The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested in and owned by the American promotion WWE on the

SmackDown brand SmackDown is a WWE brand extension, brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE that was established on March 25, 2002. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand ex ...

. The title was introduced into the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1979. Pat Patterson, holder of the

WWF North American Heavyweight Championship The WWF North American Heavyweight Championship was a relatively short-lived title in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1979 until 1981. It was established as the WWWF North American Heavyweight Championship on February 13, 1979 b ...

, was awarded the title (with the kayfabe explanation that he won a tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and unified the North American and South American titles). The Intercontinental Championship has been called the second most important championship in the company, after the WWE Championship. It has been active in WWE for the second-longest period, but is the third-oldest active title, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and the United States Championship (1975), the latter of which was acquired from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001. In 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and the championship was renamed accordingly. As a result of the

2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up The 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up was the thirteenth WWE draft – and the last to be branded as the Superstar Shake-up – produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE between the Raw, SmackDown, and 205 Live brands. Instead of a ...

, it is exclusively contested on the SmackDown brand. Overall, there have been 89 different Intercontinental Champions. Chris Jericho holds the record for the most reigns with nine. The Honky Tonk Man holds the longest reign at 454 days. Only three other wrestlers, Pedro Morales, Don Muraco, and Randy Savage, have held the championship for a continuous reign of more than a year.

Gunther Gundaharius or Gundahar (died 437), better known by his legendary names Gunther ( gmh, Gunther) or Gunnar ( non, Gunnarr), was a historical king of Burgundy in the early 5th century. Gundahar is attested as ruling his people shortly after they ...

is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated previous champion Ricochet on '' SmackDown'' in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on June 10, 2022.

Title history

Names

Reigns

As of , .

Combined reigns

:As of , . Patterson IC belt

Jericho 9th Intercontinental Championship

Notes

References

External links

Official WWE Intercontinental Championship Title History

{{Featured list WWE championships lists