KnightXC1 wrote:
First, it didn't take Randy Savage 10 years to go from IC Champion to WWF Champion. 1 year after losing the IC belt to Steamboat at Mania 3, he won the WWF title at Mania 4 and held it for a year. In the 90's, plenty of guys won the IC title and then were propelled to the WWF Title not long after (Hart, Diesel, Michaels, Rock, Austin). The Honky Tonk Man was not a good wrestler, he was a gimmick that people hated. He could never have carried the company as champion. And the only reason he held the belt so long was because at the time, there was no one better to put the title on. Want to talk about someone who should have been champion back then, then it Ted Dibiase, perhaps one of the greatest heels ever.
It wasn't until the 2000 where the IC belt really got pushed further down the card and was eliminated for a while.
As for CM Punk, they buried his first 2 title reigns because no one gave a damn about him as champion. He is an amazing heel now and would serve as a great heel champion but he got no reaction whatsoever on Raw as World Champion.
What I said (or meant) is that it took nearly 10 years for a former IC champ to become World Champion. The IC belt was implemented in 1979. Patterson, Muraco, Santana, Valentine - these guys all held the title and never won the World Title. Savage was the first former IC champion to become World Champ and that was in 1988. (Pedro Morales had been World Champ about a decade earlier, but didn't go on to win another one after his reigns.)
In 1992, Bret Hart became just the 3rd IC champ to go on to win the World Title (Ultimate Warrior was the 2nd).
Between Savage and Hart, you had guys like Rude, Mr. Perfect, and Kerry Von Erich who were main eventing cards all the time but who would never win the World Title.
After Hart, you're getting close to the mid-90s (which is what I said) where yes, Michaels and Diesel used it as a stepping stone, but you also had the Mountie for 2 days, Jeff Jarrett a few times but for no more than 3 months, Ahmed Johnson for less than two months, Goldust a couple times for no more than 3 months, and Marc Mero for a month.
From there, even guys who did go on to World Titles after winning the IC(Triple H, Austin) weren't typically given long reigns. If you're wearing it for a month, they aren't testing you as a champion. And by that point, it wasn't being used as it was in the 80s - on a B-card running at the same time as an A-card.
I agree with you about DiBiase, who didn't get either belt but made them a lot of money with his top level feuds. As for Honky Tonk Man, you said he wasn't good but there was no one better. Well, doesn't that make him good at something? Yes, it is called "making money". Again, the whole purpose of the IC belt at the time was to have a main eventer capable of making money with a second level lineup. He was a main eventer with the deck stacked against him and still pulled a shit ton of money in. Hogan wasn't a good wrestler either. He was a character people liked who got all the best stories, but that doesn't change his impact.
I don't disagree about Punk because that was the whole point. He had a little cult following and they put the strap on him without really developing his character. So when he suddenly went from guy who does cool moves to guy who has to carry a show, he wasn't ready for it. All the momentum he was building was undercut because they didn't actually establish him as a championship contender, they just threw the belt on him. They've done that with a few people and it isn't how they used to do things. As a result, I don't think there's as much prestige in the World Title, since you now have 15 guys walking around as former World Champions. Its a fine line because its cool that anyone can beat anyone on a given night, but it also makes title changes less special when they happen.
