The Day The WWE Intercontinental Title Died

2. The Retirement

Triple H Kane
WWE.com

If you're looking to pinpoint one precise day that the Intercontinental Championship died, it's hard to look past October 20, 2002 - the date of the '02 edition of WWE's No Mercy PPV.

By this point, we'd already long seen the Intercontinental Title passed around with as much frequency as a bag of cocaine in an '80s dressing room, but WWE went one further and gave the ultimate F-U to the title by retiring it. That retirement came in a winner-takes-all bout between World Heavyweight Champion Triple H and Intercontinental Champion Kane.

As has so often been the case - especially during this Reign of Terror period - it was the Game who emerged victorious at No Mercy, with the Intercontinental Championship then being rendered inactive. What had once been one of the most sought-after pieces of gold in the entire industry, with some of the business' greatest ever matches tied to it, was now so much of an afterthought that WWE decided they'd be better off just completely removing the belt off the table.

It's of course a subjective matter when looking at an exact moment when the IC Title lost its value and fans completely stopped caring about the belt - with individual fans having their own viewpoint on this topic - but retiring the championship by having it assimilated by the World Heavyweight Championship is undoubtedly one of the darkest days in the history of this once-prestigious title.

If WWE cared so little about the Intercontinental Championship that they thought they'd be better off without it, why should fans give a solitary, single sh*t about this belt ever again?

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.