8. Unified With The United States Championship
When Vince McMahon bought over his main competition, WCW, it opened up the potential for various huge matches. Fans started to wonder what it'd be like to see the reigning WCW Champion up against his WWF counterpart, or maybe even the Intercontinental Champ colliding with the United States titleholder. Trust the WWF of 2001 then to turn such an attraction into just another match between Edge and Test. The Survivor Series 2001 was a strange event - even though it was portrayed as WCW/ECW vs. WWF, the main event match for control of the entire company came down to Steve Austin vs. The Rock, both more closely associated with the WWF. Looking to do away with some titles, the Intercontinental Title was merged with the US belt at the event, when Edge captured both after beating his fellow Canadian, Test. It was a bit of a slap in the face to the latter strap, which could trace lineage back to before the Intercontinental belt. The US Title was later reinstated, with a shiny new physical belt, again only disparaging the IC Title, which had a rich enough history of its own to make this merger ultimately pointless.