Disappointing IC Reigns
By Scott Keith on 4 September 2022
Hey, Scott:
Hope all is well with you and the family. So…both Ricky Steamboat and Davey Boy Smith won the Intercontinental Title in front of huge crowds at a “big 4” show in heavily-hyped matches that lived up to their billing.
Steamboat was famously struggling to draw money with Savage chasing him and was probably going to drop the strap regardless of the paternity leave deal. Bulldog was going around the horn defending against the goddam Repo Man and even if Davey wasn't fired, Shawn Michaels was getting that title sooner rather than later.
With 30+ years of hindsight, whose reign was more disappointing?
Steamboat. Bulldog overachieved by even getting that shot at Wembley in the first place and it would have been his career highlight even if he hadn't won.
Steamboat, on the other hand, was part of a match that stole the show at Wrestlemania, paying off a months-long storyline that was drawing on the house show circuit and then suddenly died once the good guy won. There was so much more he could have done as champion, but it wasn't in the cards, and that's the bigger disappointment to me.