This year on September 1st, the Intercontinental Championship turned 39-years old, being introduced in WWE in 1979.
WWE’s Intercontinental Championship has been an active title ever since Pat Paterson won a tournament to unify the North American Championship and the South American Heavyweight Championship to form the Intercontinental Championship. Well, sorta. The tournament never happened, and the “Finals” pitting Paterson against Dibiase was dubbed such just for show. The South American Heavyweight Championship never even existed before the so-called tournament was announced.
While the origins of the title remain questionable, the prestige of the title is undeniable. While some would consider the title a superstar’s first step before heading towards the main event scene, IC Title matches have often stolen the show from the WWE Championship. Often labeled as the workhorse title, some matches held for the Intercontinental Championship have been highly regarded as the best matches to ever be contested under the WWE banner.
Current IC Champion continues the tradition, as many of his matches where he defended the belt this year have been considered the best matches of the year thus far. With then-Universal Champion Brock Lesnar often out of commission, Rollins helped the IC Championship feel like the belt on Monday Night Raw for quite some time.
There is a wide array of classic matches littered across the history of the Intercontinental Championship, and we took the time to go through that same history to pick out the 25 best matches to ever be contested over the Intercontinental Championship.