10 Fascinating Facts About Famous Wrestling Titles
2. The OTHER Fake History Of The Intercontinental Championship
[Pictured: Dean Ambrose looking just thrilled to have won a title that nobody earnestly cares about anymore.]
In WWE folklore, the Intercontinental Title was originally contested for in a tournament held in Rio de Janeiro. This is a fabrication, and you know it's a fabrication - but it's not the only fabrication associated with the title.
Now, this is very much a qualitative and subjective assessment with a flaw to the logic, in that, briefly and when it suited them, WWE did care about the Intercontinental Title.
For a bit.
The cracking Miz Vs. Dolph Ziggler programme of 2016 however is a rule-proving exception. The following assessment relies heavily on consensus, in that most reasonable/non-brainwashed fans would agree that WWE hasn't really cared about the belt since 1998. In 1999, it was exchanged no less than 11 times, just shy of once-per-month on average, and was captured by the Godfather. The Godfather was as over then as he is dated now, but despite his popularity, he hardly fit the mould of the classic 'Intercontinental Champion'. The old 'IC' champ was a super-credible or futuristic workhorse at the very least. Ideally - and the title was once curated so well that this worked several times - it was a golden symbol that prophesied superstardom. After the Attitude Era, it was given to virtually every single midcard act as a push shortcut of sorts.
If that still scans as much too cynical, remember that WWE itself formally stopped giving a sh*t about the belt and deactivated it in 2002 - before realising that it was simply easier to book midcard storylines using it as a prop.
Between the launch of the Vince/Hulk era and 1998, Vince booked the Intercontinental Title as a serious concern for 14 years. Between 1999 and 2022, Vince booked the belt as something he gave to midcard acts as a lazy, shorthand illusion of real prestige for 23 years.
That means wrestlers have spent considerably more time being scripted to say they are "bringing the prestige back to the Intercontinental Title" than the belt was actually prestigious.