After the great feedback I received for my last championship belt related article almost four years ago about the WWF/WWE championship belt, I thought it was time to put something together about the WWF/WWE Intercontinental title belt.
As many of you will know I’ve been a huge fan of championship belts since I first started watching the World Wrestling Federation in 1983. All the belts throughout the years have grabbed my attention in one way or another. Obviously, the heavyweight championship is most memorable due to its status however the Intercontinental title has had an illustrious history of its own.
Held by superstars such as Randy Savage, Ultimate Warrior, Rick Rude, Mr. Perfect, Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, Ric Flair and more, the Intercontinental title has had a significant impact. What may come as a surprise to you is that in its 30+ year history there have only really been 4 distinct designs that have represented the Intercontinental title.
Back in 1979, before I was a fan, Pat Patterson was booked to ‘win’ the newly created aew championship belt Intercontinental in a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro. The original belt was made of trophy shop metal, very thin and flimsy much like all belts at that time. It was attached to the leather by rivets which were the standard of the time. The belt was on a red strap:
WWWF Intercontinental Title Belt
This specific title belt lasted for over 5 years and was held by Patterson, Ken Patera, Pedro Morales and Don Muraco. Once the championship was won by Tito Santana, it was replaced. Once again, the new championship belt was constructed using trophy shop thin metal as this was still the standard of the era, but the new acid-etched belts were slowly creeping in and this would be the last trophy shop metal belt used in the WWF and it also wouldn’t last long.
This belt was only held by Tito Santana and Greg Valentine:
Tito Santana With The WWF Intercontinental Green Strap Title Belt
WWF Intercontinental Green Strap Title Belt
In 1986, the Intercontinental title belt was replaced by probably the most memorable version of the belt ever used. Made using the acid etching process, the belt was made by Reggie Parks who had taken over making the belts for all the major promotions in North America. It was a gold plated belt, 5 plates on hand-tooled black leather. More commonly referred to as the ‘Reggie IC’ among collectors and belt enthusiasts, this belt is likely the 2nd most popular belt of all time behind the WWF ‘Winged Eagle’ title belt. Reggie Parks and Dave Millican probably get more orders from belt collectors for these two belts than any other.
The original Reggie IC had no tooling pattern on the strap, all 4 side plates were the same size and the WWF logo on the main plate was etched and filled with red paint:
Macho Man Randy Savage With The WWF Reggie IC Intercontinental Title Belt
Once Randy Savage won the strap from Tito, he used Brasso polish on the belt which removed all the gold plating and ruined the belt. The belt looked awful with horribly tarnished plates. This was switched in 1988 with a new version of the same design.
In 1988, while the wwf belts was in the midst of his record-setting reign with the strap, it was replaced. It was still the Reggie IC but there were some minor differences. The strap now had a sea shell tooling pattern on it, the outer side plates were slightly smaller than the inner side plates, it had a thin logo plate at one end and the WWF logo on the main plate was no longer etched, but was now raised and no longer red. Also during this time, a gold tip was added to the end of the strap to match the WWF world and tag titles of the time
WWF Reggie IC 1988 Intercontinental Title Belt
This belt was used during the Hulkamania golden age of the World Wrestling Federation and this was when it enjoyed its most success, classed as the ‘workers title’, many great matches were fought over this championship. Holding the Intercontinental title at that time really meant something.
Throughout its run, the Reggie IC was presented on TV on various colour straps. The Ultimate Warrior was the first superstar to have it on a different colour when he debuted it in yellow during late 1989, this lasted until WrestleMania VI in April 1990 when he unified the WWF World and Intercontinental titles and was subsequently stripped of the Intercontinental title, which soon reverted to black.
Here is the yellow version:
WWF Reggie IC Yellow Strap Intercontinental Title Belt
As different guys held the belt, it was shown on more colour straps, here are all of them in the order they were presented on TV:
The new Intercontinental title belt was rounder in shape, still with the WWF block logo. It had a logo plate, purple strap and no gold tip:
WWF 1998 J-Mar Purple Strap Intercontinental Title Belt
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