Because it was such a horrible disaster on Monday night. The Raw following a Pay Per View SHOULD be the best of the month. Of course nowadays with wrestling, storylines don't hold and the wrestling takes a backseat to mic time. Granted Orton kicked Shane McMahon's head in (always a plus) and delivered an RKO to Stephanie, but that's just about literally ALL THAT HAPPENED! What a waste of two hours. That being said, when I made myself over to Ron and Plummer's house last evening I was dying to get the horrific taste of Raw out of my mouth. To do so we watched "The Rock's" dvd set. A few of his best spots were down in the IC realm. Thusly, a question was born.......who is the best Intercontinental Champion of all time?

To the right you'll see the two most current versions of the Intercontinental Championship. The IC Belt has long been a stepping stone/proving ground for WWF/WWE's up and coming stars, dating back to Randy Savage and the Ultimate Warrior all the way up to Stone Cold, Triple H, and the Rock. Although it has seen a steady decline of importance in the last ten years or so and even was made inactive for a period of time, I believe that the IC division of WWE holds the brightest futures for our next wave of entertainers!

The first Intercontinental Champion was Pat Patterson. He actually held the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship and became the first IC Champ in 1979 after defeating Ted DiBiase for the North American Heavyweight Title. After this he defended his title in a tournament for the South American Heavyweight Title, which he ended up winning and thusly unifying the belts. Patterson ended up losing the belt to Ken Patera in New York in 1980.

In 2002 Vince McMahon was sued by World Wildlife Fund for the use of WWF, and began calling themselves World Wrestling Entertainment. This was also the year of the invasion angle where WCW and ECW stars joined the WWE after being bought out by McMahon. During this time there was a match to unify the IC, European, and Hardcore Championships between Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy, and Tommy Dreamer. Van Dam ended up winning the match and unifying the belts. Also that year, after Van Dam ropped the belt to Jericho who in turn lost to Kane, there was yet another unification match. This time between IC Champ Kane and World Heavyweight Champion Triple H. The result of the match was Triple H holding the IC title for his/it's shortest reign ever and the title went inactive for the remainder of '02 and a few months in '03. This is when Co-General Manager Stone Cold Steve Austin reinstated the title. On May 18th of '03 Austin held a battle royal on Raw, with the winner becoming the first official WWE Intercontinental Champion. Christian ended up winning and the belt has been active ever since then.

1. Bret Hart- I mean you had to know this was coming. The Excellence of Execution. I tried to find out how many times he defended the title but to no avail. I recall some epic feuds with Piper, Bulldog, Michaels, and Mr. Perfect....and the title always being on the line.
2. Shawn Michaels- It's hard to argue the reshaping Michaels did on the WWF/WWE alone, not to mention the levels he brought the IC division to. Classic rivalry with Razor Ramon and Bret Hart.
3. Mr. Perfect- Even though he only held the title twice I always instantly think of Curt Hennig with the IC Belt. Feuds with Hart and Texas Tornado memorably.
4. Chris Jericho- It would be hard to have this list and not at least mention Y2J, if for no other reason than the fact that he's held the title 8 times.
5. Razor Ramon- Was the other half of one of the greatest matches in WWE history, the Ladder Match with Michaels.

6. Jeff Jarrett- I almost wanted to leave him off the list. But he's held the belt 6 times and dropped the title to Chyna. Eh.
7. Goldust- I just like Goldust. I unfortunately missed what was said to be one of his greatest feuds ever, with Hunter Hearst Helmsley.

8. Honky Tonk Man- He almost missed the list,and would have had WWE allowed Santino to break his record. 454 days is a long time to hold on to a title.
9. Rob Van Dam- This is just to acknowledge the fact that he was being held down really. He wasn't that great of an IC Champ...but he took what they gave him and didn't gripe about it.

10. CM Punk- I've never been high on CM Punk but something has to be said of the fact that he's the youngest Grand Slam winner in the history of the company. PLUS, if they do this right, it feels as though they are trying to make the belt mean something. I'm all for that and I think Punk is the perfect guy to carry that out.

• Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock Yeah neither made my list but they used to put on incredible matches and cut great promos on each other. Plus they left it perfect for Austin and Rocky to go nuts for the Heavyweight Title later on.
• Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon Well think about it, they put on one of the greatest matches ever for this belt. Did I say that already?

• Jeff Hardy vs. Umaga This was relatively recent, but these two put on some intense matches. Hardy can take a hell of a beating and Umaga certainly doesn't mind dishing one out.
• Triple H vs. The Rock Yeah the Rock makes a second appearance. This feud was made all the better by the factions that the two of them lead. DX vs The Nation of Domination. AMAZING.
• Steve Austin vs. Owen Hart This included the match where Owen broke Austin's neck. Owen 3:16 says I just broke your neck. I'm telling you...Owen could've been spectacular.