411’s WWE This is Awesome Report: Most Awesome Intercontinental Champions

-I am heading to Cleveland tomorrow morning for SummerSlam, but before getting there we have a new episode of This is Awesome and tonight, Level Up. Most likely I won’t be able to do The SmackDown LowDown tomorrow, but we will see. Let’s get to it!

-Greg Miller welcomes us to the show from the This is Awesome studio. I thought he may be rocking the shirt of an IC Title great, but instead it’s just a This is Awesome hoodie. Shame!

-Opening video package covering Pat Patterson and his legendary win in that grueling one night tournament in Rio. The talking heads mention how the IC Title was known as the workhorse Title. They discuss the classic matches for the IC Title and start with Bret/Bulldog at Wembley. We see HHH/Rock Ladder Match and they discuss how winning the title was a launching point to the WWE Title for a lot of men. Finally, they discuss the various designs of the Intercontinental Title. Hayes wants the elbow shape back. Everyone loves the clean look of the white strap classic. Roberts loves Goldust’s golden IC Title. SAVAGE/STEAMBOAT: WRESTLEMANIA III!

“Macho Man” Randy Savage
-1 Reign, 414 Days

-Savage only held the Title once, yet for many people he is the first person that comes to mind when the IC Title is mentioned. We see footage from him winning the IC Title from Tito Santana in the Boston Garden. That title just looks amazing on Savage! Sheamus: “He just looked like a superstar. It looked like that belt was meant to be around his waist.” Preach! Of course we have to talk about WrestleMania III. People paid to see Hogan/Andre, but Savage and Steamboat made sure everyone would remember what they did. Just an absolutely perfect match. 5 stars all day and just an epic way to end Savage’s reign as Champion.

-Peacock commercials!

Razor Ramon
-4 Reigns, 434 Days

-Another man that looked weird without the IC Title around his waist. Hogan gives credit to Scott Hall for making Razor Ramon cool. They all talk about how cool the bad guy was and how he was an anti-hero. Razor also had the chops in the ring and we see him win the IC Title for the first time as he beat Rick Martel to claim the vacant title. Why was it vacant? Shawn was stripped of the title and it lead to history at WrestleMania X with Shawn/Razor Ladder Match. Drew: “It still holds up to this day.” Yes sir! 5 stars all day again! Sheamus notes that Razor made the title. “Hard work pays off. Dreams come true. Bad times don’t last, but bad guys do.” Great to see Savage and Razor, but sad to know they are both gone.

“Ravishing” Rick Rude
-1 Reign; 147 Days

-Another one go way too soon! Much like Savage, Rude only held the title once, but took the title away from The Ultimate Warrior at WrestleMania V. This was heavy stuff at the time because Warrior didn’t lose. Ford calls Rude a genetic freak. I still Scott Steiner would allow it. LA Knight is a big fan and brings up Rude putting Jake Robert’s wife’s face on his tights. LOOK AT THOSE IC TITLE TIGHTS AT MANIA V. Seeing Rude beat Warrior again shows how mind blowing it was to see a title change hands back then. We are only starting to see that again today thanks to the monster runs Roman and GUNTHER had.

-Peacock commercials!

The Honky Tonk Man
-1 Reign; 454 Days

-JBL says HTM is his favorite IC Champion of all time and it’s not even close. Drew says he would fast-forward through HTM’s matches as a kid because he hated him. Harsh! Also, shows HTM was doing his job. We see the massive upset where he won the Title from Steamboat and then the longest reign of all time (until GUNTHER) began. People paid all kinds of money to see HTM lose, but he would always escape with the Title by DQ, cheating, count-out or whatever else he needed to do. It finally all ended as he challenged anyone to face him and he gets CREAMED by The Ultimate Warrior at SummerSlam. That’s how you end that reign. The reaction from the crowd was exactly what you wanted as the place exploded. Jimmy Hart tells GUNTHER he is sorry, but HTM is still the greatest IC Champion of all time. Oh man, I don’t think Jimmy could take a GUNTHER chop.

Shawn Michales
-3 reigns, 406 Days

-Once Shawn went solo, you knew The IC Title was in his future. He took the Title from Bulldog months after Wembley on an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Shawn/Razor Ladder Match II in Pittsburgh at SummerSlam. That match is fantastic as well. The ending got wonky, but them playing off the other match added to it. Like others, Shawn used the IC title to spring to the Main Event and WWF Championship. We obviously don’t discuss that Shawn was stripped or forfeited the title to end 2 of his reigns.

-Peacock commercials!

Chyna
-2 Reigns; 64 Days

-Well, she is the first and only woman to win the IC Title, so I can see why she was included here. Drew says she was one of the biggest stars of the show at the time and you have to mention her with Rock, Austin, and the rest of DX. We see Chyna become the first woman to enter The Royal Rumble. Jeff Jarret had an anti-woman character on his way out of the company and it led to a match with Chyna at No Mercy in a Good Housekeeping Match. This is the infamous match where Jarrett held Vince up for money before he would go out and do the job. Just a weapons filled brawl where they beat the crap out of each other. Chyna beats Jeff and makes history. She totally believable in beating up the men, which made her run against the women’s division kind of rough. Chyna against the current women’s division would be something though.

Mr. Perfect
-2 Reigns; 406 Days

-If there ever was a gimmick that was perfect for someone it was here. Perfect gets his first IC Title by pinning Tito Santana in the finals of an IC Tournament. Warrior was the previous Champion, but relinquished the title after beating Hogan for the WWF Title. Nattie notes that Perfect never had a bad match with anoyone. We get some sweet footage of Perfect and Hogan doing battle at a house show. Waller notes that “your favorite wrestler’s favorite wrestler is Mr. Perfect.”

-Peacock commercials!

The Miz
-8 Reigns; 597 Days

-The man is one reign short of tying Chris Jericho for the most ever. Roberts mentions how the fans felt the Miz had a lot to prove after his first win of the IC Title. They make a case for Miz as the Greatest IC Champion of all time because of how many times he has reinvented himself while still being The Miz. The Miz seems to be getting his flowers in the last few years and it’s something great to see. TALKING SMACK! I miss the greatness of Talking Smack, and Miz going off on Daniel Bryan is still one of the greatest things ever. My review of that show is here. We see where Jeff Jarett have Miz a shout-out during his Hall of Fame speech which caught Miz off guard. People need to put more respect on Miz’s name!

Chris Jericho
-9 Reigns; 318 Days

-I was wondering if they were going to leave him off this list and if it would lead to a twitter post or something. Instead, they do the right thing and include the man who has held the title more than anyone else. Jericho wins it for the first time by tapping out Chyna to a massive pop even though he was the heel. Another man that was made for The IC Title. They put over Jericho’s charimsa and how he could get anything over. JBL notes that Chris was always the guy you could depend on to have a great match, great promo and get the job done. His series with Rey Mysterio over the IC Title was FIRE!

-Peacock commercials!

GUNTHER
-1 Reign; 666 Days

-There can be only one to end this episode! The man who broke The Honky Tonk Man’s record. The Ring General! I didn’t not see anything from GUNTHER until he showed up in NXT and obviously, I was blown away. The man is a machine! His reign began by beating Ricochet for the IC Title on June 10, 2022. Breakker notes if you don’t match GUNTHER’s level you will get smothered. We get a series of him CHOPPING people and it’s glorious. Sheamus loves facing GUNTHER as it is a physical fight. WrestleMania 39: The triple threat with Sheamus and Drew is one of the greatest matches in WWE history. Just everything I wanted as it was THE BANGEST BANGER OF THE HOSSIEST OF HOSS FIGHTS WITH BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT. I can’t see anyone ever touching his reign as I don’t know if they will devote that much time to letting someone be that dominant.

-Greg Miller wraps things up from the studio!

-No preview for next time, which worries me about the future of this show.

-This was wonderful as I always enjoy this show due to the nostalgia. They covered all the names you would expect and there isn’t too much to complain about. Some may balk at Rude and some at Chyna, but I was fine with both choices. They could have thrown in Pedro Morales, but perhaps didn’t want to go that far back. The most reigns and most days that weren’t mentioned were Wade Barrett with 5 reigns and 397 days. After Jericho and Miz, Ziggler, Jarrett, and RVD are next with 6 reigns. The longest reign by someone to only hold the title once not mentioned on this list is Greg Valentine at 285 days. Just for fun, the shortest reign ever belongs to Dean Douglas as the poor guy took Shawn’s forfeited title and lost minutes later to Razor. No wonder he resented the Kliq. Anyway, I hope this series continues because I love the nostalgia and I love lists. Thanks for reading!