WWE Intercontinental Championship
Date of transition Brand Notes
March 25 , 2002 Raw WWF Intercontinental Champion Rob Van Dam was drafted to Raw during the 2002 WWF Draft . In May 2002 , the WWF was renamed to WWE . The European Championship was unified into the Intercontinental Championship on July 22
July 30 , 2002 SmackDown Intercontinental Champion Chris Benoit was moved to SmackDown
August 25 , 2002 Raw The Intercontinental Championship was returned to Raw after Rob Van Dam defeated Chris Benoit to win back the title . The Hardcore Championship was unified into the Intercontinental Championship on August 26
October 20 , 2002 N/A At No Mercy , Triple H defeated Kane to unify the Intercontinental Championship into the World Heavyweight Championship . The Intercontinental Championship was subsequently deactivated
May 5 , 2003 Raw Raw Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin reactivated the Intercontinental Championship . The United States Championship was reactivated for SmackDown in July 2003 as the Intercontinental Championship 's counterpart
April 13 , 2009 SmackDown Intercontinental Champion Rey Mysterio was drafted to SmackDown during the 2009 WWE Draft
August 29 , 2011 N/A End of first brand split . The Intercontinental Champion could appear on both Raw and SmackDown
July 19 , 2016 SmackDown Reintroduction of the brand split . Intercontinental Champion The Miz was drafted to SmackDown during the 2016 WWE Draft
April 10 , 2017 Raw Intercontinental Champion Dean Ambrose was moved to Raw during the 2017 WWE Superstar Shake-up
April 16 , 2019 SmackDown Intercontinental Champion Finn Bálor was moved to SmackDown during the 2019 WWE Superstar Shake-up
History -- Brand designation history
Following the brand split on March 25 , 2002 , all titles in WWE became exclusive to either the Raw brand or SmackDown brand . The brand split was discontinued on August 29 , 2011 , but revived on July 19 , 2016 . The following is a list of dates indicating the transitions of the Intercontinental Championship between the Raw and SmackDown brands .
The WWE Intercontinental Championship is a professional wrestling championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, currently defended on their SmackDown brand. It is one of three secondary championships in WWE, along with the WWE United States Championship on Raw and the NXT North American Championship on NXT. The current champion is Shinsuke Nakamura, who is in his first reign. The championship was established by the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) on September 1, 1979, after inaugural champion Pat Patterson unified (kayfabe) the WWF North American Heavyweight and South American Heavyweight championships. It is the third oldest championship currently active in WWE, behind the WWE Championship (1963) and United States Championship (1975), but the second oldest tenured championship, as the WWE has only owned the U.S. title since 2001. Although generally contested in the midcard at WWE shows, the Intercontinental Championship was defended in the main events of presentations such as WrestleMania VI, SummerSlam in 1992, the third and In Your House shows, Backlash in 2001, and at Extreme Rules in 2018. It has been called a stepping stone to a WWE world championship. In November 2001, the then-WCW United States Championship was unified into the Intercontinental Championship. In 2002 after the first brand split, it became exclusive to Raw and the WWF was renamed WWE. Later that year, the European and Hardcore championships were unified into the Intercontinental Championship, which itself was unified into the World Heavyweight Championship. The next year, it was reactivated for Raw, followed by the United States Championship's reactivation as a counterpart on SmackDown. In 2019, NXT was promoted as WWE's third major brand, adding their North American Championship as a third secondary title for WWE.