25 best WWE Intercontinental Champions of all time

15. Rob Van Dam

Rob Van Dam also held the Intercontinental Championship on six occasions and while his cumulative reign lasted 79 days less than Jeff Jarrett’s, his matches were just a bit more memorable and that’s the reason he cracked the top 15. He won his first in grand fashion at WrestleMania X8, defeating William Regal in the opening bout. He dropped it to Eddie Guerrero five weeks later in a grudge match at Backlash after Guerrero cost him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship but regained it on RAW another five weeks later in a fantastic Ladder Match. RVD would hold onto it this time around for 63 days, losing on RAW to Chris Benoit just one week after defeating Jeff Hardy to unify the European Championship with the Intercontinental Championship. But Van Dam would once again regain the title by defeating Benoit at SummerSlam to become a three-time IC champ.

RVD’s third reign would last just 22 days before he lost to Chris Jericho on RAW and he wouldn’t hold the title again for more than a year. In actuality, there was a seven-month period in that time when nobody held the title, as it was actually deactivated when it was unified with the World Heavyweight Championship but that’s a rant for another day.

Van Dam’s fourth reign began on the September 29, 2003 episode of Monday Night RAW, during which RVD defeated Christian in yet another amazing Ladder Match. He lost it to Chris Jericho a month later on a Monday night but regained it just about immediately after Stone Cold Steve Austin ordered Y2J to have his first title defense that very same night against Van Dam inside the confines of a steel cage, climbing out just in time to capture his fifth IC title. He would lose the strap to Randy Orton 48 days later and wouldn’t hold it again for more than two years. After winning the Money in the Bank Ladder Match at WrestleMania 22, RVD defended his briefcase against Shelton Benjamin’s IC title at the 2006 Backlash pay-per-view and would win his sixth and final Intercontinental Championship that night. He would only hold the title for 15 days, losing it back to Benjamin during a 3-on-2 Handicap Texas Tornado Match but he had bigger fish to fry, going on to defeat John Cena for the WWE Championship that summer.