Wwe Intercontinental Championship Article Index for
Wwe 		Website Links For
Wwe 		 

Information About

Wwe Intercontinental Championship
  CATEGORIES ABOUT WWE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
   
world wrestling entertainment championships
   
1979 establishments
   
APPAREL
BABY
BEAUTY
BOOKS
CAR TOYS
CELL PHONES
DVD'S
ELECTRONICS
GOURMET FOOD
GROCERIES
HEALTH & PERSONAL
HOME & GARDEN
JEWELRY
MUSIC
MUSIC INSTRUMENTS
OFFICE PRODUCTS
SOFTWARE
SPORTING GOODS
TOOLS & HARDWARE
TOYS
VIDEO GAMES
SHOPPING HOME
MORE SHOPPING...



Originally the second-most important title in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the WWE Intercontinental Championship (sometimes abbreviated to '''I.C. Title''') is now the secondary championship on its RAW brand. While the top superstars on RAW usually seek the WWE Championship , wrestlers who are not in the main event can vie for the Intercontinental Championship, which has been in existence for over 25 years.


HISTORY

Pat Patterson has the distinction of being the first Intercontinental Champion. He received the title in a fictitious tournament in September, 1979 . In the 1980s, several top superstars won the Intercontinental Championship, including Pedro Morales , Don Muraco , 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 and Randy Orton all held the Intercontinental Championship before becoming World Champions.

The belt has had different leather strap colors during various title reigns. The Ultimate Warrior alternated between red, blue, green and yellow straps. Jeff Jarrett , Shawn Michaels , Marty Jannetty and Shane "Dean" Douglas had white leather during their reigns. Goldust had gold leather during his. Eventually, the belt always reverted to its original black leather state.

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 WWF wanting to hold copyrights on the designs of all of its singles titles ( ECW 's tag team championship belts had the same design as the IC Tile). 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.

Rob Van Dam put his Intercontinental Championship on the line, along with Jeff Hardy 's European Championship , in a ladder match on June 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.

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. This was a hugely unpopular decision and fans demanded the belt be reactivated. RAW General Manager Steve Austin reinstated the Intercontinental Championship the following year, and Christian won the belt on May 18 , 2003 . The Intercontinental Championship has remained active since.

The 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.


FACTS AND TRIVIA

  • The wrestler with the longest Intercontinental Championship reign is the Honky Tonk Man , who held the title for 454 days.




  • 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 wrestler with the shortest Intercontinental Championship reign is Chris Jericho , who won the belt from Rob Van Dam on October 27 2003, only to lose it to him on the same night 10 minutes later. In a close second place is Dean Douglas . Douglas was awarded the title on October 22 , 1995 because his scheduled opponent ( Shawn Michaels ) was injured. He lost the title 11 minutes later to Razor Ramon .



  • to Brazil and won a tournament to unify his belt with the "South American Championship" (a non-existent title) to become the Intercontinental Champion. It is rumored that Patterson was made the North American (later Intercontinental) Champion because of a sexual favor Patterson may have performed on a senior WWF official. Jerry Lawler may have alluded to this on an episode of Monday Night RAW by saying "it was a hot, steamy night in Rio de Janeiro when Pat Patterson won the title".


  • The only woman to win the Intercontinental Championship was Chyna . Chyna defeated Jeff Jarrett, Chris Jericho and Val Venis , holding the title three times.


  • The youngest Intercontinental Championship was Jeff Hardy at 23 years, 7 months, 11 days old, followed by Randy Orton when he won the strap at 23 years, 8 months, 13 days old.



  • 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.



  • In 2002, for a short time, the Intercontinental Championship was exclusive to the SmackDown! brand. Then-champion Chris Benoit left RAW for SmackDown! and took the title with him. The belt returned to RAW when Benoit lost it to Rob Van Dam at Summerslam 2002 .


  • In 2003, 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 WWF/E Undisputed Championship belt.


  • In 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. The WCW United States Championship was already integrated with the IC. Rob Van Dam defeated Jeff Hardy, and Tommy Dreamer to unify the Intercontinental title with the European (Hardy) and Hardcore (Dreamer) titles. The plan was abandoned and the Intercontinental Championship was unified with the World Heavyweight Championship , it was done so because, in RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff's words, "One Show, One Champion", possibly referring to the fact that Bischoff may have viewed the Intercontinental Championship as a sort of second World title.






  • Shelton Benjamin and The Rock are the only African Americans to win this title more than once.


  • 56 wrestlers have held the title individually.



CURRENT CHAMPION

2006]]

The current champion is Rob Van Dam, who won the belt on April 30 , 2006 at WWE Backlash in Lexington, KY , after defeating Shelton Benjamin following the Five Star Frog Splash .

This is Van Dam's sixth reign as Intercontinental Champion.


SEE ALSO