WWE unveils new version of Intercontinental title
During a segment on Friday’s WWE SmackDown, a new look to the WWE Intercontinental belt was unveiled.
Sami Zayn was doing a promo alongside champion Shinsuke Nakamura when he said he got him something. Zayn then pulled the new black and gold belt out of a bag and presented it to him.
It’s the second new design of a WWE title in the last eight days as they unveiled the new-look Universal title with a blue strap on last Friday’s SmackDown.
This is the latest update of the title that was created back in September 1979. The first champion was Pat Patterson who “won” the title in a fictional match in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Nakamura will face U.S. Champion AJ Styles and NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong in a non-title triple threat match at Sunday’s Survivor Series. He won the title in at July’s Extreme Rules by defeating Finn Balor to begin his first I-C title reign.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.