Introduced in 1979, the Intercontinental Championship has been WWE’s secondary title for over four decades, albeit a secondary title that has come with a sense of prestige. That’s because it’s been held by such greats as Steve Austin, Randy Savage, Chris Jericho and more, and thus has been considered a stepping stone for future stars on their way to the main event scene.
Despite being one of the most well-known secondary titles in wrestling, there have been some baffling decisions and facts about the Intercontinental Title that are actually kind of shocking. Let’s take a look about some things about the IC Strap that make no sense.
10 The Origin of the Title
It’s part of WWE history that North American Champion Pat Patterson became the first Intercontinental Champion after beating Johnny Rodz in a tournament in Brazil, unifying Patterson’s belt with the South American Heavyweight Championship to create the Intercontinental Title.
The reality is that the tournament never happened, and the South American belt was also fictional. It’s completely nonsensical to modern fans that WWE could just concoct a bogus tournament halfway around the world to essentially rename a title belt, but they could totally get away with that back then.
9 Co-Champions
In late 1999, Chyna and Chris Jericho were feuding for the Intercontinental Championship, with a title match between the two on the 12/30/1999 episode of SmackDown ending in a double pin.
Often in wrestling that means the title would be held up and considered vacant -- which WWE eventually did in its own records -- but instead the two were made co-champions for some reason. This would result in a triple threat with Hardcore Holly to decide a sole champion.
8 Unifying The Title
While over the years, fans have ascribed prestige to the IC Strap, the belt was only about 23 years old when it was unified in a match between Triple H and Kane on the 10/20/2002 episode of Raw. What’s weird is that it was unified with Trips’ World Heavyweight Title, so a homegrown WWE belt was put to bed in favor of a revival of a WCW Championship.
To make matters even weirder, the unification would be for naught, as it would be revived seven months later.
7 The Honky Tonk Man’s Reign
One of the most legendary Intercontinental Title runs was under Honky Tonk Man, who was always able to escape defeat between 1987 and 1988 -- until The Ultimate Warrior obliterated him at SummerSlam to a huge reaction.
What’s wild about Honky’s 454-day run is that, in over 30 years, no one has surpassed it, making him the longest reigning IC Champion ever. The only recent reigns to come close were Cody Rhodes’ 234-day reign in 2011 and Shinsuke Nakamura’s 201 days in 2019.
6 The Curse of the IC Title
The 2010s saw the Intercontinental Championship lose a lot of its luster. Just look at Wade Barrett, whose impressive five reigns with the belt put him in the top 10 as far as title wins.
But his reigns were always kind of embarrassing, as he’d win the strap, lose non-title singles matches to any babyface on TV, and then somehow miraculously retain when it came time to actually defend the title -- only to restart the cycle again. It certainly did not make the champion or the championship seem prestigious.
5 “Nobody Cares About the Intercontinental Championship”
As established, the IC Strap isn’t the best booked belt in the company -- and WWE seems fully aware of it. In 2013 Chris Jericho was already a nine-time Intercontinental Champion and pitched challenging Barrett for the title at WrestleMania 29 in an attempt to gain a tenth reign with the belt.
While fans might have preferred that, Vince McMahon reportedly shot Jericho down, saying “Nobody cares about the f---ing intercontinental championship.” Instead, Jericho ended up taking on Fandango in the undercard.
4 John Cena’s White Whale
As any wrestling fan knows, John Cena has accomplished pretty much everything one could accomplish in WWE: myriad title reigns, WrestleMania main events, being the face of the company, and so on. What may shock fans is that Cena has never held the Intercontinental Championship.
If Cena ever wants to return to the WWE, capturing one of WWE’s longest running titles would certainly be a great reason. It might even give him the chance to replicate what he did with the United States Championship.
3 The Latest Redesign
The year 2011 saw the Intercontinental Championship belt undergo a surprisingly classy redesign, getting a white strap and some classically tasteful championship belt plating. It made it look like a top title, even if it wasn’t treated as such.
But the belt would get a redesign in 2019, giving it a standard black strap and a busier plating. As some fans lamented the change, rumors swirled that the old look was retired due to its connection to Cody Rhodes, now of rival All Elite Wrestling. However, Cody himself has disagreed with that assumption.
2 The 2020 IC Scene
While the world title scene often concerns the biggest stars duking it out, some fans believe that the Intercontinental Title picture would be best used as “the worker belt,” and mostly involve strong in-ring action to satisfy the subset of fans more interested in “pro wrestling” than “sports entertainment.”
For a period, it seemed like 2020 was actually going to bring that blessing, as the title picture going into WrestleMania 36 involved Daniel Bryan and undervalued wrestlers Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Drew Gulak. However, the execution involved the typical WWE cowardly heel shenanigans that did no favors for anyone involved.
1 Zack Ryder’s Fifteen Minutes
WrestleMania 32 opened with a seven-way ladder match for the IC strap, which resulted in a surprise ending, as perennial bridesmaid Zack Ryder stood tall with the title at the end of the match.
After years of WWE ignoring the fan-favorite Ryder, it seemed like the company was finally pulling the trigger on him, albeit about five years too late. However, this title run would last a day, with The Miz winning it on Raw, making it not only a missed opportunity, but a baffling one.