10 Most Unlikely WWE Intercontinental Champions Ever

6. Santino Marella

The Santino Marella who would hold the Intercontinental Title for the second time was remarkably different to the one who captured the belt first time around. WWE were hosting a live episode of Monday Night Raw in Milan, Italy on April 16th, 2007, and in a bid to show his overwhelming power, Vince McMahon tried to make an example of "someone from the audience". Low and behold, Santino was picked at random to face Umaga for the Intercontinental Title, imagine that. Admittedly, the live crowd did go nuts for this, and Marella performed admirably, looking like someone who didn't know whether to laugh or cry at how lucky he was to be standing inside the WWE ring. From there, the story became less believable, as Santino showed himself to be an accomplished grappler once the bell started ringing. Winning the gold, Santino would have another run with the belt the following year. Around this time, the man became the clown prince of WWE programming, and whereas his comedic antics didn't really do much for the Intercontinental Title itself, his overall performances and claims that he was going to top The Honky Tonk Man's reign with the belt were hilarious.