25 best WWE Intercontinental Champions of all time

10. Tito Santana

I know he’s a WWE Hall of Famer (class of 2004) but I’ve got no problem saying that Tito Santana is underrated. He was a workhorse and always did what Vince McMahon asked him to do. He has the distinction of being the first winner of a WrestleMania match and was also the only man not named Hulk Hogan to wrestle at the first nine WrestleManias. He jobbed when he needed to make other guys look good, wrestled under that ridiculous El Matador gimmick and endured all of those comments from Jesse Ventura and Bobby Heenan on commentary over the years. Seriously, could you imagine the backlash if the announcers talked like that today?

Santana held multiple tag team championships in WWE and also won the King of the Ring tournament in 1989 by defeating his former Strike Force running mate, Rick Martel, in the finals. But his biggest claim to fame was as a two-time Intercontinental Champion.

One of the most popular wrestlers in the company, Santana won the title the first time on February 11, 1984 by ending Don Muraco’s 385-day reign at a house show in Boston to become the fifth Intercontinental Champion in history and would hold onto it for 226 days until losing it to Greg “The Hammer” Valentine later that year. Valentine, who just barely missed making this list, held onto the title for 285 days and he feuded with Santana for much of that time. Santana got involved in Valentine’s match with Junkyard Dog at the first WrestleMania and the two clashed on several occasions in some great matches that culminated with Santana finally regaining the title on July 6, 1985 in a steel cage match in Baltimore. Santana would go on to hold the strap for 217 more days before losing it to Randy Savage on February 8, 1986. Santana’s 443 days as Intercontinental Champion is still good for fourth on the all-time list.