WWE: The 5 greatest Intercontinental Champions ever

‘Hitman’ Bret Hart

Back in my introduction, I noted the fact that the Intercontinental Championship, and its holders, have gained so much respect and adoration over the years because they almost always yield a top-class quality of match-up.

That is, arguably, no Intercontinental Champion for whom that type of praise is more suitable than Bret ‘Hitman’ Hart.  The WWE Hall of Famer is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time – as he would say, the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be. 

He was a five-time former WWE Champion, and that incredible feat was build on the back of some solid work by Bret Hart during the course of the early 1990s.

Indeed, before he defeated the likes Deisel, The Undertaker and Ric Flair to win the WWE title later in that decade, he was putting on Match of the Year contenders with Mr Perfect and The British Bulldog to kick-start reigns as the Intercontinental Champion.

His win against Perfect at Summerslam 1991 was a classic encounter at the famed Madison Square Garden. The two beat each other from pillar to post before, at the climax, Hart sunk in the Sharpshooter to leave Perfect no choice but to submit.

Two years later at the same event, the Intercontinental title had the rare privilege of closing out the show – an honour almost always reserved for WWE Championship matches in those days. The match pitted Bret Hart against The Bulldog in Bulldog’s homeland of London, England, with 80,000 on hand to see the Brit emerge victorious.

In between those two encounters, Hart faced Rowdy Roddy Piper in a bloody affair at WrestleMania 8 – a shorter, sharper match-up, but another classic nonetheless.