Brooklyn Brawlin' 5.13.09: Who's the Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time?

Posted by Dan Torkel on 05.13.2009

Who's the Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All Time?

Greetings to another beautiful day in Brooklyn. A strange combination of events led to the main idea of this week's column. First there was 411's "This week's Top 5" forum about the best IC Title matches, and then there was WWE 24/7's presentation of the "History of the IC Title" DVD that recently came out. Of course, growing up in the 80's, I bore witness to the best generation of that title. One of my earliest memories as a wrestling fan was watching Macho Man Randy Savage cheat like a bastard to retain in the rematch with Tito Santana while my mom yelled at my dad for showing me the match because Savage had cut a gory blade job. I was at the inaugural Summerslam in 1988 to see Ultimate Warrior dethrone Honky Tonk Man in 30 second, and some of my favorite matches ever are for the IC Title.

Before we get ahead of ourselves, let review the last week and preview the upcoming WWE ppv: Judgment Day. A few weeks back I wrote about how excited I was about Smackdown and boy what a great gift that draft was to Friday nights. John Morrison is getting a push and displaying crisp great moves against Shelton and then Haas (who have apparently joined back together). Book TWGTT vs. Morrison and Rey NOW! Jeff/ Edge and CM Punk/Umaga are moving along well towards their ppv matches, and Rey/Jericho for the IC Title should be added as well.

Raw continues to flounder in my opinion. The expression that most comes to mind is that Raw's parts are more than the whole sum. Cena, Batista, Orton, Legacy, Triple H, Big Show, Shawn Michaels, MVP, Matt Hardy… but the show just doesn't click. I for one can't stand Santina and if other columnists think that this is the best part of Raw than that right there is an indictment of the show. They show promise by pushing Miz, and MVP, but there are too many big name talents ahead of them. I said it before but Raw is reminding me a lot of WCW in the late 90's with a crop of good mid card wrestlers, and a load of slower higher paid stars in the main event slots. Based on Raw, they should add a 4-corner's match for the ppv for the US Title with © MVP vs. Kofi vs. Regal vs. Hardy. They have young stars in high spots but they keep making Legacy look pathetic by having them get squashed every week by Batista, or even worse Shane McMahon.

Judgment Day Preview – My full predictions will be in this week's roundtable, but my quickie picks tell me that this is a foreshadowing for the summer and the Extreme Rules ppv in June. Extreme Rules allows for feuds to continue and end in gimmick matches. By that logic, I think both Punk and Cena lose setting up rematches, and I expect Triple H to return and "accidentally" cost Batista his title chance. Edge and Hardy could also be done again the following month with a TLC stipulation. So basically, I expect nothing to be settled.

Watching the History of the IC Title on 24/7 the other day, I had the chance to re-watch Macho Man vs. Ricky Steamboat for what must have been the 50th time. Turning it on figuring that this time, after all the times I would be uninterested, I sat glued to the screen giggling like I did 22 years ago, as they traded near falls, top rope moves and arm drags. When it was over, I called my dad and we talked about that was one of our favorite matches to watch together. Simply said, it remains a top 5 candidate for the greatest matches in North American wrestling history. The show skipped to the infamous HTM defeat of the Dragon on Superstars, and then the Warrior's demolishing of HTM 15 months later. The DVD manages to touch on almost all the great IC Champs, leaving me wondering…

WHO IS THE GREATEST INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPION EVER…

Here is the list of the Top 10 candidates for the honor of top IC Champ in no particular order –

- Pedro Morales & Magnificent Muraco– When Morales won the title on 12/8/80 it was more than just the IC Title that he won. Morales became the first Triple Crown holder in WWE history, (there wouldn't be another until Bret Hart became WWE Champ twelve years later in late 1992). Morales was as over as any wrestler in the company especially in the WWE's home turf of MSG in New York where the Latino crowd would always gear up for their hero. Morales's first reign as IC Champion lasted 6 months before he was defeated by the Magnificent Muraco. 5 months later, Morales regained the strap fueling his and Muraco's feud all over the country. It would be over a year before Muraco finally chased down and defeated Pedro once and for all in January of 1983. On a list of all time hated heels, the Magnificent Don Muraco has to appear close to the top. Before drifting into steroid parody as "The Rock" in the mid to late 80's, Muraco was one of the major heels of the early 80's chasing Pedro Morales up and down the US and winning the IC Title twice. In probably the defining moment of his career, Muraco was splashed off the top of the steel cage in MSG by Superfly Jimmy Snuka. What many don't realize is Muraco WON that match! Muraco's feud with the fiery Latino Morales led to him feuding with and the IC Title to another Latino star, Tito Santana.

- Tito Santana – One of my personal favorites ever, Santana was much more than the JTTS he became in the 1990's. At his peak, he was probably the second biggest face to Hulk Hogan in the company. Santana was one the great baby faces of the kayfabe era, taking long and brutal beatings, before making his comebacks. He was all around great wrestler using the Figure 4, and also his patented Flying Forearm to get victories. After Tito won his first IC Title in early 1984, he began a tremendous feud with fellow Figure 4 user Greg Valentine. Valentine took the belt, injuring Santana's leg in the process and after months of rehab and surgery, Tito came back to regain the belt in a steel cage match right after the first Wrestlemania in 1985. He would hold the belt till early 1986 when a badass cocky heel named Randy Savage took it from him in Boston Garden with the help of a foreign object.

- Macho Man Randy Savage - Another one of the great of all time was Macho Man, who perfected the cocky heel routine in the mid 80's, capping off his extravagance which already included shiny robes with the beautiful and seemingly virtuous Miss Elizabeth in his corner. Savage debuted out of Memphis and quickly gained steam by scoring several count out victories over WWE Champion Hulk Hogan. His successful main event feud (money wise, not title wise) made him an obvious choice to go over Santana for the IC Title. For 13 months, Randy Savage reigned as IC Champ facing the best competition the company had to offer. He and Santana had several rematches, where Macho somehow always managed to retain the gold and sneak away. He even drew the ire of the Living Legend, Bruno Sammartino who came out of retirement to assist Santana against Savage and Adrian Adonis. He switched his attention after to George the Animal Steele, whom he defeated at Wrestlemania 2. Steele was infatuated with Elizabeth which made the psychotic champion even nastier to deal with. After several matches ending in count outs and DQ's, the final match in the feud occurred on SNME in a lumberjack match where Savage dropped the elbow to finally put the Animal down. But Savage and the IC Title are synonymous with one challenger and particularly one match: Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat, and Wrestlemania III. On an episode of SNME, Savage got himself DQ'ed in an IC Title defense and then took the opportunity to use the steel ring bell to crush Steamboat's larynx. After months of rehab Steamboat returned and the two had what is still considered a top 5 all-time match in front of 93,000 fans. The end result was a new Intercontinental Champion.

- Honky Tonk Man – If, like many women, you judge greatness in terms of duration than the Honky Tonk Man is truly the greatest IC Champ of all time. 15 months! An Elvis impersonator with a perchance for annoying the crap out of fans, HTM shocked the wrestling world when he hooked the ropes and pinned Ricky Steamboat on an episode of Superstars. What began was the reign of terror in the IC division. His won/loss record was far from spotless in the year and a half Honky ruled. He lost nearly every major match either by walking out and getting counted out, or by intentionally getting himself DQ'ed. Never did he win a match based on his pure ability. His biggest feud came against the former champ, Randy Savage, now freshly turned face. Honky eyed Elizabeth, always a no-no with Savage and they embarked on a classic feud in late 1987. Though Savage never reclaimed the gold, that feud sparked the union of the Mega-Powers, and Macho's ascension to the WWE Title at Wrestlemania IV. Honky would continue on and feud with Brutus "the Barber" Beefcake throughout 1988, again saving his title via DQ at WM, before Beefcake was injured prior to the inaugural Summerslam. There Honky made the biggest mistake of his career, issuing an open challenge to anyone in the back. 30 seconds later, Ultimate Warrior was the NEW IC Champion!

- Mr. Perfect, Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Razor Ramon, Chris Jericho, Kurt Angle, The Rock, Triple H, Jeff Hardy, Jeff Jarrett, Edge, etc. If I were to go through a list of the top candidates, I'd be here all night. Almost every major star who has gone on to become a long time WWE main stay, with World Titles on their resume, has started with the IC Title. It once served as the legitimizing title. If you could reign successfully as the IC Champion, you could be World Champion, no doubt about it. The classic case for this, and whom I believe to be the greatest IC Champ ever, is the Macho Man Randy Savage. He was hated, reviled, loved, respected, had talent like few others, and could put on 4 star matches in his sleep. His match at WM III is still the greatest IC Title match ever, better than the Ladder matches of Razor and Shawn, better than the Benoit/Jericho classics, better than Davey Boy and Bret, and yes, even better than Piper/Mountie.

With Rey Mysterio and 7-time Champion Chris Jericho feuding over the belt on Smackdown and heading towards a ppv match, one can only hope more big days are ahead for the once prominent title. With the cast of young up and coming talent on SD, there no reason another Macho Man, Bret, or Shawn cannot stem from the likes of John Morrison, or CM Punk.

Till next time, enjoy Judgment Day, and have fun storming the castle.