WWE Intercontinental Championship
| File:Orton-ic-champion@commons.jpg Randy Orton with the WWE Intercontinental Championship belt | |
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The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship in World Wrestling Entertainment. It is the original secondary title of WWE. Currently, it is the second highest ranked championship exclusive to the RAW brand.
History
The WWE Intercontinental Championship was originally known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. Known later as simply the Intercontinental Championship. Following the title's introduction in 1979, Pat Patterson became the inaugural faggotSeptember 15 as a result of defeating Ted DiBiase to win the WWF North American Championship and claiming to have defended the title in a tournament held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to be unified with a South American Championship.
In March 2001, the World Wrestling Federation purchased World Championship Wrestling. Following this, the "Invasion" storyline was orchestrated, in which WCW was ultimately dismantled. On the conlusion of the "Invasion" at Survivor Series 2001, the WCW United States Championship and the WWF Intercontinental Championship were unified when the WCW United States Champion, Edge, defeated the WWF Intercontinental Champion, Test. As a result, the United States Championship became inactive and Edge became the new WWF Intercontinental Champion.
After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently referred to as the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Over the next few months the Intercontinental Championship went through numerous unification matches with other WWE titles. On July 22 it was unified with the WWE European Championship in a ladder match when the Intercontinental Champion, Rob Van Dam, defeated the European Champion, Jeff Hardy. Rob Van Dam was named the last European Champion. Then on August 26 it was unified with the WWE Hardcore Championship when the Intercontinental Champion, Rob Van Dam, defeated the Hardcore Champion, Tommy Dreamer. Rob Van Dam was named the last Hardcore Champion. Finally, at No Mercy 2002 it was unified with the World Heavyweight Championship when the World Heavyweight Champion, Triple H, defeated the Intercontinental Champion, Kane. As a result, the Intercontinental Championship became inactive and Triple H remained the World Heavyweight Champion. RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff's reasoning for the unifications was so that there would only be one true champion on the RAW brand.
The following year, the title was reactivated by RAW Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin and was recommissioned to be the secondary championship for the RAW brand. Shortly after, the WCW United States Championship was reactivated as the WWE United States Championship by SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon, thus the Intercontinental Championship became its equal counterpart for the RAW brand.
Current champion
The current champion is Umaga, who is in his second reign. He defeated Santino Marella on the July 2, 2007 edition of RAW in Dallas, Texas.