All 17 WWE Intercontinental Champions of the 2010’s So Far, Ranked

Credit: WWE.com

15. Ezekiel Jackson

If you don’t remember that Ezekiel Jackson was an Intercontinental Champion at one point or even that he actually had a singles run in the company, well, no one can really blame you.

Jackson was actually once the very last ECW Champion, so I guess you could say that him being their world champion tarnished its name so badly that it had to disband. Jackson at the top of the brand just shows how poorly that brand was, and the brand ending with Jackson as champion just shows how poor Jackson was as champion.

Jackson then went on to join The Corre but refused to partake in their heelish bragging and antics during and after matches. This eventually led to a feud between Jackson and the then Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett.

After a few less than thrilling matches between the two and other members of The Corre, Jackson was finally able to capture the Intercontinental Championship from Wade Barrett at Capital Punishment. The only problem was that no one cared.

Jackson went on to win his rematch with Barrett and actually defended the title against Ted DiBiase, but both were just on episodes of SmackDown. Jackson never defended his title at a PPV during his reign which completely devalued the importance of the belt.

He then lost his belt (on an episode of SmackDown unsurprisingly) to Cody Rhodes. After that, he vanished off into obscurity once again, which actually hurt the belt because it did not prove to be the stepping stone to the main event scene that it once was.

His losing streak and eventual release from the company solidified him as a lower midcard talent, which lowered the belt down to lower midcard status, as well.

Jackson only ended up hurting the Intercontinental Championship’s prestige and his career with his reign as Intercontinental Champion.