10 Things You Didn’t Know About WWE’s Intercontinental Title
10. The Name Only Actually Refers To Two Continents
Listen to WWE's kayfabe'd report on the matter and you'll learn that Pat Patterson definitely won a fictio...erm...100% real tournament in Rio de Janeiro to become the very first IC Champion in 1979. Obviously, that never happened. The tourney was nothing more than a storyline excuse to debut the new belt.
It was a replacement for Patterson's old North American Championship.
Pat had beaten Ted DiBiase to win that title in June '79, and the WWF fancied concocting an elaborate backstory to give Patterson's reign more prestige and parlay into new title territory. Thus, fans were told he bested Johnny Rodz in a tournament final in Brazil to win Rodz' (totally made up) South American Heavyweight Championship.
Those are the continents referred to in the Intercontinental name: North America and South America. Others, like Europe and Africa, aren't involved, meaning the IC belt is really an Inter-American Title more than anything. Of course, that name would be sh*t by comparison. Just saying.