10 Things You Didn’t Know About WWE’s Intercontinental Title

3. The Leather's Been At Least Eight Different Colours

The earliest incarnation of Intercontinental "gold" was riveted to a red leather strap. From there, the plates were bolted onto a green strap before Reggie Parks came along, created a new version of the belt and placed it on black backing. That wouldn't be the end of WWE's obsession with putting the IC plates on coloured leather.

Far from it.

Shawn Michaels held both powder blue and white variations of the title during his first few runs. Others, like The Ultimate Warrior, favoured yellow leather, and later Goldust kept things true to his character by using, well, gold. For those keeping score, that's seven different shades, and it becomes eight when adding The Rock's early purple look in 1998.

These days, WWE tend to stick with the white leather. It's classy looking, certainly better than the much more functional black, and helps the belt stand out from the other glut of mid card titles on TV. It's probs not the last time they'll change it, to be fair.