10 Wrestling Champions Who Barely Defended Their Title
These wrestling champions didn't put their belts on the line much
6. Shinsuke Nakamura - WWE Intercontinental Championship
The uber-talented and endlessly charismatic Shinsuke Nakamura never quite managed to win the ‘big one’ in WWE, but he did enjoy reigns with the NXT Title, SmackDown Tag Team Titles and both the United States and Intercontinental titles.
The King of Strong Style had two reigns with each of the main roster’s secondary singles titles, but whenever he held the IC strap he seemed to go missing.
Nakamura’s first run as Intercontinental Champion began on the Extreme Rules 2019 kickoff show, when he beat Finn Balor.
Between then and dropping the title to Braun Strowman on the January 31, 2020, episode of SmackDown, Shinsuke managed a paltry two televised defences against The Miz and Roman Reigns.
King Nak’s second reign began when he beat Apollo Crews on the August 13, 2021, edition of SmackDown, and this time he had just the one televised defence (a rematch with Crews) before Sami Zayn took the title from him after 189 days.
The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion did put the gold up for grabs on non-televised live events, but Shinsuke’s reigns were unmemorable (despite lasting a combined 390 days) because of his lack of title matches on TV and pay-per-view.
