10 Best WWE Intercontinental Champions Of The 90s
6. The Rock/Rocky Maivia
When Rocky Maivia debuted as a smiling, happy-go-lucky, white-meat babyface at the 1996 Survivor Series in Madison Square Garden, he was presented as a 'blue-chipper' that was a surefire, future main eventer.
While that prediction eventually turned out to be true, the path to super stardom didn't go exactly as the WWE had drawn up.
Still, by WrestleMania 13 in 1997, Maivia was already beginning the first of two reigns as Intercontinental Champion. His first run with the title was somewhat lackluster, but when Stone Cold Steve Austin was forced to hand over the championship to Rocky in late '97, Maivia's history-changing transition to The Rock paralleled his second stint with the title.
For most of 1998, The Rock successfully defended his Intercontinental Championship against the likes of Ken Shamrock, Faarooq, Triple H, X-Pac and many others.
The Rock's time with the gold was so successful that his previously predicted main event run came immediately after dropping the title to Triple H in their legendary Ladder Match from SummerSlam '98.
The Rock would go on to bigger and better things, namely the WWE title, but in doing so, he left the IC title in a better place than when he took it.