5 Wrestlers You Didn't Know Were Intercontinental Champions
The Intercontinental Championship began life almost 40 years ago when current WWE road agent and Vince McMahon's right-hand man, Pat Patterson won a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to become the inaugural Champion on September 1, 1979.
Patterson reigned as Champion until April 1980 when he was upended by Ken Patera.
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The belt's name came from the merging of the company's North and South American Championships. As time moved forward, the Championship's design changed to signify it's wider reach now including the continents of Europe and Asia.
Historically, the title has long been seen as an important stepping stone for WWE superstars on their journey to the Heavyweight Championship.
Many WWE Hall of Famers won the IC belt before becoming World Champion including the likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Edge and many others.
However, in some cases, the Intercontinental Championship was the career ceiling for many talented singles performers such as Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and Mr Perfect who all reigned as IC Champ but failed in their repeated attempts to win the Heavyweight title during their WWE careers.
Then there are superstars who win World titles early on in their career and gradually slide down the card and compete for IC gold later in their tenures.
The Big Show and Seth Rollins are both examples of this and became Champion partly to help rebuild the belt's prestige which began to decline in the new millennium.
Finally, there are those superstars that win the title and do not register with an audience who simply forget that they ever held the gold in the first place.
In the following slideshow, SK explores five such men who you likely don't remember ever wore Intercontinental Championship gold.
#5 Ric Flair
Everyone knows about Ric Flair's 16 World Championship reigns. However what fewer people may realise is that the "Nature Boy" also enjoyed a solitary Intercontinental Championship reign in 2005 at the age of 56.
Flair terminated Carlito's Championship run in a featured bout at WWE's Unforgiven event in September 2005 event, making the young Champion submit to his patented figure four leglock.
Incredibly, Flair's reign lasted for five months and included high profile defences against the likes of Triple H and Edge.
Despite that fact, the reign is a footnote in Flair's famous career and is one of the least well-remembered runs in IC title history.
Needless to say, the reason why Flair's IC title run is so seldom spoken about is due to the unmatched achievements the North Carolina native achieved with the 16 (recognised) World title runs in his near five-decade career.