Intercontinental Championship: Top Ten Superstars Who Defined The Title

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5. Chris Jericho

Usually being a nine-time champion of any belt will put you in the top five of the conversation, and that’s the case here with Y2J. Those nine times with the IC title is an all-time record and considering that he won his first in 1999 and his ninth in 2009, it seems like Jericho always found his way back to this title. The only thing that holds him back from being further up the list is his combined lack of time throughout the nine reigns. The 319 days ranks him 15th all-time and gives him an average length of 35 days per title run. Three of his reigns were less than two weeks.

But let’s not take anything away from Jericho. In the midst of winning these nine Intercontinental Championships, he managed to also nab five world titles, three tag team titles, a European title, and even one Hardcore title, so he’s been busy. And to see Jericho seem to move so seamlessly back and forth from the main event scene into a secondary title program over and over again only proves the depths of his versatility. A guy like Jericho as Intercontinental Champion over and over again can only raise the prestige of this belt.

Now even though a lot of his reigns were short-lived, Jericho always seemed to produce brilliant matches while champion. His title winning performance against Chris Benoit at the 2001 Royal Rumble was a ladder match masterpiece. Another successful ladder match title win over Christian in 2004 padded the resume even more. And who can forgot his stunning 2009 feud with Rey Misterio for the belt in which the duo put on some of the best IC title matches in history.

Whenever fighting for a big prize, Y2J always brought his A game. And that was no different when battling for Intercontinental gold.