40 Years Of The Intercontinental Championship

In this edition of The Wrestling Estate roundtable, we discuss the history of the Intercontinental Championship.

Who was the Intercontinental Champion when you started watching wrestling?

Sam Gladen: Carlito was Intercontinental Champion during the first show I ever saw: SummerSlam 2005. I don’t remember much from that show at all other than Hogan vs. Michaels, but I don’t think Carlito was even on the show.

David Gibb: I first saw WWF programming in May of ’93, so it was either Shawn Michaels or Marty Jannetty. When I started watching weekly and talking about the shows with other people like a wrestling fan, it was Ken Shamrock.

Chad Gelfand: The earliest I remember watching is 2000 and either Chris Jericho or Eddie Guerrero was the champion.

Matthew Smith: While I can’t remember who that was since I have watched wrestling ever since I could form memories, the guy I remember standing out with the title was Edge. For the longest time when I thought of the title, I thought of him and Christian battling over it.

John Corrigan: Actually, there were two: Chris Jericho and Chyna were co-champions heading into Royal Rumble 2000.

Jack Goodwillie: Edge was the Intercontinental Champion during the back end of summer ’04 and I believe he had just won the title from Randy Orton. He defended the belt in a triple threat at SummerSlam against Batista and Chris Jericho, a future WrestleMania main event in a parallel universe, then got hurt and had Christian step in for him to defend the title at Unforgiven in a ladder match against Jericho. Is my memory good or what?!

Who should have been elevated after winning the Intercontinental Championship, but for whatever reason, wasn’t?

Gladen: Cody Rhodes. He was a great heel champion with the plastic face gimmick, but was never given the rub of a big title defense. He beat down some other low-to-midcard guys, then dropped the title without much fanfare.

Gibb: Lance Storm. His ability to make WWF talent look great made him the standout of The Alliance during what should’ve been wrestling’s biggest angle. When you look at what was happening at the time, though, he got the title when it was gasping for breath after being hot-potatoed throughout the Attitude Era. He lost it seemingly so the company could add higher stakes to Edge and Christian’s storyline after just one month. What a waste.

Gelfand: Shelton Benjamin is a guy that was on fire in 2004-2005 when had those reigns as IC Champion. He seemed like a guy who was on the cusp of taking that next step to the main event. The “Shelton Benjamin’s Momma” angle really derailed his career.

Smith: Cody Rhodes. Him bringing back the old-school title belt was a great move. He made that belt feel like it was important again, his matches were always solid and the fans were finally starting to see Cody for Cody, not The Dream’s son or Randy Orton’s lackey. He moved on from the belt to form Rhodes Scholars and we were teased a money in the bank win by Cody. Sadly, we never got Cody Rhodes in the WWE Championship picture after his reinvention of the Intercontinental Title.

Corrigan: Curtis Axel. You probably forgot he ever won the title. But I remember it was at Payback 2013, with Paul Heyman by his side. The commentary made a big deal about him winning the same title his father wore proudly and doing it on Father’s Day, no less. And that was Axel’s peak in pro wrestling. I’m not suggesting he should have been world champion, but he should at least be in the Dolph Ziggler-Miz eternal midcarder role.

Goodwillie: Razor Ramon. Scott Hall’s WWF run was really the prime of his career (maybe his first year in WCW, too) and it was all downhill from there. As short as his prime was, I see no reason looking back at it that he and Diesel shouldn’t have been at the same level. Mr. Perfect is worth a mention, too. Bruce Prichard has said sometimes guys just don’t need the world title (talking about the likes of Piper, DiBiase, etc.), but a Mr. Perfect-Hulk Hogan feud during peak ‘80s WWF would have been gangbusters.

Who is the worst Intercontinental Champion of all time?

Gladen: Rocky Maivia. Obviously a controversial selection because of who he became and what his legacy as The Rock means to professional wrestling, but before the Nation of Domination got their hands on him, Maivia was a smiling babyface in bright colors who couldn’t promo his way out of a paper bag. WWF tried to give him the Ultimate Warrior treatment and let the history of the title speak for itself and keep him quiet, but it just fell flat.

Gibb: I hate to be mean, but Ezekiel Jackson felt like a creative and philosophical low-point for the IC Title, even though he looked great and could’ve been a functional piece of a strong roster at almost any other point in WWE history than when he came along.

Gelfand: Ezekiel Jackson had a very forgettable run as IC Champion.

Smith: Albert. I really don’t know why the title was given to him, and if memory serves me right, he won this title before his A-Train run (arguably his best run) and nothing came of it. He was a guy that made the title feel a lot less special than what it really was.

Corrigan: Ezekiel Jackson. Easily the most forgettable WWE Superstar of the past 20 years, let alone Intercontinental Champion.

Goodwillie: Ezekiel Jackson. I’m sure Zeke was a nice guy, but he was also one of the more generic ethnic big guys to ever receive a push in WWE, let along in this era. For the near two months of his reign, it almost felt as though the belt was being held hostage as a.) he was never going to get over with or without the IC title and b.) he lacked technical ability to put on the matches we had grown accustomed to seeing with the belt.

Who is the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time?

Gladen: Bret Hart, Owen Hart and The Texas Tornado. Bret and Owen built their legacies on the Intercontinental Championship, using the strap to prove to Vince that the brothers were legitimate draws who could be trusted with the company’s main championships. As for The Texas Tornado (fka Kerry Von Erich), he had admittedly slowed down a bit since his days in World Class Championship Wrestling with his brothers, but was still able to put together a string of very impressive matches over his short career in the WWF and he did it all on one foot!

Gibb: By what measure(s)? Muraco and Pedro were drawing champions at a time when Backlund was not strong and therefore probably the most important and legitimately prestigious holders of the title. Savage made the belt pop with its own unique identity. Perfect, Bret and Shawn used the IC Championship to change the face of main event wrestling.

Gelfand: I associate the IC Title with Chris Jericho since he won it so often and he holds the record for most reigns.

Smith: I have to give The Miz his due for recent memory, but the G.O.A.T. is Chris Jericho.

Corrigan: “Macho Man” Randy Savage set the standard of the Intercontinental Championship being a springboard into the main event scene. Plus, he and Ricky Steamboat had the greatest IC Title match ever.

Goodwillie: It can’t be anyone other than Chris Jericho. He’s held the belt nine times and perhaps most impressively held and defended it during three eras of his career: pre-rise, post-rise and reinvention. But the reigns aren’t the only reason Jericho is the greatest champion. For a long time, the IC title was considered to be “the wrestler’s belt” and was typically reserved for more athletic wrestlers who could go in the ring for up to 30 minutes on any given night. Jericho, who idolized Shawn Michaels, another highly notable holder of the belt, fit that criteria to perfection. Just for the record, though, my top-five greatest Intercontinental Champions go as follows: Jericho, Shelton Benjamin, Mr. Perfect, Honky Tonk Man, Shawn Michaels.

What’s your favorite Intercontinental Championship match?

Gladen: My favorite Intercontinental Championship match took place on Raw on May, 17, 1993, when Marty Jannetty defeated Shawn Michaels to win the strap for his only singles title reign in both of his WWF runs. I love the match for the history behind the competitors and the story they told. Jannetty, rightly, felt left behind by the now wildly successful Michaels and wanted more than anything to prove that he and Michaels were on a much more level playing field wrestling wise than Michaels would have you believe. It was a great match.

Gibb: Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett (Royal Rumble ’94).

Gelfand: I loved the ladder match that Christian and RVD had for the IC Title on an episode of Raw. Not many people talk about it as a classic, but that match still holds up and is very underrated.

Smith: Chris Jericho vs. Rey Mysterio at Extreme Rules in 2009.

Corrigan: As stated above, it gets no better than Savage and Steamboat letting it all hang out in front of 93,000 Hulkamaniacs.

Goodwillie: I have two. Both involve Rob Van Dam and both involve ladders. The first involved Van Dam welcoming Eddie Guerrero back to the company after a stint in rehab and on the indies, and the two delivered a totally bonkers ladder match on free television that saw Van Dam getting his title back. About four years later, Van Dam put his Money in the Bank briefcase on the line against Shelton Benjamin’s Intercontinental Championship at Backlash ’06. I really loved the concept of both wrestlers having something to risk in a “winner take all” environment, and after convincing my mom to let me stay up late enough to watch the show and see if Shawn Michaels and “God” could overcome Vince and Shane, I can safely say this was easily the best match of the night.