List of WWE Intercontinental Champions
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested in and owned by the American promotion WWE on the SmackDown brand. The title was introduced into the World Wrestling Federation in 1979. Pat Patterson, holder of the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship, was awarded the title.
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 and the United States Championship, the latter of which was acquired from World Championship Wrestling in 2001. In 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment, and the championship was renamed accordingly. As a result of the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up, it is exclusively contested on the SmackDown brand.
Overall, there have been 86 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. AJ Styles is the current champion in his first reign. He defeated Daniel Bryan in the finals of a tournament for the vacant title during the June 8, 2020 tapings of SmackDown ; previous champion Sami Zayn was stripped of the title after electing to refrain from competing during the COVID-19 pandemic.Title history
Names
Reigns
As of ,.Combined reigns
, whose 454-day reign is the longest in history
