Bruce Prichard Reveals Why The Intercontinental Championship Was Retired In 2002

TheSportster

By TS Staff

Published Jun 6, 2018

Despite being one of the most prestigous titles in history, WWE briefly retired the title back in 2002 and shortly after the purchase of WCW.

via wwe.com

Since 1979, the Intercontinental Championship has been promoted by WWE as the secondary championship. Since then, WWE Hall of Famers such as Bret Hart, The Ultimate Warrior, Kevin Nash, Edge, Eddie Guerrero, Shawn Michaels, and Booker T all used this championship as a springboard to the world championship level and eventually win the top prize. In addition, names such as Ric Flair, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins won the IC title after becoming world champion to add this prestigous championship to their resume.

In 2002, WWE was one year into purchasing WCW. With that, the company acquired their championships, including the World Heavyweight Championship, United States Championship, and Cruiserweight Championship. As a result, the Light Heavyweight Championship became defunct.

Despite the WWE lineage that came with the IC title, the executive team decided to dissolve the championship during a unification match between Triple H and Kane at No Mercy on October 20, 2002. Triple H won the match, ending the lineage of the IC title.

Despite unifying the title, WWE decided to bring it back just seven months later, as then-General Manager Steve Austin reactivated it to crown a winner via a battle royal at the Judgment Day pay-per-view. Christian won the battle royal and retained the title for a little less than two months before being defeated by Booker T.

According to Bruce Prichard on a recent Something To Wrestle With podcast, the reason why the title was canceled was due to Vince McMahon feeling that there were too many active titles at the time. Just two months before the Intercontinental Championship was unified with the Hardcore Championship, as Rob Van Dam defeated Tommy Dreamer.

Although the original intent was to discontinue the IC title completely, WWE decided to resume the title less than a year later. Since then, there have been 70 more title reigns, and names such as Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose would eventually become world champions after their IC title runs.