WWE Intercontinental Championship

WWE Intercontinental Championship
The current WWE Intercontinental Championship belt with default side plates (2024–present)
Details
Promotion	WWE
Brand	Raw
Date established	September 1, 1979
Current champion	Bron Breakker
Date won	October 21, 2024
Other names
WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship (1979–1988) WWF Intercontinental Championship (1988–2002) WWE Intercontinental Championship (2002, 2003–present)
Statistics First champion Pat Patterson Most reigns Chris Jericho (9 reigns) Longest reign Gunther (666 days) Shortest reign Dean Douglas (14 minutes) Oldest champion Ric Flair (56 years, 205 days) Youngest champion Jeff Hardy (23 years, 222 days) Heaviest champion Big Show (441 lb (200 kg)) Lightest champion Rey Mysterio (175 lb (79 kg))

The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a men's

In November 2001, the then-WCW United States Championship was unified into the Intercontinental Championship. In 2002, after the introduction of the first brand split, it became exclusive to Raw and the WWF was renamed WWE. Later that year, the European and Hardcore championships were unified into the Intercontinental Championship, which itself was unified into the World Heavyweight Championship (original version). The next year, it was reactivated for Raw, followed by the United States Championship's reactivation as a counterpart championship on SmackDown. The Intercontinental Championship has switched between brands over the years, usually as a result of the WWE Draft; the 2023 draft moved the title back to Raw.

The term "intercontinental" in the title originally referred to

On October 17, 1999, Chyna became the only woman to hold the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Jeff Jarrett at No Mercy.^[14] Following the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001,^[15] the title was unified with the WCW United States Championship at Survivor Series, causing the United States Championship to become inactive. Then-United States Champion Edge defeated then-Intercontinental Champion Test.^[16]

In 2002, after the first brand split had begun and the WWF was renamed WWE, Raw general manager Eric Bischoff began unifying his brand's singles championships. On July 22, 2002, the Intercontinental Championship was unified with the European Championship in a ladder match, in which then-Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam defeated then-European Champion Jeff Hardy. On August 19, 2002, Bischoff made a six-minute gauntlet match for the Hardcore Championship, with the winner facing Van Dam in a second unification match the next week on Raw. Tommy Dreamer successfully retained his title in that match, and lost to Van Dam in a hardcore match the next week.^[17][18] As a result of the victories over Hardy and Dreamer, Van Dam is regarded as the last European and Hardcore champion in WWE history; these were his first and fourth reigns with those respective titles.^[19][20][21] On September 30, 2002, Bischoff scheduled a match to unify the Intercontinental Championship with the recently created Raw-exclusive World Heavyweight Championship. The unification match took place at No Mercy the following month and saw then-World Heavyweight Champion Triple H defeat then-Intercontinental Champion Kane, making him the Raw brand's sole male singles champion.^[22]

Over Bischoff's objections, Raw co-general manager

On May 31, 2015, the championship was contested in an Elimination Chamber match for the first time.^[23]

In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split. During the

The 1985 version of the Intercontinental Championship belt, designed by Reggie Parks, consisted of a gold center plate featuring a blue globe, with the red WWF block logo on top which was then later changed to gold. On the top ribbon of the belt, it reads "INTERCONTINENTAL" with the three stars on each side while the bottom inscription reads "HEAVYWEIGHT WRESTLING CHAMPION". The championship belt also had four identical side plates. Like the main WWF Championship, the strap can be changed to a custom color such as yellow worn by The Ultimate Warrior and blue worn by Shawn Michaels.^[26]

In 1997, after Stone Cold Steve Austin won the title, the Intercontinental Championship was redesigned again, after he threw the previous title into the river. The belt originally had a purple strap and the WWF block logo, but was later redesigned again with a black strap and the WWF scratch logo. The center plate was oval shaped and had featured an oval shaped globe with the company's logo in the center. On the top it had six faux diamonds and the inscription initially read "World Wrestling Federation" while the bottom had two texts read "INTERCONTINENTAL" on the ribbon and "CHAMPION" on the bottom. Each of the four side plates represents the continents: the first plate contained the WWF logo and the text Antarctica, the second plate read Europe and Africa, while the third plates represent the Americas (particularly North America and South America), and the fourth plate also reads Asia and Australia. The belt's design was unchanged albeit the name change in 2002 when WWF changed its name to WWE, thus replacing the texts with "World Wrestling Entertainment" accordingly.^[27]

On October 2, 2011, at Hell in a Cell, Cody Rhodes reintroduced a modified version of Parks' 1985–1997 championship belt design with the white strap, with the modern WWE "scratch logo" and other embellishments.^[28] Following the end of the first brand split on August 29, 2011, the title could be defended on both Raw and SmackDown. On August 18, 2014, the Intercontinental Championship belt, along with all other pre-existing championship belts in WWE at the time, received a minor update, replacing the long-standing scratch logo with WWE's current logo that was originally used for the WWE Network that launched earlier that year in February.^[29]

On the November 22, 2019, episode of SmackDown, Sami Zayn presented a new belt design to champion Shinsuke Nakamura. The redesigned Intercontinental Championship returned to being on a black leather strap 1997 to 2011 version with an entirely new center plate with an irregular shape. The center portion of the center plate features an oval-shape. The top half of the oval says "Intercontinental" and the bottom half says "Champion"; the word "Heavyweight" sits in a banner on the inner side of the oval above the word "Champion". At the center of the oval is a diamond shape, representing a wrestling ring viewed from above, with the WWE logo over a globe. On the sides of the center, plate is two halves of the globe. The left side features the continents of North and South America as well as Africa and Europe, while the globe on the left shows Asia and Australia; both globes show a portion of Antarctica. The rest of the center plate is filled with ornamentation. Like all of WWE's other championships, the belt features two side plates with a removable center section that can be customized with the champion's logos; the default side plates consist of the WWE logo over a globe.^[30] On the September 30, 2024, episode of Raw, upon Jey Uso winning the championship from Bron Breakker the week prior, the championship received a minor update by adding blue on the globes on the centerplate.

Following the brand split on March 25, 2002, all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand. The brand split was discontinued on August 29, 2011, and revived on July 19, 2016. The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Intercontinental Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands.

The WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion after previous champion Ultimate Warrior was required to vacate the title after he defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VI.^[31][32]

The WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Champion after previous champion

The tournament to determine the new WWF Intercontinental Champion after former champion Stone Cold Steve Austin forfeited the belt after his neck injury. The tournament was held between September 8 and October 5, 1997, with the finals occurring on October 5 at the pay-per-view. The tournament brackets were:

Notes:
¹ Ken Shamrock initially won the match. But he was injured so Faarooq advanced.

The WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Champion after previous champion Triple H vacated the title due to injury.^[32][34]

A tournament was announced to crown a new #1 contender for William Regal's WWE Intercontinental Championship. CM Punk won the tournament by defeating Rey Mysterio in the tournament final at Armageddon.^[35]

The WWE Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to crown a new Intercontinental Champion. On May 7, 2010, after failed attempts of getting Intercontinental Champion Drew McIntyre to stop attacking Matt Hardy, Smackdown General Manager Theodore Long fired McIntyre and vacated the title. The following week, Kofi Kingston won a tournament to become the new champion, but Mr. McMahon reverted Long's decision. Due to the decision by Mr. McMahon, the vacancy of the title and Kingston's championship win are not recognized as WWE continued to recognize McIntyre as champion during that period.^[36] At Over the Limit, Kingston defeated McIntyre to win his second official Intercontinental Championship.

On May 12, 2020, the Intercontinental Championship was declared vacant after champion Sami Zayn elected to refrain from competing during the COVID-19 pandemic. A tournament to crown a new champion was then set to begin on the May 15 episode of SmackDown.^[37]

† Neither Jeff Hardy nor Elias were able to compete in the semifinals, as Elias was (kayfabe) injured in a car crash and Hardy was accused of causing it and arrested. AJ Styles and Daniel Bryan were given the option of having a bye in the tournament. Styles opted for the bye to automatically advance to the final on June 12 while Bryan opted to have a new opponent; Sheamus subsequently won a battle royal to qualify for the vacant spot in the semifinals against Bryan that night.

The inaugural champion was

The Intercontinental Championship's early years have been praised. Samuel Kendall of Comic Book Resources lauded the championship during this era, stating: "It was a foregone conclusion that the Intercontinental Champion was the workhorse of the company and the next in line for the World Heavyweight Championship".^[40][41] Steve Cook of 411Mania wrote that "nearly anybody that was a big deal in WWE held the championship at some point."^[42] Steve Austin said he considered the Intercontinental Championship to be as important as the world titles and he remains in possession of the physical belt that represented the championship during his reign because of its historical importance.^[43]

Throughout the 2010s, WWE was criticized for its booking of the Intercontinental Champions, with champions either not defending during long periods of time or losing in many of their non-title matches. Chris Jericho said that WWE promoter Vince McMahon told him that "nobody fucking cares about the Intercontinental Championship" after he asked to be placed in a match for the title at WrestleMania 29 in 2013.^[44] Also in 2013, Darren Gutteridge of Pro Wrestling Dot Net wrote that the "title has proven an albatross for the past decade, with almost all title holders doomed to tread water, usually only beating people decisively when the title is on the line".^[45] The albatross metaphor was also used to describe the title in 2014 by James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch,^[46] while Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said that year that "the [Intercontinental] title isn't booked to mean much."^[47] Various commentators in 2014 and 2015, including from The Baltimore Sun, Rolling Stone, PWInsider, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net have pointed out that the Intercontinental Champion often loses non-title matches,^{[48][49][50][51]} while Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview questioned how Intercontinental Champions losing too much is supposed to bring prestige to the title.^[52]

The championship continued to receive criticism into the early 2020s. Kendall panned the recent reigns as forgettable and wrote that the title had "turned into a prop to be lugged around, rather than a title that should bestow prestige."^[41] Cook wrote that it had been "treated as something of an afterthought" for the previous two decades.^[42] The championship was only defended on two pay-per-views in 2021 and was not defended at any within the first quarter of 2022, including WrestleMania 38; its absence on the premiere event was widely criticized by fans.^[53]

After Vince McMahon retired as chairman, CEO, and

• Secondary championships in WWE
• WWE Women's Intercontinental Championship

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wrestlers as the WWE Intercontinental champion.

• Official WWE Intercontinental Title History
• Wrestling-Titles.com: Intercontinental Championship
• WWE Intercontinental Title Belts: A Guide to the Gold