenders match…and lost it. And then didn’t defend the title against the person that won the Contendership match. He won the match against Priest by DQ…on the Kickoff show. Who cares about House shows? They’re mostly non-canon.

I think it’s less about what Nak looks like and more about what the title looks like. Being the champion should come with some focus, some prestige. The title hasn’t been defended on a PLE since Mania last April, the champion has only appeared on one PLE since then and that was to make up the numbers in the Rumble before being unceremoniously dumped out.

I know the Intercontinental Championship has fallen in status since it’s heyday in the 80s but this feels like an all time low. It doesn’t make any sense to have a championship get this little focus, this little attention.

Exactly, plus some people talking like Nakamura books his own matches. It’s the terrible WWE booking of the IC belt that is the problem. Title I feel has he felt relevant since the Cena days.

The secondary belts have been treated way better than they have been in the past. That’s exactly my point. Secondary champions like Nakamura, Priest, Lashley, Rollins, Zayn and Styles have been presented as people you should care about. How many times they defend their belts is trivia for hardcore nerds. Nakamura won the IC Title when he was King Nakamura — the very concept of which meant he beat the King of the Ring for their crown. Is it a silly gimmick? Yes. But he has been featured and made to look good while being champion.

The internet is going to whinge about how nothing matters anymore like Nakamura going through Corbin, Moss, Mahal and Holland every week is some magic recipe to make people care. It’s people on the internet thinking their preference is what other people want to see.