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 Raw brand. The title was introduced into the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) in 1979. 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]

The Intercontinental Championship has been called the second most important championship in the company, after the WWE Championship.^[3] It has been active in WWE for the second-longest period, but is the third-oldest active title overall, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and the United States Championship (1975), the latter of which was acquired from World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001. In 2002, the WWF was renamed World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), and the championship was renamed accordingly.^[4] Following the 2023 WWE Draft, the title is currently exclusive to Raw.

Overall, there have been 89 different Intercontinental Champions. Chris Jericho holds the record for the most reigns with nine. The current champion is Sami Zayn, who is in his fourth reign. He defeated the previous and longest reigning champion Gunther at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 6, 2024.