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78-528: Intercontinental Championship may refer to: WWE Intercontinental Championship , a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE WWF Intercontinental Tag Team Championship , a former professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion World Wrestling Federation IWGP Intercontinental Championship ,

156-553: A hammerlock DDT on Cara to win the match. Next, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) faced Sanity (Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Killian Dain) in a tables match. In the end, Wolfe restrained Kingston to allow Young to execute a diving elbow drop on Kingston through a table to win the match. The actual pay-per-view opened with Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt defending the Raw Tag Team Championship against The B-Team (Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel). In

234-502: A multi-man match for Extreme Rules, with the winner facing Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship . Roman Reigns , claiming to be the "uncrowned champion" due to the controversial finish of his championship match at Greatest Royal Rumble , and Bobby Lashley , claiming to be the only person who could legitimately match Lesnar, were the first two participants confirmed for the match. The following week, however,

312-419: A powerbomb/diving clothesline combination on Bryan to retain the titles. After that, Roman Reigns faced Bobby Lashley. Lashley performed a spinebuster and a delayed vertical suplex on Reigns for a near-fall. Reigns performed a superman punch on Lashley for a near-fall. Lashley performed an overhead belly to belly suplex on Reigns over an announce table. Reigns performed a superman punch on Lashley, who

390-552: A triple threat match at WrestleMania 39: Night 2 , making it the first time Meltzer gave more than one five-star match rating for any main roster championship reign. The last time the Intercontinental Championship received such a rating before Gunther's reign was Shawn Michaels going against Razor Ramon in an Intercontinental Unification ladder match at WrestleMania X . Extreme Rules (2018) The card consisted of 12 matches, including two on

468-630: A 30-minute Iron Man match between the two was scheduled for Extreme Rules. On the July 9 episode, McIntyre defeated Rollins, ensuring that McIntyre would be in Ziggler's corner during the match. At Money in the Bank , Alexa Bliss won the women's Money in the Bank ladder match . Later in the night, she interrupted the Raw Women's Championship match between Ronda Rousey and champion Nia Jax , causing

546-427: A 30-minute Iron Man match. Rollins performed a turnbuckle powerbomb on Ziggler and pinned Ziggler with a la magistral to make the score 0–1. Rollins performed " The Stomp " on Ziggler to make the score 0–2. McIntyre attacked Rollins, thus Rollins won a fall by disqualification to make the score 0–3. The referee ejected McIntyre, who performed a " Claymore Kick " on Rollins before leaving. Ziggler pinned Rollins to make

624-532: A Raw Women's Championship match against Bliss at SummerSlam. On the July 23 episode of Raw , a rematch between Dolph Ziggler and Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship was scheduled for SummerSlam, with Drew McIntyre in Ziggler's corner. On the August 13 episode, a returning Dean Ambrose confirmed that he would be in Rollins' corner during the match. Baron Corbin and Finn Bálor had another match on

702-507: A WWE world championship. 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

780-420: A black strap 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

858-471: A disqualification, and cashed in her Money in the Bank contract to win the championship. The following night on Raw , Jax invoked her championship rematch clause for Extreme Rules. Rousey was also suspended for 30 days as she attacked Raw General Manager Kurt Angle , who was trying to break up the fight between Rousey and Bliss. On the July 2 episode of Raw , the match at Extreme Rules was made an Extreme Rules match , and Rousey stated her intentions to be in

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936-484: 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. Over Bischoff's objections, Raw co-general manager Stone Cold Steve Austin reactivated

1014-622: A professional wrestling championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion Intercontinental Championship for the King Fahd Cup (later renamed to FIFA Confederations Cup), international association football tournament for men's national teams Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Intercontinental Championship . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

1092-486: A rematch for the United States Championship on the following episode of SmackDown , where Hardy won via disqualification after interference from Randy Orton. A rematch between Hardy and Nakamura for the title was later scheduled for SummerSlam. Team Hell No were assaulted by The Bludgeon Brothers backstage before their match, and (kayfabe) injured Kane's ankle. WWE later acknowledged the injury as

1170-520: 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. On the September 30, 2024, episode of Raw , upon Jey Uso winning the championship from Bron Breakker the week prior, the championship received slight changes by adding blue on the globes in the centerplate. The WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship Tournament

1248-497: A stretcher. Next, The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan) defended the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan and Kane). Due to an attack by Harper and Rowan earlier in the event that injured Kane's ankle, Bryan initially competed alone. Midway through the match, Kane appeared to participate and performed chokeslams on Harper and Rowan. In the end, Rowan and Harper performed

1326-429: A superkick. Later, it was announced that Ellsworth would be suspended above the ring in a shark cage during the championship match. On the July 3 episode of SmackDown , The New Day 's ( Kofi Kingston , Big E , and Xavier Woods ) were having a pancake-eating competition when they were interrupted by Sanity ( Eric Young , Alexander Wolfe , and Killian Dain ), who laid out The New Day, including putting Woods through

1404-524: A table. A tables match between the two teams was then scheduled for the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show. Two matches occurred during the Extreme Rules Kickoff pre-show. In the first, Andrade "Cien" Almas, accompanied by Zelina Vega, faced Sin Cara. The ending saw Vega distract Cara, allowing Almas to perform a running double knee smash on Cara, who was seated in the corner. Almas performed

1482-449: A title that should bestow prestige." Cook wrote that it had been "treated as something of an afterthought" for the previous two decades. 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. After Vince McMahon retired as chairman, CEO, and Head of Creative on July 22, 2022,

1560-477: 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. At Over the Limit , Kingston defeated McIntyre to win his second official Intercontinental Championship. On May 12, 2020, the Intercontinental Championship

1638-691: Is a men's professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE , defended on the Raw brand division . It is one of two secondary championships for WWE's main roster, along with the WWE United States Championship on SmackDown . The current champion is Bron Breakker , who is in his second reign. He won the title by defeating Jey Uso on the October 21, 2024, episode of Raw . The championship

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1716-547: Is the current champion in his second reign. He won the title by defeating Jey Uso on the October 21, 2024, episode of Raw in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . 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

1794-525: The SmackDown Women's Championship with the help of the returning James Ellsworth . On the following episode of SmackDown , Carmella attacked Asuka after a distraction by Ellsworth. On the June 26 episode of SmackDown , General Manager Paige scheduled a rematch for the title at Extreme Rules. On the July 10 episode, after Asuka defeated Ellsworth in a lumberjack match , Carmella laid out Asuka with

1872-573: The United States Championship that had been unified with the Intercontinental Championship in 2001, placing the WWE name on it while claiming the lineage of the old WCW title of the same name (much as they did with the Cruiserweight Championship when that became WWE exclusive). On October 2, 2011, at Hell in a Cell , Cody Rhodes introduced a modified version of the classic championship belt design with

1950-610: 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 North and South America . In 1985,

2028-614: The World Wrestling Federation 's (WWF) purchase of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in March 2001, 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 . In 2002, after the first brand split had begun and the WWF

2106-649: 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". The albatross metaphor was also used to describe the title in 2014 by James Caldwell of Pro Wrestling Torch , while Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer said that year that "the [Intercontinental] title isn't booked to mean much." Various commentators in 2014 and 2015, including from The Baltimore Sun , Rolling Stone , PWInsider, and Pro Wrestling Dot Net have pointed out that

2184-554: 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. Also in 2013, Darren Gutteridge of Pro Wrestling Dot Net wrote that

2262-616: The 2018 Extreme Rules event was the 10th Extreme Rules. While the 2017 event was held exclusively for wrestlers from the Raw brand division , the 2018 event featured wrestlers from both Raw and SmackDown , as after WrestleMania 34 in April, WWE discontinued brand-exclusive pay-per-views (PPV). It took place on July 15, 2018, at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . In addition to airing on traditional PPV,

2340-505: The Bank, Braun Strowman won the men's Money in the Bank ladder match. During the match, Strowman threw fellow competitor Kevin Owens off a ladder through two tables. The next night on Raw , Owens attempted to befriend Strowman by saying he would protect him now that he had the contract. Strowman attempted a powerslam on Owens but Owens escaped. Over the next few weeks, Strowman continuously embarrassed Owens including flipping his car over in

2418-400: The Intercontinental Champion often loses non-title matches, while Mike Tedesco of Wrestleview questioned how Intercontinental Champions losing too much is supposed to bring prestige to the title. The championship continued to receive criticism into the 2020s. Kendall panned the recent reigns as forgettable and wrote that the title had "turned into a prop to be lugged around, rather than

Intercontinental Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

2496-513: The Intercontinental Championship on the May 5, 2003 episode of Raw and declared any former champion on the Raw roster eligible to enter a battle royal at Judgment Day for the title. Christian won the battle royal to win the championship and restore a secondary singles title for Raw wrestlers to compete for. Eventually, WWE did the same thing for SmackDown and created a separate set of titles for that brand; for its secondary title, SmackDown reactivated

2574-496: The July 30 episode of Raw , where Corbin won. Another match between the two was later scheduled for SummerSlam. On the July 23 episode of Raw , Kevin Owens vowed to take everything away from Braun Strowman, and a rematch between the two was scheduled for SummerSlam with a stipulation that if Owens won, even by disqualification or countout, he would win Strowman's Money in the Bank contract. Jeff Hardy and Shinsuke Nakamura had

2652-490: The Kickoff pre-show. Only three matches, including one pre-show match, were contested under a hardcore stipulation. In the main event, Dolph Ziggler retained Raw's Intercontinental Championship by defeating Seth Rollins 5–4 in an Iron Man match that went into sudden death overtime. This was the first time that an Intercontinental Championship match was the main event of a WWE pay-per-view since Backlash in April 2001. In

2730-473: The Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live . On the June 18 episode of Raw , Dolph Ziggler defeated Seth Rollins to win his sixth Intercontinental Championship after Drew McIntyre , Ziggler's tag team partner, distracted Rollins. The following week, Rollins won a rematch for the title by disqualification after McIntyre interfered on Ziggler's behalf. On July 2,

2808-565: The Sharpshooter and the Crossface, but Ziggler escaped. After Ziggler was brought back in the ring, he performed a "Fameasser" on Rollins for a near-fall. In the closing moments, Ziggler attempted a superkick, but Rollins countered and performed a superkick and "The Stomp" on Ziggler, however, the time limit expired, thus the match ended in a draw at 4–4 and Ziggler seemingly retained the title. However, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle ordered

2886-603: The Ultimate Warrior defeated WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan to win the world title; so the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship was vacated for the first time soon after. Mr. Perfect then won a tournament to crown a new Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion. On October 17, 1999, Chyna became the only woman to hold the Intercontinental Championship by defeating Jeff Jarrett at No Mercy . Following

2964-824: The Universal Championship. On Raw , Brock Lesnar was absent and as Angle was about to strip him of the title, he was interrupted by Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman , who, on Lesnar's behalf, agreed that Lesnar would defend the championship at SummerSlam . Bobby Lashley and Roman Reigns won their respective triple threat matches to face each other the following week to determine Lesnar's challenger at SummerSlam, where Reigns won. Also on Raw , Rousey, who just had two days left on her 30-day suspension, appeared and attacked Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss and Mickie James. After they were separated, Kurt Angle extended Rousey's suspension by one week and stated that as long as she does not violate her suspension, she would receive

3042-468: The WWE Championship against Rusev, accompanied by Aiden English. Styles applied the " Calf Crusher ", but English pushed the ring rope, which Rusev grabbed to void the hold. Styles chased English, allowing Rusev to perform an overhead belly to belly suplex on the floor on Styles. Rusev performed a " Machka Kick " on Styles for a near-fall. Rusev applied " The Accolade ", only for Styles to touch

3120-416: 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

3198-810: The championship belt design changed, the centerplate now centered on the Atlantic Ocean , in a map including western Africa and Europe . On April 7, 1989, the championship was first defended outside of North America, by Rick Rude against the Ultimate Warrior in Turin, Italy . On March 30, 1991, Mr. Perfect made the first Asian defense against The Texas Tornado at a WWF co-promotion with Super World of Sports in Tokyo, Japan . It first came to Africa on April 6, 1997, when champion Rocky Maivia pinned Savio Vega in Durban, South Africa . Shelton Benjamin made

Intercontinental Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

3276-482: The championship has been featured more prominently after Paul "Triple H" Levesque took over as the new Head of Creative. The championship has been featured in the main event of numerous episodes of SmackDown , and has even received two five-star ratings from Meltzer. The first was Gunther defending against Sheamus at Clash at the Castle , while the second was Gunther defending against Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in

3354-489: The climax, Dallas performed an elevated whiplash on Hardy to win the titles. Next, Finn Bálor faced "Constable" Baron Corbin. In the end, Balor pinned Corbin with a small package to win the match. After that, Carmella defended the SmackDown Women's Championship against Asuka, with James Ellsworth suspended above the ring in a shark cage. As Ellsworth unlocked the cage door by picking the lock, Ellsworth's foot

3432-539: The company and the next in line for the World Heavyweight Championship". Steve Cook of 411Mania wrote that "nearly anybody that was a big deal in WWE held the championship at some point." 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. Throughout

3510-508: The event was livestreamed on the WWE Network . Tickets went on sale on April 13 through Ticketmaster . The event comprised 12 matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes , villains , or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on

3588-412: The fifth match, Braun Strowman faced Kevin Owens in a steel cage match. Owens used handcuffs to bound Strowman to the ring rope and attacked Strowman. As Owens attempted to escape, Strowman broke the handcuffs and performed a chokeslam on Owens off the top of the cage through an announce table. As Owens touched the floor first, he was ruled the winner. After the match, medical personnel carted Owens out on

3666-694: The first Australian defense on April 7, 2005, pinning Gene Snitsky in Brisbane . WWF North American Heavyweight Champion Pat Patterson became the inaugural champion on September 1, 1979. It was said he had unified his title with the South American Heavyweight Championship, in a tournament in Rio de Janeiro , although both the tournament and South American Championship were entirely fictional. On April 1, 1990, at WrestleMania VI , Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion

3744-508: The front row for the match. On the June 4 episode of Raw , The B-Team ( Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel ) won a tag team battle royal to earn the right to face "Woken" Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt for the Raw Tag Team Championship . On the June 25 episode of Raw , Axel defeated Hardy and the tag team title match was scheduled for Extreme Rules. On the June 18 episode of Raw , Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled

3822-429: The front row, jumped the barricade, attacked James and performed a twisting Samoan drop on James. Rousey threw James over an announce table and chased Bliss, only for James to strike Rousey with a kendo stick. As Jax attempted a Samoan drop on Bliss, James and Bliss struck Jax with chairs. In the climax, Bliss performed a " Bliss DDT " on Jax on the chair to retain the title. In the penultimate match, AJ Styles defended

3900-434: The gauntlet match, The Bludgeon Brothers attacked Bryan, thus ensuring Bryan's elimination. On the June 26 episode of SmackDown , Kane returned to save Bryan from a post-match assault from The Bludgeon Brothers, reuniting Team Hell No . SmackDown General Manager Paige then scheduled Team Hell No to face The Bludgeon Brothers for the tag titles at Extreme Rules. At Money in the Bank, Carmella defeated Asuka to retain

3978-442: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Intercontinental_Championship&oldid=919231792 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages WWE Intercontinental Championship The WWE Intercontinental Championship

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4056-407: The match to restart under sudden death overtime. As the match restarted, McIntyre appeared and distracted Rollins, allowing Ziggler to perform a "Zig Zag" on Rollins to win the match 5–4 and retain the title. At Extreme Rules, General Manager Kurt Angle offered Brock Lesnar an ultimatum: show up on Raw the next night or agree to the terms of his next title defense, otherwise he would be stripped of

4134-506: The match was canceled over contract disputes with Lesnar. Reigns and Lashley wanted to face each other, but Angle instead had them team up against The Revival ( Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder ). The Revival won and in a rematch the following week, Reigns refused to tag in Lashley and Lashley abandoned Reigns to a post-match beat down by The Revival. A match between Lashley and Reigns was subsequently scheduled for Extreme Rules. At Money in

4212-422: The match, Nakamura attacked Hardy with a low blow . Once Hardy was ruled able to compete, Nakamura performed a " Kinshasa " on Hardy to win the title in six seconds. After the match, Randy Orton appeared, making his return, and stared down with Nakamura, who was standing on top of the announce table. Orton attacked Hardy with a low blow before leaving, thus turning heel for the first time since November 2016. In

4290-424: 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. 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

4368-468: The parking lot, and locking him inside a portable toilet. On the July 9 episode, a Steel Cage match between the two was scheduled for Extreme Rules. On the June 19 episode of SmackDown , Rusev won a gauntlet match to become the number one contender for AJ Styles ' WWE Championship at Extreme Rules. Prior to the gauntlet match, Daniel Bryan had a stare down with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers ( Harper and Rowan ). During

4446-451: The pay-per-view. The tournament brackets were: Notes: 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. A tournament was announced to crown a new #1 contender for William Regal 's WWE Intercontinental Championship. CM Punk won

4524-508: The penultimate match, AJ Styles retained SmackDown's WWE Championship against Rusev . In other prominent matches, Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax in an Extreme Rules match , Bobby Lashley defeated Roman Reigns , and Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jeff Hardy to win SmackDown's United States Championship . Extreme Rules was an annual gimmick event produced by WWE since 2009. The concept of

4602-414: The ring rope to void the submission. After Rusev collided with an exposed turnbuckle, Styles performed a springboard 450° splash on Rusev for a near-fall. In the climax, Styles performed a baseball slide on English and a " Phenomenal Forearm " on Rusev to retain the title. In the main event, Dolph Ziggler (accompanied by Drew McIntyre) defended the Intercontinental Championship against Seth Rollins in

4680-413: The score 1–3. Ziggler executed a superkick on Rollins to make the score 2–3. Ziggler threw Rollins into the ring post and performed a " Zig-Zag " on Rollins to tie the score 3–3. Ziggler pinned Rollins while using the ropes for leverage to make the score 4–3. Rollins executed a catapult into the corner on Ziggler and pinned him with a roll-up to tie the score 4–4. Rollins tried to make Ziggler submit to

4758-404: The second-longest tenured championship, as WWE has only owned the U.S. championship since 2001. Although generally contested in the midcard at WWE shows, it has been defended in the main event of pay-per-views including WrestleMania VI , SummerSlam in 1992 , the third and eighth In Your House shows, Backlash in 2001 , and at Extreme Rules in 2018 . It has been called a "stepping stone" to

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4836-533: The shortest reign at just 13 minutes and 52 seconds. Chyna is the only woman to win the title. The youngest champion was Jeff Hardy , who won the championship for the first time at the age of 23, while the oldest champion was Ric Flair , who won the championship at the age of 56. There have been 10 vacancies throughout the title's history. Only five men have held the title for a continuous reign of one year (365 days) or more: Pedro Morales, Don Muraco , Randy Savage , The Honky Tonk Man , and Gunther. Bron Breakker

4914-445: The show was that the event featured various matches that were contested under hardcore rules and generally featured one Extreme Rules match . The defunct Extreme Championship Wrestling promotion, which WWE acquired in 2003, originally used the "extreme rules" term to describe the regulations for all of its matches; WWE adopted the term and has since used it in place of "hardcore match" or "hardcore rules". Announced on March 27, 2018,

4992-504: The title exclusive to SmackDown. During the following year's Superstar Shake-up , Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose was moved to the Raw brand, making the title exclusive to Raw. Two years later during the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up , Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor moved to SmackDown, making the title exclusive back to SmackDown. Later that year, the NXT brand, WWE's developmental territory , became WWE's third major brand when it

5070-411: The title. He suffered ( kayfabe ) injuries to both kidneys when he was attacked by the debuting Faarooq after winning an 11-man battle royal. 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

5148-433: The tournament by defeating Rey Mysterio in the tournament final at Armageddon. 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

5226-469: The two championships into the Intercontinental Championship. Since then, there have been 187 reigns among 91 different champions. Chris Jericho has the most reigns with nine. At 666 days, Gunther 's reign is the longest in the title's history, both as a singular reign and for most cumulative days as champion. Prior to his reign, Pedro Morales had the longest combined reign at 619 days over two reigns, and held this record for over 41 years. Dean Douglas had

5304-430: The white strap, with the modern WWE "scratch logo" and other embellishments. 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

5382-447: 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. 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. On September 30, 2002, Bischoff scheduled

5460-503: 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 . The WWF Intercontinental Championship Tournament was a tournament to decide a new WWF Intercontinental Champion after previous champion Ahmed Johnson forfeited

5538-461: Was caught in the cage. Asuka then attacked Ellsworth. Production staff attempted to liberate Ellsworth from the cage only for Asuka to attack them, and continue to attack Ellsworth. Whilst the referee was distracted by Ellsworth, Carmella shoved Asuka into the cage and pinned her to retain the title. After the match, Asuka applied the " Asuka Lock " on Ellsworth. Later, Jeff Hardy defended the United States Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. Before

5616-474: 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 . † 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

5694-547: 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 inaugural champion was Pat Patterson who, as the WWF North American Heavyweight Champion in September 1979 was also declared "South American Heavyweight Champion" after allegedly winning a tournament in Rio de Janeiro . Patterson unified

5772-584: Was established by the then- World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on September 1, 1979, as a result of the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship being unified with an apocryphal South American Heavyweight Championship, with Pat Patterson as the inaugural champion. It is the third-oldest championship currently active in WWE, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and United States Championship (1975), but

5850-571: Was moved to the USA Network in September, thus making the NXT North American Championship a third secondary title in WWE. However, this recognition was reversed when NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand in September 2021. On 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

5928-499: Was originally used for the WWE Network that launched earlier that year in February. On May 31, 2015, the championship was contested in an Elimination Chamber match for the first time. In July 2016, WWE reintroduced the brand split. During the 2016 draft , then-Intercontinental Champion The Miz was drafted to SmackDown. Just days later, he successfully defended the title against Raw draftee Darren Young at Battleground , making

6006-502: Was poised on the top rope. In the end, as Reigns went for a spear on Lashley, Lashley performed his own spear on Reigns to win the match. Later, Alexa Bliss (accompanied by Mickie James) defended the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax (accompanied by Natalya) in an Extreme Rules match. During the match, Natalya attacked James only for Bliss and James to throw Natalya into the barricade. Ronda Rousey, who had been in attendance in

6084-566: 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

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