The CZW Intercontinental Title History
The cZw Intercontinental title was created December 9th 2007, and the first Intercontinental Champion won the title on Jan 17th 2008. Ace King defeated four other men in an elimination match to be that first champion.
He held the title until "Broken Hearts, Broken Bones" when he was defeated by Mack Beaudin in the 3 Levels Of Pain match. Mack held the title until May 1st, when Big Nasty surprised many by beating the #1 Draft Pick for the title in a Cage match, with a little help from Special Ed Covey.
Big Nasty held the belt for a good run, losing it to Kris Kash in Sacramento. In what is considered a huge upset, Upstart member Maynard O'Toole won the belt from Kash in Los Angeles, giving Kash the shortest title reign in Intercontinental history to date.
The Jackal held the title for an impressive amount of time, until Volatile Day in Austin, Texas. It was The Jackal vs. Matt Covey vs. Ace King in a massive triple threat match, where Ace King became the first ever two-time CZW Intercontinental Champion after making Karl tap. Ace was forced to vacate the title in Little Rock, as he had won the World title the week before in the Tower of Power.
Justin Marsham became the next Intercontinental champion, defeating Buck Evans and Big Nasty on Overdrive during the April 11th edition.
Summer Showdown saw 3 titles change hands, including the Intercontinental Championship held by Justin Marsham. In a very unique match in which the fans were allowed to bring in weapons to the match, El Pablo edged out Marsham to become the first ever Grand Slam winner, being a former Tag Team, World Heavyweight, X-Division and Intercontinental champion.
EP held the title until Re-United We Stand, where the returning Maynard O'Toole became a 2-time Intercontinental champion after winning the third installment of the Toole Shed match, which will go down in history as one of the most epic title matches held in a CZW ring.
Maynard held the title until May 3rd, having successfully defended it against Mike King at There Will Be Blood in another epic match. Heading towards Summer Showdown, Maynard wanted another title match beforehand against an old foe in Brian Kirkland. In a great match, and perhaps a giant upset, Kirkland beat Maynard for the title in Seattle, Washington.
At Summer Showdown, BK was challenged by Alex Kaelin, Kimo Newton, and his own stable mate Mike King. In the end, Mike and BK had both pinned Kimo and Alex, causing confusion. BK was extremely disappointed, as the belt was awarded to Mike.
Mike King was challenged by Kimo Newton, who had just changed his view on life, at Hatewave III. In a awesome onslaught, both men gave it their all in trying to secure the IC belt. King ultimately retained, which caused Kimo to go over the edge and almost literally start a full scale riot at the United Center in Chicago!
King's next defence came at Horrorcore, when he was challenged by joint-Number One Contenders Ronnie McNeil and Waylon Krew, and former stable-mate Ryan Shane, who had interjected himself into the running to continue his violent, personal crusade against the champion. However, just seconds after knocking King out for the count with the Murder Scene, Shane was caught off-guard by a "Flawless" interception from Ronnie McNeil, who pinned King to become the new champion!
McNeil was still in possession of the title when CZW was bought out by WCCW in January 2011; however, with him not having signed back up with the company when it finally re-emerged in mid-2012, a four-man tournament was staged to determine the new champion. Due to travel issues affecting other competitors, Mike King was the only man to actually pick up a victory in said tournament; however, much to his chagrin he was still forced to compete officially for the vacant title at Horrorcore on October 15th in a triple-threat match against Satoshi Kobayashi and Maynard O'Toole. Seizing the opportunity after Kobayashi had slammed O'Toole through a table, King cleared the big man from the ring with a huge Metallica Kick, allowing him the time to cover O'Toole himself and win the gold, exactly 2 years after being defeated for it by McNeil.
King would go on to hold the gold for 155 days, amounting to just shy of a remarkable 300 days across his two reigns with the belt. However, disappointed at his lack of defences - and determined to show himself as a "fighting champion" - King demanded a match with the newly-returned Eric Collum on the March 18th edition of Overdrive. This proved to be a mistake, as, after a greulling and hard-fought match, Collum was able - with a little help from DXM - to hit his Aerial Revolution on King and secure his first Intercontinental Championship reign.
Title Winners
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cZw ~ |
# | Name | Defeated | Date won | Date Lost | Days |
1 | Ace King | Dee, Dart, Arashavin & Beaudin | Jan. 17, 2008 | Feb. 28th | 43 |
2 | Mack Beaudin | Ace King | Feb. 28th | May 1st | 64 |
3 | Big Nasty | Mack Beaudin | May 1st | June 15th | 46 | 4 | Kris Kash | Big Nasty | June 15th | June 27th | 13 | 5 | Maynard O'Toole | Kris Kash | June 27th | Oct. 31st | 127 | 6 | The Jackal | Maynard O'Toole | Oct. 31st | Feb. 28th 2009 | 121 | 7 | Ace King (x2) | The Jackal and Matt Covey | Feb. 28th | April 4th | 36 |
- | VACANT | Ace forced to vacate | April 4th | April 11th | - |
8 | Justin Marsham | Buck Evans and Big Nasty | April 11th | June 28th | 79 |
9 | El Pablo | Justin Marsham | June 28th | Nov 9th | 135 |
10 | Maynard O'Toole (x2) | El Pablo | Nov. 9th | May 3rd 2010 | 176 |
11 | Brian Kirkland | Maynard O'Toole | May 3rd 2010 | June 13th | 42 |
12 | Mike King | Kirkland, Newton & Kaelin | June 13th | Oct. 31st | 141 |
13 | Ronnie McNeil | King, Krew & Shane | Oct. 31st | Vacated in 2010 | 78 |
14 | Mike King (x2) | Kobayashi & O'Toole | Oct. 15th 2012 | Mar. 18th 2013 | 155 |
15 | Eric Collum | Mike King | Mar. 18th 2013 | Current | - |