WWE Intercontinental Championship

The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship contested in and owned by the American promotion WWE on the Raw brand. The title was introduced into WWE in 1979, which was known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) at the time. Pat Patterson, holder of the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship, was awarded the title (with the kayfabe explanation that he won a tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and unified the North American and South American titles).[1][2][3]

The Intercontinental Championship has been called the second most important championship in the company, after the WWE Championship.[4] It has been active in WWE for the second longest period, but is the third oldest active title, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and the United States Championship (1975), the latter of which was acquired from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001.