WWE Intercontinental Championship
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling title. Originally the second-most important title in World Wrestling Entertainment, the championship is now the secondary championship on its RAW brand.
History
Pat Patterson has the distinction of being the first Intercontinental Champion. He was awarded the title in September 1979 with a kayfabe explanation given that he won a fictitious tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This seems to have been recently retconned by WWE, who now claim on their official title histories page that Patterson brought his WWF North American Championship to Brazil and won a tournament to unify his belt with the "South American Championship" (a non-existent title) to become the Intercontinental Champion. In the 1980s, several top superstars won the Intercontinental Championship, including Pedro Morales, Don Muraco, Greg Valentine, Tito Santana, Randy Savage, and Ricky Steamboat.
The Intercontinental Championship has traditionally been used as a stepping stone for wrestlers as they advance in their careers. Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Randy Savage, Shawn Michaels, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Edge, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam and most recently, King Booker all held the Intercontinental Championship before becoming World Champions.
The belt has had different leather strap colors during various title reigns. The Ultimate Warrior switched to a yellow strap during his second Intercontinental title reign. Jeff Jarrett, Shawn Michaels, Marty Jannetty and Shane "Dean" Douglas had white leather during their reigns (Michaels also briefly had a blue strap). Goldust had gold leather during his. Eventually, the belt always reverted to its original black leather state. The "Classic" design seen at right was the successor to a green-strap version that was destroyed by Greg Valentine after he lost the title to Tito Santana in a July 1985 steel cage match.
The strap underwent a complete design change in early 1998 shortly before WrestleMania XIV while The Rock was the champion. The design change was a part of the World Wrestling Federation] (WWF) wanting to hold copyrights on the designs of all of its singles titles (Extreme Championship Wrestling's Tag Team Championship belts had the same design as the Intercontinental title). The new belt was slightly smaller, with a complete oval design, and originally had a purple strap.
During the Invasion storyline in 2001, the WCW United States Champion, Edge, defeated the Intercontinental Champion, Test, to unify both titles. Edge then held the Intercontinental Championship, and the United States Championship became inactive.
After the brand extension was introduced in 2002, the Intercontinental Championship and its champion, Rob Van Dam, was drafted to the RAW brand. For a short time in that same year, the Intercontinental Championship was exclusive to the SmackDown! brand when then-champion Chris Benoit took the title with him during a brand open season. The belt returned to RAW when Benoit lost it to Rob Van Dam at SummerSlam 2002.
Rob Van Dam put his Intercontinental Championship on the line, along with Jeff Hardy's European Championship, in a ladder match on July 22, 2002. By winning that match, Rob Van Dam unified the two titles, and continued to hold the Intercontinental Championship, while the European Championship was deactivated. The same would occur on August 26, 2002, when Van Dam defeated the Hardcore Champion, Tommy Dreamer. Dreamer's Hardcore Title was merged with the Intercontinental Championship and was then deactivated.
In late 2002, RAW was left without a top tier title, when then-WWE champion Brock Lesnar became exclusive to SmackDown! The original plan was to unify all the lower tier titles to create a new, equally prestigious title exclusive to RAW, with the WCW United States, WWE European and WWE Hardcore titles all unified into it. The plan was abandoned and the Intercontinental Championship was unified with the World Heavyweight Championship on October 20, 2002, when then-World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H, defeated the Intercontinental Champion, Kane. This time, the Intercontinental Championship became inactive. RAW general manager Eric Bischoff's reasoning for this move was "one show, one champion", possibly referring to the fact that Bischoff may have viewed the Intercontinental Championship as a sort of second World title.
This was a hugely unpopular decision and fans demanded the belt be reactivated. RAW general manager "Stone Cold" Steve Austin reinstated the Intercontinental Championship the following year, and Christian won the belt on May 18, 2003. When revived, the belt received a facelift of sorts - namely, a nameplate was added, a change which had been made to every other WWE championship belt after the introduction of the unified WWE Undisputed Championship belt. The Intercontinental Championship has remained active since.
The WWE United States Championship was also restored in 2003 as the SmackDown! counterpart of the title. The United States Championship was originally WCW's second-tier title, just as the Intercontinental Championship was for the then-WWF.
Statistics
| Record: | Record holder: | Record number: | Notes: |
| Most reigns | Chris Jericho | 7 | His sixth reign is the shortest in history. His second reign was shared with Chyna, later a match happened to determine a single champion which he won. |
| Longest reign | Honky Tonk Man | 454 days | Loss to the Ultimate Warrior |
| Shortest reign | Chris Jericho | c. 10 minutes | Jericho won the belt from Rob Van Dam on October 27, 2003, only to lose it to him on the same night later in a Steel Cage Match. |
| Oldest champion | Ric Flair | 56 years | Flair won the title at Unforgiven 2005 from Carlito. |
| Youngest champion | Jeff Hardy | 23 years, 7 months, 11 days | Pinned Triple H |
Trivia
- The most times the title has been won by one man is seven, by Chris Jericho. The next-highest number of reigns is six, held by Jeff Jarrett & Rob Van Dam, then Triple H & Edge with five, Chris Benoit & Razor Ramon with four, and Shawn Michaels, Chyna, Christian, Shelton Benjamin & Goldust with three.
- The longest reigning Intercontinental Champions of the respective decades are: Honky Tonk Man (1980's), Mr. Perfect (1990's), and Shelton Benjamin (2000's).
- Already the European Champion, Kurt Angle defeated Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship in February 2000, becoming the third person to simultaneously possess both the European and Intercontentinental Championships. D'Lo Brown and Jeff Jarrett previously accomplished the feat. Angle would later refer to himself as "the EuroContinental champion"
- The only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship was Chyna. Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho and Val Venis, holding the title three times.
- Chris Jericho and Chyna are the only wrestlers to have held the Intercontinental Championship at the same time. The two became co-champions after a controversial ending to a match between them led to the Intercontinental Championship being vacated by Jericho and then awarded to both superstars, under the stipulation that both wrestlers would lose the title if one of them lost during a defense. Chris Jericho would later win a triple threat match including Chyna and Hardcore Holly to become sole champion once again.
- The fastest title defense ever, took place at New Year's Revolution, when after Shelton Benjamin had pinned Maven with a roll up, Maven asked for a rematch right then, Benjamin then pinned Maven again following his "T-Bone" Suplex. The entire match took only 5 seconds.
- There are 19 superstars who won the WWE Championship or World Heavyweight Championship who were also former Intercontinental Champions. They are Pedro Morales, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Bret Hart, Diesel, Shawn Michaels, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Kane, The Rock, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, Ric Flair, Edge, Rob Van Dam and King Booker. Of those, only Pedro Morales, Kane, and Ric Flair have won their first Intercontinental Championship after first winning a world championship.
- The Ultimate Warrior was the only wrestler who ever won the WWF Championship while still Intercontinental Champion.
- The Intercontinental Championship has not been defended at the annual WrestleMania event since WrestleMania X8 back in 2002 in Toronto, Canada.
- The official website never showed the date that Shelton Benjamin lost his first reign which occurred on RAW, June 20, 2005.[1].
- Ahmed Johnson was the first African American to win the title, also the first African American to win a WWF/WWE singles title.
- Carlito is the only wrestler to have won the United States and Intercontinental championship in his debut match on each of the two brands. His first night on SmackDown! and his first night on RAW.
Current champion
The current champion is Johnny Nitro, who won the belt on June 25, 2006 at WWE Vengeance 2006 in Charlotte, North Carolina, after defeating champion Shelton Benjamin and Carlito in a triple threat match. This is Nitro's first reign as Intercontinental champion. The current number 1 contender for the championship is Kane.