WWE: The 5 greatest Intercontinental Champions ever

Chris Jericho

In my opinion, no debate about Intercontinental Champions can be complete without at least a passing mention for Chris Jericho.

When folks consider candidates for the great professional wrestler of all time, many names crop up – Flair, Hart, Michaels, Bruno, Savage … it’s not always immediate that one plumps for Jericho, but that may be doing the Canadian star a disservice. If nothing else, he’s easily one of wrestling’s most decorated names, thanks to his time in Japan, WCW, WWE, and now AEW – with others thrown in there, too.

A significant part of Jericho’s stellar career is his time as Intercontinental Champion. With a total of nine reigns, nobody in history has held this title more times than the man WWE fans remember as Y2J.

Jericho has just a little over 300 days combined as IC Champion to his name. Across nine reigns, that seems paltry compared to some others, but that likely speaks to the short-termism of the modern-day professional wrestling scene than anything else. Instead his reigns span a huge timescale – his first run starting just before Christmas in 1999, and his most recent one being close to ten years later.

As AEW’s first-ever World Champion, and the first WWE Undisputed Champion, Jericho will arguably be remembered for greater feats than holding on to the Intercontinental title so many times, but where the title’s own history is concerned, there’s arguably no more prolific name than his.