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The Intercontinental Championship began life almost 40 years ago when current WWE road agent and Vince McMahon's right-hand man, Pat Patterson won a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to become the inaugural Champion on September 1, 1979.
Patterson reigned as Champion until April 1980 when he was upended by Ken Patera.
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The belt's name came from the merging of the company's North and South American Championships. As time moved forward, the Championship's design changed to signify it's wider reach now including the continents of Europe and Asia.
Historically, the title has long been seen as an important stepping stone for WWE superstars on their journey to the Heavyweight Championship.
Many WWE Hall of Famers won the IC belt before becoming World Champion including the likes of Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Edge and many others.
However, in some cases, the Intercontinental Championship was the career ceiling for many talented singles performers such as Owen Hart, The British Bulldog and Mr Perfect who all reigned as IC Champ but failed in their repeated attempts to win the Heavyweight title during their WWE careers.
Then there are superstars who win World titles early on in their career and gradually slide down the card and compete for IC gold later in their tenures.
The Big Show and Seth Rollins are both examples of this and became Champion partly to help rebuild the belt's prestige which began to decline in the new millennium.
Finally, there are those superstars that win the title and do not register with an audience who simply forget that they ever held the gold in the first place.
In the following slideshow, SK explores five such men who you likely don't remember ever wore Intercontinental Championship gold.
#5 Ric Flair
Everyone knows about Ric Flair's 16 World Championship reigns. However what fewer people may realise is that the "Nature Boy" also enjoyed a solitary Intercontinental Championship reign in 2005 at the age of 56.
Flair terminated Carlito's Championship run in a featured bout at WWE's Unforgiven event in September 2005 event, making the young Champion submit to his patented figure four leglock.
Incredibly, Flair's reign lasted for five months and included high profile defences against the likes of Triple H and Edge.
Despite that fact, the reign is a footnote in Flair's famous career and is one of the least well-remembered runs in IC title history.
Needless to say, the reason why Flair's IC title run is so seldom spoken about is due to the unmatched achievements the North Carolina native achieved with the 16 (recognised) World title runs in his near five-decade career.
#4 Road Dogg
Oh you didn't know?! No, you probably didn't. The Road Dogg, most famous for being part of the hugely successful tag team, The New Age Outlaws with Billy Gunn who together also became part of D-Generation X, was also an Intercontinental Champion.
Road Dogg enjoyed a singles run in the latter part of 1998 and early 1999 which saw him principally reign as Hardcore Champion, winning the belt from Big Boss Man before vacating it due to injury.
In one of those typical Vince Russo twists, Road Dogg was abruptly switched to the Intercontinental title division wherein his buddy, Gunn was competing. He won the title from Val Venis, whilst Gunn became Hardcore Champion on the very same day.
Road Dogg lost the IC Championship exactly two weeks after winning it on March 29,1999 and was never considered for another singles title reign again.
WWE knew that he was much more effective as a tag team wrestler which is where he returned shortly afterwards.
At just 14 days in length, Road Dogg's title reign is one of the least memorable in company history.
#3 Billy Gunn
Much like his fellow New Age Outlaw, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn had a fleeting relationship with the Intercontinental Championship.
Gunn had competed for the belt at Royal Rumble 1999 wherein he came up short to Champion Ken Shamrock who in storyline badly damaged the challenger's ankle.
Gunn earned a measure of revenge when he acted as the special referee in Shamrock's title defence versus Val Venis at the following pay per view, St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
Oddly, Gunn was then made Hardcore Champion instead; doubly strange as he was due to receive a big singles push as he began an ill-fated journey towards the top of the card.
Gunn would win the 1999 King of the Ring tournament, last defeating former buddy X-Pac in the final and faced The Rock in a much-hyped match at Summerslam.
The Summerslam match only served to highlight that Gunn was not cut out for a top card spot and he soon returned to the tag team ranks.
After injury sidelined him in February 2000, he did not return until Autumn of that year at which point WWE tried again to promote him as a top guy. Part of that effort saw him defeat Eddie Guerrero to win the IC strap.
However, WWE soon got cold feet as they booked him to drop the title just 17 days later to perennial IC Champion, Chris Benoit.
No surprise then that his reign is largely forgotten.
#2 Luke Harper
Luke Harper is best known today as one half of the former Smackdown Tag Team Champions, The Bludgeon Brothers but back in 2014, he was receiving a mini-push as a singles performer.
Harper had volunteered his services to the Authority of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. As a reward for his loyalty, he was granted a crack at Authority enemy Dolph Ziggler's Intercontinental Championship.
On the November 17, 2014 episode of Raw, Harper defeated Ziggler to become IC Champion.
It was a reign that would last a mere 27 days as the former Wyatt Family member dropped the belt back to Ziggler at the 2014 edition of TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs.
In truth, it was a shame Harper's run was so short. By far the more talented of his tag team with Erick Rowan, Harper has a scary, serial killer like stare and an unorthodox but entertaining ring style that meshes well with everyone.
Still, an active performer in his prime, perhaps if Harper was to receive a second IC title run, it would be much more memorable than his first.
#1 Curtis Axel
The son of legendary Intercontinental Champion, Mr. Perfect, Curtis Axel actually emulated his late father's IC title victory, winning the belt, rather fittingly on Father's Day back in June 2013.
A talented worker, the man who in 2018 is best known as a former member of The Miz's Miztourage and one half of the tag team The B-Team with Bo Dallas, was showing promise as a major player half a decade ago.
The one element holding Axel back was his limited microphone skills. Recognising this flaw, WWE sought to overcome it by appointing legendary mouthpiece, Paul Heyman as his manager.
It should have worked but it didn't and Axel became lost in the shuffle as Heyman's more charismatic charge, Brock Lesnar took centre stage when he returned from his annual summer holiday.
Axel did keep hold of the title until November but in reality, his reign had become an afterthought much earlier and he dropped it to the next young star WWE had high hopes for, Big E.
Still a young man, there is every chance, Axel could reclaim the gold, but he won't. He lacks the charisma and dynamism in the ring to be taken seriously as a top singles competitor.
However, like his father would surely tell him if he could, there is no shame in the Intercontinental Championship being a wrestler's career ceiling.
