In the modern era of World Wrestling Entertainment, the Intercontinental Title has never meant less. Perhaps fans will point to a period of time from October 2002-May 2003 when the belt was inactive, following Triple H's victory over Kane at the No Mercy Pay-Per-View in '02 as being a lower point. This title unification match had the Intercontinental Title swallowed up by the World Heavyweight Championship, and it seemed WWE felt the Intercontinental strap had outlived any usefulness, but it's little more than a prop today.
Regardless of any past transgressions, the Intercontinental Title remains a powerful one in the minds of many longtime fans, who can point to a rich history of world class matches and moments which add up to make the belt a truly beloved symbol of hard work, spectacular wrestling and some of the biggest stars the industry has ever known.
There have been well over 100 different WWE Intercontinental Championship reigns, but who were the best titleholders? Which men represented the secondary belt the best, having matches which stood out time-and-time again on Pay-Per-View, and had fans looking forward to seeing the title defended?
This list looks at 20 of the greatest Intercontinental titleholders in history, people who proudly wrestled as champion and often managed to outshine the WWF/WWE World Champions of the time.
20. Chris Jericho
One of the most decorated champions in WWE, Chris Jericho had nine reigns with the Intercontinental Title.