10 Wrestlers Who Were Secretly The Greatest Intercontinental Champions Ever

3. Pat Patterson

WWF/E history has it that Pat Patterson, having beaten Ted DiBiase in June 1979 for the North American Heavyweight Championship, took part in a tournament for the South American Championship in Rio de Janeiro on September 1st 1979. When the WWE Hall of Famer emerged victorious, he unified the two inter-continental titles to become the first Intercontinental Champion. It was a work, of course. The North American Heavyweight Championship had been invented and simply handed to DiBiase when he signed with the WWWF in February that year, and the grand tournament in Rio never even took place. That€™s why there are no photos and why there€™s no film from the event: it never happened. It€™s the most famous example of a wrestling promotion creating a new title and simply working the backstory for the thing, inventing it out of whole cloth - otherwise known as €˜the girlfriend in Canada€™ routine. However, it wasn€™t the first time the company had used a fake tournament in Rio to create a championship: that€™s how they crowned €˜the Nature Boy€™ Buddy Rogers the first ever WWWF World Heavyweight Champion in 1963. For those who only remember Patterson as a McMahon stooge during the Attitude Era, he was a legit wrestling legend from the late fifties right through until 1984, when he retired to take on other roles in the WWF. Since retirement, he€™s most famous for having invented and booked the Royal Rumble, and for being the first openly gay wrestler in the industry.