Things You Didn’t Know About The History Of WWE’s Intercontinental Championship

Established in 1979 under dubious circumstances, WWE‘s Intercontinental Championship is considered the stepping stone to World Championship immortality, with the title being fought over by WWE’s mid-card roster. A who’s who of wrestling icons have reigned with the ‘workhorse’ championship, from Golden Era greats such as Bret Hart and Randy Savage to Ruthless Aggression legends in Randy Orton and Chris Jericho to modernistic pillars like Gunther and The Miz.

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Given the title’s comprehensive history, though, there is plentiful information to learn about the Intercontinental Championship, from its various redesigns to its complex history of unification to its convoluted creation.

It Was Created After Two WWE Championships Were “Unified”

Pat Patterson Was Crowned The Inaugural Champion

• Pat Patterson was the inaugural WWE Intercontinental Champion.
• It is said that he won a fictitious Brazillian tournament.
• The championship was created after unifying the North and South American Heavyweight Championships.

The genesis of the Intercontinental Championship has long been a hotly debated topic. The story goes that Pat Patterson won a fictitious tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, besting Johnny Rodz. However, the reality is that Patterson felled Ted DiBiase in the summer of 1979 for the North American Heavyweight Championship.

A lesser-known aspect of the Intercontinental Championship’s birth, though, is that in the aforementioned Rodz match, Patterson actually unified his North American title with Johnny’s South American Heavyweight Championship – a title that never existed!

It Has Been Unified With Numerous WWE Championships

WWE Declared The Championship Inactive Briefly

While the Intercontinental Championship wasn’t actually created after the unification of the North and South American Heavyweight Championships, the IC title has been involved in numerous WWE unifications, the last of which occurred in 2002 as Triple H, the defending World Heavyweight Champion, defeated Kane. This resulted in the championship being declared inactive for seven months.

Before this, the Intercontinental Championship had three titles merged into it: the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship (the US title was retired before returning in 2003) by Edge, and the WWE European and Hardcore Championships by Rob Van Dam.

It Wasn’t Vacated For The First Eleven Years

It Was Vacated Following WrestleMania 6

• WWE championships are regularly vacated, typically caused by an injury to the champion.
• The Intercontinental Championship has been vacated eleven times.
• Its first time without a holder came eleven years after its inauguration.

The WWE Intercontinental Championship has been vacated eleven times in its 46-year history, the latest of which came in May 2020 after the reigning champion, Sami Zayn, opted against traveling during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Other title vacancies were largely enforced due to the titleholder suffering an injury.

Its first time being vacated, though, didn’t come until eleven years after it was introduced.

Retained by The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania 6 vs. Hulk Hogan
, Warrior decided to leave the title behind to focus on his newfound life as WWE Champion, which allowed Mr Perfect to win the title for the first time in an eclectic tournament final vs. Tito Santana.

It Was Redesigned In 1985

The New Design Included Different Parts Of The World

• The Intercontinental Championship was redesigned in 1985 while Tito Santana was the champion.
• The new design focused its centerplate on the Atlantic Ocean.
• This preceded the first international title defense in Turin, Italy in 1987.

, including having had at least eight different colored straps, but its first design came in 1985. There, a new centerplate was fitted to the belt, now focusing on the Atlantic Ocean, while different continents were also added to represent Africa and Europe.

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An official reason for the redesign being conducted at this point was never given, though it did precede the first international defense of the IC belt by four years, as Rick Rude retained against The Ultimate Warrior in Turin, Italy in 1989.

It Is WWE’s Third-Oldest Championship

It Was Created In 1979

Being first held by Pat Patterson in 1979, the Intercontinental Championship is the third-oldest of WWE’s active championships, behind only the namesake WWE Championship and the United States Championship. The WWE strap was first held by the late Buddy Rogers, who was first recognized as the champion in April 1963, while the United States Championship was created by Jim Crockett Promotions in 1975 and was first held by Harley Race.

Despite being the third-oldest of WWE’s nineteen active championships, the Intercontinental title is actually more tenured than one of the aforementioned straps.

It Is WWE’s Second-Most Tenured Championship

The United States Championship Was Inactive For Two Years

• The Intercontinental Championship was introduced in 1979, but its current tenure began in 2003.
• The WWE Championship is the only title more tenured than it.
• A two-year inactivity period for the United States Championship puts it behind its Intercontinental brother.

Indeed, despite being only the third-oldest of WWE’s championships, the Intercontinental Championship is currently more tenured than the United States Championship. The US title was inactive in WWE following Edge besting Test at Survivor Series 2001, merging it with the IC belt.

The Intercontinental Championship faced a similar period of inactivity one year later, as Triple H, the World Heavyweight Champion, merged the two titles after defeating Kane, though it was considered retired for only seven months, returning alongside the United States strap in 2003.

It Had To Be Redesigned For Legal Reasons, Twice

WWE Was Forced To Design A New Belt In 1998 And 2011

• Reggie Parks, a renowned title belt designer, crafted the original Intercontinental Championship.
• WWE twice designed a new version of the title after having legal action threatened against them.
• The Rock and Cody Rhodes were the recipients of the newly-designed championships.

The Stu Hart-trained Reggie Parks was a professional wrestler before turning his head to designing wrestling belts, with some of his most celebrated creations including the original Intercontinental Championship and the

Winged Eagle variant of the WWE Championship
. Unfortunately for WWE, Parks didn’t only design the championships: he owned the rights to the designs, too. This twice resulted in WWE being forced into designing a new Intercontinental Championship, first in 1998 and again in 2011.

Both tasked to J-Mar Championship Belts, the first saw The Rock, post-WrestleMania 14, appear on RAW with a purple-colored strap, while the second, designed for Cody Rhodes’ 2011 rebranding of the title, saw a design that looked too similar to Parks’ creation. As such, his company, Midwest Belts, contacted WWE’s legal department, having the title removed from company programming and a new take on the glorious white-strapped belt was commissioned.

Randy Savage Regularly Polished The Intercontinental Championship

This Resulted In Extensive Damage To The Belt

• Randy Savage is heralded as one of the greatest Intercontinental Champions.
• He wanted the title to look sleek and clean, hence why he polished it with Brasso.
• This resulted in damage to the belt, including the WWF logo being chipped.

WWE’s championships regularly look immaculate whenever they are shown on company programming. In the 1980s, though, not everyone was fussed about maintaining the upkeep of their championship – but Randy Savage was. ‘The Macho Man’ is said to have regularly used Brasso polish on the Intercontinental Championship during his legendary reign with the title to keep it shining.

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This, however, had the opposite effect, as Savage’s extensive use of the product caused gradual wear and tear on the championship, including the WWF logo becoming chipped and the paint on the belt’s plates fading.

It Was Defended In WWE’s First Ladder And Triple Threat Matches

Both Match Types Are Now Commonplace In WWE

The Intercontinental Championship twice made stipulation-based history in the nineties, as it was defended in the inaugural Triple Threat match and Ladder match in WWE history. In the three-way showdown, Owen Hart retained the title on a June 1997 RAW broadcast against Goldust and Hunter Hearst Helmsley, while in the Ladder match, Razor Ramon felled Shawn Michaels in an electric WrestleMania 10 contest.

Ramon and Michaels’ tussle is often celebrated as one of WWE’s best matches in history, being the company’s first match to receive the coveted five-star rating by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Vince McMahon Believed Nobody Cared About The Intercontinental Championship

McMahon Reportedly Denied Chris Jericho’s Request For A Tenth Intercontinental Title

• Chris Jericho holds the record for the most Intercontinental Championship reigns at nine.
• He reportedly wanted to chase his tenth at WrestleMania 29, but Vince McMahon denied the request.
• McMahon is said to have retorted that “nobody f***ing cares” about the Intercontinental title.

Although the Intercontinental Championship has

undergone a renaissance following Gunther’s explosive, record-shattering dictatorship with the title
, this wasn’t always the case. During the 2010s, for instance, the title was an afterthought for WWE, and Chris Jericho, speaking to Inside The Ropes, stated that Vince McMahon believed that “nobody f***ing cares” about the title (H/T Comicbook):

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