WWE Intercontinental Championship

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 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, The Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Edge, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam and Booker T 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 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 after WrestleMania XIV while The Rock was the champion. The design change was a part of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) wanting to hold trademarks 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.

On October 17, 1999 at No Mercy, Chyna became the first, and only female in World Wrestling Entertainment history to win the Intercontinental Championship. Chyna's first victory came after pinning Jeff Jarrett in a "Good Housekeeping Match." She would later go on to feud with Chris Jericho, winning the title from him, as well as Val Venis. Chyna's last Intercontinental Championship reign began after she pinned Trish Stratus in a tag team match at SummerSlam 2000 (Val Venis & Trish Stratus vs. Eddie Guerrero & Chyna) thus leading her to hold the title three times in her career.

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, 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. ^[1] This 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 co-general manager 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 WWF.

• The Ultimate Warrior was the only wrestler who ever won the WWF Championship while still Intercontinental Champion.
• The Intercontinental Title has been held by 2 different brother combinations: Bret & Owen Hart and Solofa & Eddie Fatu (better known as Rikishi & Umaga).

The current champion is Santino Marella, who is in his first reign. He defeated Umaga in a No Holds Barred match on the April 16, 2007 edition of RAW in Milan, Italy.

• List of WWE Intercontinental Champions
• List of WWE Intercontinental Championship reigns by length

• WWE Intercontinental Title History