WWE Clash Of Champions 2020 Results: Sami Zayn’s Win Won’t End Plight Of The Intercontinental Title

WWE Clash of Champions 2020 featured one of the most unique ladder match finishes in pro wrestling history when Sami Zayn won the Intercontinental Championship after handcuffing both Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles to a ladder before grabbing the belts hanging above.

Zayn’s impressive and innovative victory, even though it came in a fantastic match defined by Hardy’s death-defying stunts as expected, continued an unfortunate trend: The misuse of the Intercontinental Championship.

For much of its existence since it was first introduced more than 40 years ago, the Intercontinental title has been one of the most coveted titles in all of pro wrestling. Though it has long been considered a “midcard title,” it’s been held by plenty of Hall of Famers, including the likes of Randy Savage, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, and it has developed a reputation as a “workhorse” championship, another phrase for a title that tends to be put around the waist of WWE’s best in-ring performers.

The last time WWE’s Intercontinental Championship truly meant something, however, was in 2018 when it was held by Seth Rollins, who did his best to make that belt matter and come across as more than just a B-level consolation prize. Going back a little further to 2016, it was The Miz and Dolph Ziggler who elevated that title to heights it hadn’t seen in several years. In 2020, though, the Intercontinental Championship has descended from its days of main event glory to barely having any significance in the midcard.

One of the reasons why WWE viewership, including that of SmackDown, has been so disappointing over the past several months is that the company continues to largely overlooked the midcard scene, including its title picture. Wrestling should be built around competition and compelling storylines, and the Intercontinental title has had very little in the way of either of those things this year. Thus far in 2020, the likes of Styles, Hardy, Zayn, Braun Strowman and Shinsuke Nakamura have all reigned as IC Champion, and on paper, that’s an impressive list that consists perhaps entirely of future Hall of Famers.

In reality, however, the execution of those reigns has been almost comically bad. Strowman and Zayn’s reigns were completely forgettable while Nakamura’s run with the strap, despite lasting more than 200 days, was memorable only for the lengthy stretches that the former NXT Champion disappeared from TV altogether. Even going back prior to Nakamura’s reigns, the IC title was largely forgotten during reigns for Bobby Lashley, Finn Balor and Dean Ambrose that you’d have to research to even remember.

Part of the reason why the Intercontinental title simply doesn’t mean much anymore is due to a lack of effort by the creative team, but it’s also because the belt is no longer what is was supposed to be: A stepping stone for rising talents. That was perfectly exemplified at Clash of Champions when Styles, Hardy and Zayn—three veteran performers who are all a lot closer to the end of their careers than the beginning—fought for the title. The outcome of that match, regardless of what it was, was never going to do anything for WWE’s long-term future. Rather, it was just a way for WWE to continue to focus on the stars of yesteryear, which is a real shame.

Styles recently said he wants to retire while Hardy, though he recently inked a new contract is not at the stage of his career where he needs to be winning titles. For that matter, neither is Zayn, who has missed a lot of action due to injury in recent years and is better served as a manager because he’s so good in that role. SmackDown has a lot of promising talent, ranging from Chad Gable to Gran Metalik, who should be getting more of a spotlight on the blue brand but can’t get that if and when the midcard title picture—which is supposed to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things—is dominated by older stars who don’t need to be there.

While the ladder match at Clash of Champions was so good that it will make fans temporarily forget about the problems with it, the bout cannot mask the real issues that have been plaguing the Intercontinental Championship picture for months and are continuing to prevent new stars from rising to the top in WWE.