The WWE Championship was bounced around more than a basketball during the Attitude Era. Just about every top guy got their chance at WWE\u2019s ultimate prize. It was a fast and furious way to book your top title, but one that fit in very well with the era. No one knew who would win the championship next, but no one thought it would be Vince McMahon.<\/p>\n
On an episode of SmackDown, Vince McMahon was goaded into a match by Triple H\u2014a contest where McMahon\u2019s son-in-law agreed to put his WWE Championship on the line. After the usual Attitude Era run-in, Vince McMahon pulled off the massive upset, winning the WWE Championship. It was the first and only time the owner of WWE had the strap around his waist.<\/p>\n
Razor Ramon Wins Mid-Card Gold \u2013 Monday Night Raw, September 27th<\/sup>,1993 <\/strong><\/h2>\nShawn Michaels had a stranglehold over the Intercontinental Championship in 1993. So much so that he rarely defended the championship, for fear of losing his standing. The office didn\u2019t take kindly to this, and he was soon stripped of the IC Championship, setting up a history-making night for The Bad Guy.<\/p>\n
Razor Ramon went through a 20-man battle royale and a showdown with Rick Martel to capture the Intercontinental Championship. It was a thing to see the secondary strap change hands on television, and it was also the first singles championship for Ramon. As well, it was the night that started WWE on the path to HBK and Ramon\u2019s historic Wrestlemania X ladder match.<\/p>\n
Pat Patterson Makes History \u2013 House Show September 1st<\/sup>, 1979<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe lineage surrounding the Intercontinental Championship\u2019s beginning is spotty, at best, but that doesn\u2019t mean the crowning of a new champion wasn\u2019t a historic event. Before that night in 1979, WWE had the World, Tag Team, and North American Championships.<\/p>\n
It was decided that a more critical secondary singles championship was needed, and thus the North American Championship was absorbed into the newly created Intercontinental Championship.<\/p>\n
The IC title has gone on to become one of the most essential titles in professional wrestling. Known as the workhorses’ title, it is just as, if not more popular than, the WWE Championship itself. It’s become a staple of WWE, and Pat Patterson had the honor of being its inaugural champion.<\/p>\n
Ric Flair Adds Another Championship To The Trophy Case \u2013 Unforgiven September 18th<\/sup>, 2005<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Nature Boy is one of the greatest wrestlers to lace up a pair of boots. His longevity was incredible, but it was his ability to collect championships that set him apart. His record of 16 World Championships stood for years. He was a wrestler who looked odd without some gold wrapped around his waist.<\/p>\n
For all the championships Flair acquired, one that eluded him for many years was the Intercontinental Championship. It was the one WWE strap he hadn\u2019t won, and in the waning years of his career, he rectified that. Ric Flair used his wily ways to get the victory over Carlito and thus won the last championship he needed to complete his collection. The Nature Boy trophy case was full.<\/p>\n
Heath Slater & Rhyno Feed Their Kids \u2013 SmackDown Live September 11th<\/sup>, 2016 <\/strong><\/h2>\nWWE\u2019s 2016 brand split was met with mixed reactions. The roster dictated that they split the shows, and it was nice to see the commitment to individuality on the part of Raw and SmackDown. What was also positive was the unexpected stories that developed\u2014specifically, the work done by Heath Slater and Rhyno.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2025\/09\/Shakedown_04_31650231922-1024x731.jpg\")
Photo Credit: WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHeath Slater was desperate to keep his job with WWE; thus, he paired with Rhyno to try to win the tournament to determine the first SmackDown Live tag team champions. It was an angle where we witnessed the duo receiving amazing reactions from the audience. They were the perfect underdog team for the fans to rally behind, and when they won the whole thing, the arena erupted. It was the biggest pleasant surprise that came out of the brand split.<\/p>\n
Brock Lesnar & Kurt Angle Become WWE\u2019s Iron Men \u2013 SmackDown, September 18th<\/sup>, 2003 <\/strong><\/h2>\nBrock Lesnar and Kurt Angle were the preeminent feud of the Ruthless Aggression Era. Their wars were legendary and main-evented just about every major PLE that WWE had to offer. They were the reason that SmackDown was considered the A show for a few years. Lesnar and Angle were technical masters and it for all their battles, it may be the one that took place on free television that was their best.<\/p>\n
There aren\u2019t many men who can pull off an exciting Iron Man match. The time issues alone mean there would be a lot of downtime throughout. Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had no issues with this problem, putting together a captivating contest. The brawling, technical, and submission styles employed were fantastic, and the booking put together an exhilarating finish that saw Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship.<\/p>\n
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\nHeader photo \u2013 WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on WrestleMania and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\nYou can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Wrestling Entertainment is a show that always goes on. There isn\u2019t an offseason like we see in most other major sporting organizations. The wrestlers are on the road year-round, and WWE puts everything they have into making sure that each show is as entertaining as the last. A problem that WWE does run into, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":141784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,2192,4,3],"tags":[57,151,245,927,152,469],"class_list":["post-141775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-heath-slater","tag-kurt-angle","tag-razor-ramon","tag-rhyno","tag-ric-flair"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141786,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions\/141786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The lineage surrounding the Intercontinental Championship\u2019s beginning is spotty, at best, but that doesn\u2019t mean the crowning of a new champion wasn\u2019t a historic event. Before that night in 1979, WWE had the World, Tag Team, and North American Championships.<\/p>\n
It was decided that a more critical secondary singles championship was needed, and thus the North American Championship was absorbed into the newly created Intercontinental Championship.<\/p>\n
The IC title has gone on to become one of the most essential titles in professional wrestling. Known as the workhorses’ title, it is just as, if not more popular than, the WWE Championship itself. It’s become a staple of WWE, and Pat Patterson had the honor of being its inaugural champion.<\/p>\n
Ric Flair Adds Another Championship To The Trophy Case \u2013 Unforgiven September 18th<\/sup>, 2005<\/strong><\/h2>\nThe Nature Boy is one of the greatest wrestlers to lace up a pair of boots. His longevity was incredible, but it was his ability to collect championships that set him apart. His record of 16 World Championships stood for years. He was a wrestler who looked odd without some gold wrapped around his waist.<\/p>\n
For all the championships Flair acquired, one that eluded him for many years was the Intercontinental Championship. It was the one WWE strap he hadn\u2019t won, and in the waning years of his career, he rectified that. Ric Flair used his wily ways to get the victory over Carlito and thus won the last championship he needed to complete his collection. The Nature Boy trophy case was full.<\/p>\n
Heath Slater & Rhyno Feed Their Kids \u2013 SmackDown Live September 11th<\/sup>, 2016 <\/strong><\/h2>\nWWE\u2019s 2016 brand split was met with mixed reactions. The roster dictated that they split the shows, and it was nice to see the commitment to individuality on the part of Raw and SmackDown. What was also positive was the unexpected stories that developed\u2014specifically, the work done by Heath Slater and Rhyno.<\/p>\nPhoto Credit: WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nHeath Slater was desperate to keep his job with WWE; thus, he paired with Rhyno to try to win the tournament to determine the first SmackDown Live tag team champions. It was an angle where we witnessed the duo receiving amazing reactions from the audience. They were the perfect underdog team for the fans to rally behind, and when they won the whole thing, the arena erupted. It was the biggest pleasant surprise that came out of the brand split.<\/p>\n
Brock Lesnar & Kurt Angle Become WWE\u2019s Iron Men \u2013 SmackDown, September 18th<\/sup>, 2003 <\/strong><\/h2>\nBrock Lesnar and Kurt Angle were the preeminent feud of the Ruthless Aggression Era. Their wars were legendary and main-evented just about every major PLE that WWE had to offer. They were the reason that SmackDown was considered the A show for a few years. Lesnar and Angle were technical masters and it for all their battles, it may be the one that took place on free television that was their best.<\/p>\n
There aren\u2019t many men who can pull off an exciting Iron Man match. The time issues alone mean there would be a lot of downtime throughout. Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had no issues with this problem, putting together a captivating contest. The brawling, technical, and submission styles employed were fantastic, and the booking put together an exhilarating finish that saw Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship.<\/p>\n
More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\nHeader photo \u2013 WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on WrestleMania and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\nYou can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Wrestling Entertainment is a show that always goes on. There isn\u2019t an offseason like we see in most other major sporting organizations. The wrestlers are on the road year-round, and WWE puts everything they have into making sure that each show is as entertaining as the last. A problem that WWE does run into, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":141784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,2192,4,3],"tags":[57,151,245,927,152,469],"class_list":["post-141775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-heath-slater","tag-kurt-angle","tag-razor-ramon","tag-rhyno","tag-ric-flair"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141786,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions\/141786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
WWE\u2019s 2016 brand split was met with mixed reactions. The roster dictated that they split the shows, and it was nice to see the commitment to individuality on the part of Raw and SmackDown. What was also positive was the unexpected stories that developed\u2014specifically, the work done by Heath Slater and Rhyno.<\/p>\n Heath Slater was desperate to keep his job with WWE; thus, he paired with Rhyno to try to win the tournament to determine the first SmackDown Live tag team champions. It was an angle where we witnessed the duo receiving amazing reactions from the audience. They were the perfect underdog team for the fans to rally behind, and when they won the whole thing, the arena erupted. It was the biggest pleasant surprise that came out of the brand split.<\/p>\n Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle were the preeminent feud of the Ruthless Aggression Era. Their wars were legendary and main-evented just about every major PLE that WWE had to offer. They were the reason that SmackDown was considered the A show for a few years. Lesnar and Angle were technical masters and it for all their battles, it may be the one that took place on free television that was their best.<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many men who can pull off an exciting Iron Man match. The time issues alone mean there would be a lot of downtime throughout. Brock Lesnar and Kurt Angle had no issues with this problem, putting together a captivating contest. The brawling, technical, and submission styles employed were fantastic, and the booking put together an exhilarating finish that saw Brock Lesnar winning the WWE Championship.<\/p>\n More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/strong><\/p>\n Header photo \u2013 WikiMedia Creative Commons<\/a> \u2013 Stay tuned to the <\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on WrestleMania and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Main Event as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" World Wrestling Entertainment is a show that always goes on. There isn\u2019t an offseason like we see in most other major sporting organizations. The wrestlers are on the road year-round, and WWE puts everything they have into making sure that each show is as entertaining as the last. A problem that WWE does run into, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4518,"featured_media":141784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7205,2192,4,3],"tags":[57,151,245,927,152,469],"class_list":["post-141775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-heath-slater","tag-kurt-angle","tag-razor-ramon","tag-rhyno","tag-ric-flair"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141775"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141786,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141775\/revisions\/141786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Brock Lesnar & Kurt Angle Become WWE\u2019s Iron Men \u2013 SmackDown, September 18th<\/sup>, 2003 <\/strong><\/h2>\n