Sometimes, the WWE Intercontinental Championship is incredible. Most of the time, it isn't. Adam Blampied is here to list the 10 Worst WWE Intercontinental Championship matches of all time.
00:00 - Start
00:54 - 10
01:41 - 9
02:37 - 8
03:29 - 7
04:30 - 6
05:30 - 5
06:18 - 4
07:18 - 3
08:24 - 2
09:30 - 1
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00:00 - Start
00:54 - 10
01:41 - 9
02:37 - 8
03:29 - 7
04:30 - 6
05:30 - 5
06:18 - 4
07:18 - 3
08:24 - 2
09:30 - 1
SUBSCRIBE TO partsFUNknown: https://bit.ly/2J2Hl6q
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
Buy wrestling merchandise here: https://www.wrestleshop.com/
Read more Feature content here on WrestleTalk.com: https://wrestletalk.com/features/
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SportsTranscript
00:00I would like to use this time to offer all my gratitude to the intercontinental heavyweight
00:08champion Gunther who at this point must be in contention being one of the best wrestlers in
00:13the world. The IC title has been the pay-per-view hot ticket item ever since it adorned that
00:18beautiful Austrian waist and with pulses quickening at the prospect of Gunther versus
00:21McIntyre at SummerSlam. Fun fact this match featured on the WWE versus NXT dream matches
00:26list I did and that list was the very first list I ever published for WrestleTalk. So let's use
00:32this opportunity to talk about IC title matches we'll be talking about the best next week and
00:36get used to hearing Gunther's name there but to prepare us let's ruin our appetite with some hot
00:40tasty garbage because even though the IC title was supposed to be the best air quotes wrestling
00:45match on a given card it really hasn't always felt that way. I'm Adam Hailing from Parts of Unknown
00:50here are 10 worst intercontinental title matches ever. Number 10 Randy Savage versus George the
00:55Animal Steel Wrestlemania 2. The macho man might be responsible for one of the most beloved
01:00intercontinental title matches in Wrestlemania history but he was also in one of the worst
01:04against hairy cretinous bollock George the Animal Steel who spent the entire match doing animal
01:09things like biting Macho hitting him with flowers or rubbing turnbuckles stuffing in his face you
01:16know like animals don't. Macho in turn spent most of the matches running away then landing a sneaky
01:21shot while George Steel is in animal kingdom lust mode over Miss Elizabeth like the true baby face
01:26that he was until a dirty pin finally ended it in a short but endless five minutes. One year later
01:31Macho Man and Steamboat would have their legacy defining match at Wrestlemania 3 and you know what
01:34I think that match was actually better than this one even without the insightful commentary of
01:38Vince McMahon and Susan St. James. Number nine Maven versus Shelton Benjamin New Year's Revolution
01:432005. I mean calling this a match is a bit of a leap it's basically just a comedy sketch that
01:47massively outstays its welcome and who knows more about that than me former sketch comedian Adam
01:52Blampied got two stars from three weeks at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2008 and I'm still clinging
01:57to comedy writing as a career. Anyway Benjamin and Maven are set to wrestle Maven comes out talks
02:02of the Puerto Rican crowd and the kind of broken Spanglish that white mums used to berate waiters
02:07at a Tex-Mex gets in the ring is immediately beaten begs for a rematch is immediately beaten
02:13Now that sounds kind of funny on paper and sure it's a functioning setup and payoff the only
02:18downside is it takes bloody ages with Maven mugging on the outside for over six full minutes before
02:26getting to the actual punchline goes from funny to boring very quickly and is that my review of
02:30this match or three weeks review of my 2008 sketch comedy show? I'll let you decide. Number eight
02:37Big E versus Apollo Crews Fastlane 2021. This was just weird so Apollo Crews was plucked out of
02:42NXT and brought up to the main roster in 2016. He had one very bland icy title match at SummerSlam
02:48and then pretty much disappeared. He was in Titus Worldwide. Remember that? Five years after being
02:55called up to the main roster they gave Apollo Crews his very first gimmick as heel Nigerian
02:59man with royal warrior overtones did one of the writers watch Black Panther by any chance? Anyway
03:05at least this character change was something that Apollo could finally sink his teeth into after
03:10half a decade and at Fastlane the first pay-per-view since the gimmick change he wrestled
03:14Big E for the Intercontinental title and lost in five minutes after getting battered out the gate
03:20the match ending with a weird botched roll-up thing that left the announcers not being sure if
03:25the match was over or not. That's a hot start for a gimmick that. Number seven Dean Douglas versus
03:31Razor Ramon In Your House 4. Oh the new generation era where every wrestler was moonlighting as a
03:36plumber a garbage man a hockey player a clown or in this case a crusty old Dean. Fresh off a world
03:40championship run in mid-90s ECW the best ECW with his triple threat faction Shane Douglas arrived
03:46back in WWE and was given a paddle and a chalkboard being rebranded as Dean Douglas. The gimmick
03:52flopped with Douglas leaving the company about six months later but hey he did get an Intercontinental
03:56Championship run out of it. A run that lasted 20 minutes being awarded the belt after HBK vacated
04:02it when some Marines beat him up and then immediately dropping it to Razor Ramon. Not even
04:06Dean's Metal Gear Solid themed singlet could help him. The match itself was incredibly dull lots of
04:11rest holds and Razor battering Douglas for nearly the whole thing before the match ended in a really
04:16weird heatless way with Razor giving Douglas a back suplex then lying on the mat next to him
04:21with his arm slightly on Dean which was enough to count as a pin. It's a back suplex but also
04:28Dean's foot was under I don't know D minus. Number six The Rock versus The Sultan Wrestlemania 13.
04:33Oh good the worst version of Rikishi versus the worst version of The Rock. It's an all-Alawahi
04:39bout on pay-per-view but unlike their match at Survivor Series 2000 which was built around
04:43literal attempted murder Rocky Maivia versus The Sultan was built on shrug. Seeing as neither man
04:48was over The Sultan was a somehow even blander version of Lord Tensai and Rocky was being
04:52roundly rejected as a happy-go-lucky babyface. WWE did what they always do which is throw previous
04:57generation talent at the match to distract people long enough for 10 minutes to pass. Sultan had Bob
05:02Backlund and The Iron Sheik in his corner. Rocky got the assist from his dad Rocky Johnson. Wait
05:07they've got the same first name but different surnames. Does WWE know how names work? Maybe
05:12that's why they keep shortening them. There's something poetic about a man called Rocky coming
05:17out to save an actively not over family member from a stinker pay-per-view match and then The
05:22Rock doing the same for Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble 18 years later when all that was needed
05:27turns out in both cases was a good old-fashioned heel turn. Number five Santino Marella versus a
05:32Honky Tonk Man Cyber Sunday 2008. Pretty rare to get halfway through a list about the IC title and
05:37not mention the right now longest reigning Intercontinental Champion of all time. Enjoy
05:41that record while it lasts honks Gunther's about to chop the living dick off it. Anyway by and large
05:45Honky's matches were pretty good. Followed your standard chicken s*** heel formula so stands to
05:49reason that his worst one was when he was a babyface turning up for a Cyber Sunday match being
05:53voted into it over Roddy Piper which is a bold choice from the fans. Anyway the match started
05:57with a dance-off which gives you an idea of how ball-shrinking the whole thing was going to be.
06:01There are a few side headlocks but the match immediately ended in a DQ after Beth Phoenix
06:05tripped Honky while he was running the ropes to a giant weary chorus of boos. Hey thanks for
06:10spending all that money voting idiot. Gotta imagine if that's how Ospreay Omega 2 ended when Callis
06:15tripped Kenny. I want to live in that timeline. Number four the Intercontinental Elimination
06:19Chamber match. Elimination Chamber 2015. Oh no they broke it. Multi-man Intercontinental title
06:25things are normally good. See the ladder match in Mania 31. Ladder match in Mania 32. Fatal 4-way
06:31Extreme Rules 2016. Bunch of hot mid-carders in a match with a bunch of moving parts. Great stuff.
06:36Till it isn't. Step right up Elimination Chamber 2015 and the chamber match for the vacant
06:40Intercontinental title. Daniel Bryan died so this match could live. You know the story by now but
06:45in case this is your first internet rodeo. Halfway through the chamber match Wade Barrett threw Dolph
06:50Ziggler into the bulletproof plexiglass pod which then proceeded to be very flimsy indeed with the
06:56plexiglass popping out flopping to the ground and releasing Mark Henry into the match way too early
07:00because there's no DQ. What else can you do other than sit in the middle of the ring and weep which
07:04honestly would have been a lot more coordinated if they'd done that. Instead the entire match
07:08fell apart with World's Strongest Man and Hall of Pain founder Mark Henry spending most of the
07:12match buffering and Dolph Ziggler calling out spots with the subtlety of an air horn with his
07:16dick caught in a swing door. Number three Dean Ambrose vs Seth Rollins TLC 2018. Ah the blow
07:22off to the feud that killed Dean Ambrose's WWE career. Hooray. In 2018 WWE decided to run back
07:28the Ambrose-Rollins feud from 2014 but with the roles reversed even going as far as to recreate
07:33the breakup of The Shield. On the very same night that Roman stepped away to battle leukemia
07:38Dean turned on Seth and honestly one of the best and most emotionally charged heel turns ever.
07:43What happened next was WWE pissed all that heat away by turning Dean Ambrose into a thrift store
07:48bane who came out and called the people smelly and got comedy shots in his comedy ass because
07:52wrestling fans have germs and to be fair yes they do, where's the lie, but on the other hand little
07:58did they know that shot in the ass would transform Dean into John Moxley like the syringe was full
08:01of gamma radiation. At TLC 2018 the two men blew off their blood feud which began the night Roman
08:08left a battle cancer in one of the most inexplicably boring ass, regular ass, heatless ass
08:14matches of all time. How did these two, these two have such a boring match but they did indeed so
08:21much so that the crowd booed it out of the building. Number two the ultimate warrior versus gold dust
08:26in your house good friends better enemies. Hey remember way back at the beginning of this list
08:30where I dunked on Maven versus Shelton Benjamin for being bad because it was a good joke stretched
08:35out for way too long well that's what this is but without the good joke. In 1996 the ultimate warrior
08:40returned after having career-ending arguments with Vince in 1991 and in 1992 he squashed Triple H at
08:46Mania 12 and the only title match he had during his third run with the company was this absolute
08:51intercontinental turd. Ultimate warrior got into the ring, gold dust got scared, warrior got into
08:56gold dust's robe, sat in his chair, gold dust got into the ring, it looked like warrior might kiss
09:01his hand, he burned it with a cigar instead, he closed line gold dust out of the ring, count out.
09:08All of that took eight f****** minutes and it's so boring and so sh** and so f****** boring even
09:18Vince on commentary was saying I have no idea what this is supposed to be and needless to say a few
09:23months later ultimate warrior was again gone from the company after hitting the three-peat of him
09:27and Vince hating each other so very much. At number one Steve Austin versus Owen Hart SummerSlam
09:321997. I mean warrior gold dust is definitely the worst match on this list but this is probably one
09:36of the most calamitous matches in wrestling history. No one quite knew it at the time but
09:41this match would end up taking years of ring time off the career of the man who drew the most money
09:45in the shortest amount of time in wrestling history stone cold Steve Austin. It lives pretty
09:50much in infamy but once more for the uninitiated at SummerSlam 1997 Austin faced Owen Hart for the
09:56IC title and what a lot of people have forgotten was a kind of kiss my ass match. Probably the
10:00reason no one remembers that is what happened mid-match when Owen got Austin up for a tombstone
10:05but instead of landing on his knees he hit it in the sit-out position compressing Austin's neck
10:08and briefly paralyzing him for what would be an absolutely terrifying few minutes of live wrestling.
10:14Austin recovered just enough to execute the worst roll-up in history on Owen Hart to win the title
10:19and not have to join the kiss my ass club's Canadian branch with a broken freaking neck.
10:24Bad comedy is one thing but this is a horrendous viewing experience that at least didn't end as
10:30badly as it could have small mercies. And that's our list. What's your least favorite intercontinental
10:35title match? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to check out last week's list which you can do
10:39right now. Speaking of good things let's talk about professional wrestling. It's been a super
10:45odd 2023 so far. Dizzying highs, crashing into confusing lows and of course those creamy middles
10:50often on the very same pay-per-view. Get used to hearing the words Wrestlemania 39 everybody but
10:54for now let's talk about the very tip-top best matches I saw in the first six months of this
10:59year. Here's to the next six. Hope they're lovely and kind to you.