Mr. Perfect won the Intercontinental Title for the first time back in 1990, but that's not the belt he's holding in the video below.
There are a select few wrestlers from WWE's past that were never WWE Champion even though they undoubtedly deserved to be. Nowadays, since there are two World Titles in the company and they change hands much more often, it doesn't happen so much. However, the likes of Roddy Piper, Razor Ramon, and Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig were all deserving but never reached that lofty peak.
All three of those men can boast Intercontinental Title reigns, however. Perfect's first run with the prestigious championship began on April 23, 1990. The title had been vacated after Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania VI, therefore he had to relinquish the IC Title. A tournament then took place to crown a new champion. Perfect won, defeating Jimmy Snuka and then Tito Santana in the final on WWE Superstars.
RELATED: UNDERTAKER REVEALS KANE WILL BE IN HIS CORNER AT SUPER SHOW-DOWN
The short clip above is from immediately after Hennig's win, however, you will have likely noticed he is holding a Tag Tag Title, not his newly won IC Championship. Pretty baffling, right? While the reason for that isn't known exactly, the theory behind it makes a lot of sense. When Perfect finally got the real title, its yellow strap had been replaced with a black one. It's assumed that either the title was merely getting altered at the time of Hennig's win, or Warrior kept the old belt and WWE was waiting on a replacement.
It still seems baffling to try and fool fans by having Perfect flaunt a Tag Team Title, though. You may even remember him wearing it to the ring a couple of times after his win, but putting it on upside down as if fans wouldn't notice. Shockingly, it isn't the only time this tactic has been employed. When Stunning Steve Austin won the WCW TV Title, he was awarded with an old six-man tag team belt instead.
We know that WWE thinks its fans aren't that smart and that we forget things from one week to the next, but even we aren't stupid enough to believe that an upside-down Tag Team Title is the Intercontinental Championship. That would never fly in present day WWE, at least we hope it wouldn't. Although, AJ Styles did wear a slightly different WWE Title for one night back in 2017 and hardly anybody noticed. Did you spot it?