Ten major stars who never won the WWE Intercontinental Championship

14th September, 2025

Historically, the Intercontinental Championship was a stepping stone to greater things in WWE – a wrestler who won the secondary title could be in line for a world title run, or at least seen as someone who could get a hot prospect to that next level. Of course, the belt's prestige has gone up and down with time, but it's still a prize that many top stars earn over the course of their careers. However, some big names have never had a run with the workhorse belt, despite earning a multitude of other accolades, so I thought it might be interesting to look at the stars who never won the belt.

Of course, we don't want to get lazy with this list. Sure, John Cena has never won the Intercontinental Championship, but he's never really been in the position to hold it. In fact, he was ineligible to win the title in the only televised title match he was involved in – a 3-on-2 Texas Tornado match, in which he and Rob Van Dam defended their titles (WWE and Intercontinental, respectively) against Triple H, Shelton Benjamin and Chris Masters. So for this list we're only counting wrestlers who actually challenged for the title more than once on TV or PPV, and we'll look at who they faced and how the title eluded them.

Bob Backlund

Though he had been the top dog in the promotion during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Bob Backlund was very much a relic of a bygone era when he returned to the WWF in 1992. By the time he challenged Shawn Michaels for the Intercontinental Championship in 1993, the former WWF champ had enough name value to be worth beating, but not enough to be worthy of one of the precious few PPV title matches per year. Backlund challenged the Heartbreak Kid for the belt twice, first on a European tour in the spring, and then on the Summerslam Spectacular 1993 show on the USA Network. On the latter occasion, Diesel managed to distract the referee while Michaels was covered, saving the match for Michaels so that he could roll up his opponent with a handful of tights to keep his belt.

Then something weird happened – Backlund won the WWF Championship from Bret Hart in a shock upset at Survivor Series 1994. Sure, his reign lasted just three days and came in screwy fashion, but it was an unexpected outcome for a wrestler who was long past his prime. This kept Backlund credible enough to challenge Jeff Jarrett for the Intercontinental Championship on the Sunday Night Slam 3 show in March 1995. The challenger got the win but not the title, as Razor Ramon interfered in the match by attacking Backlund for a disqualification finish. Backlund later tried to manage The Sultan to an Intercontinental title victory over Rocky Maivia at Wrestlemania 13, but failed in that endeavour too.

Yokozuna

Like Bob Backlund, Yokozuna had already won the WWF Championship before ever challenging for the midcard belt, and he'd even done it twice – though that first reign did only last for a matter of minutes. Still, just seven months after he'd lost the top title to Bret Hart at Wrestlemania X, the super-heavyweight made for a credible challenger to the secondary strap. Yoko's initial attempt against Razor Ramon took place on the 24th October 1994 edition of Monday Night Raw, and ended by count out after he ran away from the ring. The reason? A casket had been brought to the ring, doubtless on the orders of the Undertaker, who was seeking revenge at Survivor Series after Yokozuna had locked him in a casket at the Royal Rumble earlier in the year.

The second attempt came in an oddball match at In Your House: Triple Header in September 1995. Yokozuna and Owen Hart held the tag team gold at the time, and were scheduled to clash with WWF champ Diesel and IC champ Shawn Michaels, with all the titles on the line. However, the British Bulldog replaced Owen in the match, only for Owen to come to the ring and be pinned by Diesel – a win that didn't stand, since Hart wasn't an official participant in the match. Yokozuna would have one final shot at the gold on the final Raw of 1995, and it was more or less a carbon copy of his first – same champion, same challenger, same result, casket and all.

Tazz

Okay, Tazz wasn't exactly at the peak of his career in WWE, but he certainly came in with a lot of buzz. Considering the aura of credibility he cultivated in ECW, and the red hot reaction to his Royal Rumble 2000 debut, it's kind of incredible how quickly Tazz fell down the card in the WWF. By the time he first challenged Angle for the Intercontinental Championship on the 9th March episode of Smackdown, he'd won only two matches cleanly on Raw and Smackdown in six weeks, against the directionless Gangrel and the Attitude Era's deadliest stable, the Mean Street Posse. He was winning a lot of matches by disqualification, and that's what happened here. This took place during the short, strange alliance between Kurt Angle and our old friend Bob Backlund, so with Angle locked in the Tazzmission and about to pass out, Bob ran in to put the challenger in the Crossface Chicken Wing.

Tazz next challenged Chris Benoit for the belt on the 3rd April 2000 episode of Raw. The short match saw Tazz distracted by the arrival of Benoit's Radicalz stablemate Perry Saturn, allowing the champion to hit a German suplex for the win. Tazz's brief stint with the ECW Championship later that month did nothing to raise his WWF status, as he challenged Benoit again on 1st May – this time, Saturn didn't even get involved physically, his mere presence distracting the Red Hook native enough for Benoit to win with a fisherman's suplex in under two minutes. By the time he answered Chris Jericho's open challenge on the 1st February 2001 "Smackdown Extreme" show, Tazz had become just another victim of bad booking – he didn't feel like much of a threat and lost clean to a Lionsault. At least he got an oddball tag title run with Spike Dudley before he retired for a life behind the commentary desk.

X-Pac

X-Pac is one of those guys that feels like he could have held the workhorse title at some point, both because of his style and the fact that he's one of the most prolific challengers never to win the belt. The fact that he didn't is actually quite a surprise – he's the only one of the male D-Generation X members not to, as Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn and Rick Rude all held the secondary strap during their careers, and fellow member Chyna is the only woman to have held the belt. In fact, X-Pac is also the only core member of the Kliq never to hold the title, as Diesel and Razor Ramon also held it.

The former 1-2-3 Kid failed to take the title from The Rock on two occasions in the summer of 1998, the first coming on the 20th July episode of Raw, which the champ won via disqualification after lots of interference. The following week, X-Pac and Trople H both challenged in a triple threat, which The Rock walked out of as the stablemates squabbled. X-Pac's educated feet got him to the final of an Intercontinental Championship tournament on 12th October, but weren't enough to overcome Ken Shamrock. Interference from Billy Gunn was sufficient to prevent him from dethroning Jeff Jarrett on the 28th June 1999 episode of Raw, and Eddie Guerrero retained the belt in a triple threat also involving Chris Jericho on the 12th October 2000 Smackdown. Jericho himself would retain the title against X-Pac twice in February 2001, the second time in a Fatal Four-Way also involving Guerrero and Chris Benoit at No Way Out. X-Pac's final failed challenge was against his former tag team partner Kane on the 5th June 2001 Smackdown.

The Undertaker

The Undertaker was such a fixture in the main event picture that it's weird to think of him ever challenging for the secondary belt, but he actually challenged four different champions unsuccessfully. Most of these matches came during the era when the WWF was playing second fiddle to WCW, and the first two were kind of the same match – a casket match against Goldust, at the weather-blighted In Your House: Beware of Dog PPV in May 1996, and the do-over at the Superstars taping two days later. Interference from Mankind prevented the Deadman from picking up the gold. The next match is a rather famous Shotgun Saturday Night match against Triple H in 1997, which took place in New York's Penn Station – Taker cost himself the match by smacking Trips with the belt, but ended up giving him a Tombstone on an escalator. A match against Rocky Maivia on the 22nd December episode of Raw was a total schmoz, with constant Nation of Domination interference and an attack from Kane to boot.

The final two failed challenges both took place in 2001, by which time the Deadman had given way to the American Badass biker incarnation of the gimmick. The first was easily the more memorable of the two, being the main event of Backlash 2001 in which tag champs Taker and Kane teamed against the newly turned WWF champ Stone Cold Steve Austin and IC champ Triple H, with all the gold on the line. Kane took the fall on that night, but got his revenge and the Intercontinental Championship in a chain match at Judgment Day the next month. He'd lose the title to Albert after interference from Diamond Dallas Page, setting up Taker to challenge the new champ on the 2nd July episode of Raw. Undertaker won the match but not the belt, as the match ended in a disqualification after DDP predictably interfered.

Brock Lesnar

Everyone knows the story of Brock Lesnar – he came into WWE the day after Wrestlemania X8, smashed his way through everything in his path and then toppled The Rock at Summerslam 2002, becoming the youngest wrestler to hold the WWE Championship. None of that is false, but it does ignore the fact that the Intercontinental Championship was the first title that the Next Big Thing actually challenged for, and he failed to win it despite having two attempts to capture it. Both of these came against Rob Van Dam in the summer of 2002, in what was only his second real feud after his initial story with Matt and Jeff Hardy.

RVD had recently recaptured the gold from Eddie Guerrero when he met Lesnar in the finals of the King of the Ring tournament at the titular PPV. The monstrous rookie took the win that night, so challenged Van Dam for his belt on Raw the next night. That match ended when Paul Heyman interfered and got his client disqualified, which earned him a cathartic beating from RVD, until Lesnar intervened and slammed his opponent through the Spanish announce table. Lesnar challenged again at Vengeance about a month later, but the outcome wasn't particularly different – RVD picked up another DQ victory thanks to Heyman's interference and retained his belt, this time taking an F5 on a chair as punishment. From there, Lesnar ascended to the main event scene, leaving his Intercontinental Championship pursuit as a mostly forgotten chapter of his career.

Mick Foley

Mrs Foley's baby boy was not a regular in the Intercontinental Championship hunt. Indeed, he had both more distinct gimmicks and more world title runs than he did IC title shots. It's easy to forget that Foley actually didn't hold a lot of singles gold throughout his career – by the time Mankind challenged Ken Shamrock for the secondary belt at In Your House: Judgment Day in October 1998, his six title runs in WCW, ECW and the WWF had all been with tag team gold. This match is rarely brought up despite its creative finish, in which Mankind chose to give himself the Mandible Claw and make himself pass out, rather than tapping out to Shamrock's ankle lock.

Foley's second challenge is far better remembered. The hardcore legend had come out of retirement after four years, but the resulting Rock 'N' Sock Connection vs Evolution handicap match at Wrestlemania XX turned out to be a bit underwhelming. The hardcore match between Cactus Jack and Randy Orton at Backlash 2004 was the total opposite, and it was such a personal grudge match that it's easy to forget that the young legend killer's Intercontinental title was on the line. The wild brawl was one of Foley's best matches ever, incorporating barbed wire, thumbtacks, a brilliant diving elbow off the entrance stage and more, and it was a big part of the reason that Orton was elevated to the world title scene later that year.

Mark Henry

I remember being rather surprised back in 2011, when a friend was telling me how awesome Mark Henry was – it had taken him such a long time to put everything together that I'll admit to assuming he never would. That's probably why he only captured gold three times in his 20+ year WWE career – a forgettable European Championship run in 1999, his ECW Championship run and the memorable "Hall of Pain" World Heavyweight Championship run. What's more surprising is that he was also an infrequent challenger for the Intercontinental Championship, as despite the fact that the World's Strongest Man could always slot in as a monster of the month when needed, he only had two televised matches for the belt.

The two matches came at very different points in Mark Henry's career. The first was against Jeff Jarrett on Sunday Night Heat in June 1999, when Henry was still relatively green. It wasn't given a chance to turn into much, as the match was thrown out after Stone Cold ran down to smash everyone a couple of minutes in. The second was almost 16 years later, in an Elimination Chamber match at the titular PPV in 2015. The match was originally supposed to be Rusev, Dolph Ziggler, King Barrett, R-Truth, Ryback and Sheamus challenging for the title after Daniel Bryan had to vacate it due to injury, but Rusev was legitimately injured and so Henry replaced him. The match seemed to completely fall to pieces after Mark's pod was prematurely opened by Dolph Ziggler's face, and Mark looked particularly lost out there. There was a good portion of standing around aimlessly and he even broke up a cover for no good reason, before Sheamus eliminated him en route to a Ryback victory.

Matt Hardy

Jeff Hardy may be the more daring and popular brother, and easily the bigger singles star, but I've always enjoyed Matt Hardy for his character work. Besides, Matt was no slouch in solo competition – he picked up the ECW, US, European, Cruiserweight and Hardcore titles during his WWE career, not to mention TNA's world title. Of course, it's his tag team work that got him over, and that made him a handy asset in the midcard title scene – he was popular and credible enough that the crowd would get behind him, but he wouldn't suffer too much from a loss to a more established singles star. His first challenge was on the 12th June 2000 episode of Raw, tapping out cleanly to Chris Benoit's Crippler Crossface, and he lost the same way on the 28th December 2000 episode of Smackdown.

The second loss to Benoit came when Dean Malenko's attempts to woo Lita caused a feud between Team Extreme and the Radicalz. That played into Matt's failure to capture the title on the 5th February 2001 episode of Raw, when Malenko's interference helped an unwitting Chris Jericho to retain his title. Matt lost clean to Test on the 8th November Smackdown, annoying Lita in the process as he passed up a mixed tag match against Lance Storm and Ivory to do it. Finally, almost 16 years later, Matt challenged The Miz on the 30th October 2017 episode of Raw, but couldn't get the job done – he hit the Twist of Fate, but the wily champion rolled out to the apron, bounced Hardy's neck off the top rope and hit a Skull Crushing Finale for the victory.

Sheamus

You'd be forgiven for thinking that the ginger grappler has done it all in WWE – the Irish star held both the WWE and World Heavyweight titles, plus the US Championship and tag team gold, and he's won the Royal Rumble, Money in the Bank and King of the Ring. But Sheamus has never won the Intercontinental Championship, and it appears that he's actually the most prolific TV challenger to never win the belt. He first failed to capture the title from Cody Rhodes in September 2011, failing in a battle royal and a singles match on consecutive episodes of Raw and Smackdown. He took part in a battle royal at Battleground 2014 after Bad News Barrett vacated the belt, but The Miz won that one. He challenged in the aforementioned Elimination Chamber 2015 match, too.

It's only in his later career that Sheamus has really entered into sustained challenges for the secondary strap, as a credible veteran who can have compelling matches with his fellow big bruisers. Gunther turned back his challenges in thrilling bouts at Clash at the Castle 2022, an October 2022 Smackdown episode and Wrestlemania 39, with the final match also involving Drew McIntyre. His failed attempts to unseat Bron Breakker also drew acclaim, including a disqualification loss on Raw on 11th November 2024, a triple threat also including Ludwig Kaiser at Survivor Series 2024, and on Saturday Night's Main Event on 25th January 2025. Even with this string of failed challenges behind him, there's still time for the Celtic Warrior to bag the gold and complete the Grand Slam to round off a highly successful career.