25 best WWE Intercontinental Champions of all time
By Luke Norris
3. The Ultimate Warrior
I’m sure there’s some of you out there that don’t like this placement and, hey, I’m not wild about most things having to do with The Ultimate Warrior but there’s no denying the fact that he is one of the best and most important Intercontinental Champions in WWE history. He was insanely popular with the crowd from the moment he came to the company in 1987 and after a few decent feuds, it was decided that he was ready to be a champion At SummerSlam in August 1988, he won his first Intercontinental Championship as the mystery opponent for The Honky Tonk Man and dropped him in 31 seconds, thus ending the longest reign in IC title history at 454 days. From there, The Ultimate Warrior skyrocketed into the upper echelon of WWE but not before losing the title to Rick Rude at WrestleMania V in controversial fashion when Bobby Heenan grabbed his leg as he attempted to suplex Rude into the ring from the apron.
The feud continued through the summer, leading to a rematch between the two at SummerSlam, which Warrior won to claim his second IC title and he was off and running from there. He entered a program with the legendary Andre the Giant and actually squashed him on numerous occasions over the course of a few months and he was set to become the biggest star in the company, which obviously leads us right into WrestleMania VI. Hulk Hogan had been the guy in WWE for years but it was time for a change and seeing as how the Intercontinental Champion used to be looked at as the number one contender, the match was made. In one of the biggest surprises in wrestling history, Hogan took the clean pin in Toronto, thus making Warrior the first man to hold the WWE Championship and the Intercontinental Championship simultaneously. That would be okay today but back then a wrestler couldn’t hold both belts and Warrior’s second run with the IC title ended at 216 days, which is the exact amount of time he held the title in his first run.
His 432 total days as Intercontinental Champion is good for sixth on the all-time list.