10 Most Prestigious Wrestling Championship Belts Ever
5. The WWF/E Intercontinental Championship
Date established: 1 September, 1979 # Of Reigns: 72 Wrestler with Most Reigns: Chris Jericho (9) Longest Reign: The Honky Tonk Man (454 days) Shortest Reign: Dean Douglas (13 minutes, 52 seconds) Though not as prestigious as it once was, given the recent string of short reigns and bizarre booking, the WWE Intercontinental Championship has been one of the biggest predictors of bigtime success in WWE history. Many now-legendary WWE Superstars, including Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Macho Man Randy Savage, and many others, reached the main event scene in WWE after a run as Intercontinental Champion. Furthermore, many fantastic matches in WWE history were for the Intercontinental Championship, including Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III, Razor Ramon vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X, Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith at SummerSlam 1992, just to name a few. Though the average IC title reign isnt as long as it used to be, as most of the reigns from 1979 to 1994 were well over 100 days long (and all of the reigns lasting longer than 1 year were during the 1980s), the title is currently being featured more prominently. Despite the criticisms of Superstars playing hot potato with the belt recently, there is a lot of hope that the belt will become more prestigious in the months to come, as Daniel Bryans star power and in-ring abilities can lead to some great title defenses down the road.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
