Intercontinental Championship

Crocker · 04-24-2007, 08:16 AM

I've been thinking about the intercontinental championship after our "fan" Santino Marella won the championship on his WWE debut.

My original thinking was this...the belt is of some sort of presigue and is the stepping stone to the bigger goal, the WWE championship. Then I investigated...

There have been a total of 59 recognized champions who have had a combined 114 official reigns. 14 of these champions went on to be world chamion, that leaves 45 who never did. these are Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Randy Savage, The Ultimate Warrior, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Edge, Randy Orton, Rob Van Dam and Booker T.

There have been some dire moment like warrior winning in 31 seconds and have been some bad champs;
But apart from the 'greats' that have held it there have been not so greats...
Chyna, The Godfather, The Mountie, Marc Mero, Albert, Test, Road Dogg and Billy Gunn need I go on?

I think there is a great sense of nostalgia here but when you actually look at it the intercontinental championship is not that great.

Griff0rd · 04-24-2007, 10:11 AM

I think it used to hold a lot more prestige. You are leaving out some of the more prestiges champions to hold that belt... one being a man who whould have held the Heavyweight strap, but never actually did... Mr. Perfect Curt Hennig. YOu are going to have your good champions and your bad ones no matter what championship you are talking about ( Let us not forget Warrior was a champion as well as David Arquette... who was sooo good he bypassed the secondary belt and any kind of build up)

I also believe Kane has held both belts. I may be wrong about the IC part of it but I remember him being heavyweight champ for like 24 hours.

CrasH - X · 04-24-2007, 12:13 PM

He was. As much as WWE likes to forget about the WWE title reign, he was for 24 hours. As for the IC belt, he was that too. I think it may have been two years ago, maybe? I forget exactley how it came about, but it may have had something to do with Jericho...? No idea...but I'm sure he's had it once.

CrasH - X · 04-24-2007, 12:16 PM

I was somewhat right ..... he did beat Chris Jericho in 2002 for the belt, but he won it once before than in 2001 against HHH.

Tyler Durden · 04-24-2007, 12:18 PM

I think you're right. In fact I think Kane's been IC holder a couple of times.

The 24 hour World Title run was very well done (I'm usually against them).

Surprise PPV finish (in which he took the belt off Austin in 1st blood match where the hell in the cell came down on one occasion). Shame the feud with Austin and Taker (and Kane) went on so long!

There have been some excellent champs with this belt though, good thread idea Crockster. Hennig and Honky (though I hated him) stand out the most to me, probably because of the reign lengths and because it was their highest rung up in WWE.

Possibly my favourite IC title match up was the 30 minutes or so at Summerslam '92 between Bulldgog and Bret at a packed Wembley Stadium. Awesome stuff, what was the crowd? 90,000 ish??

Crocker · 04-24-2007, 05:54 PM

Kane was IC Champ after he won the WWE Title, I was talking about using the IC Title as a stepping stone to a World Title

Crocker · 04-24-2007, 05:55 PM

82,000 Tyler, and I was one of them

The Half Boy · 04-24-2007, 06:17 PM

One of my favourites was Jeff's win over HHH. It was such a surprise finish, and worked so well. Granted, he dropped it straight back, but it made one hell of a stirring.