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The GEW International Championship, formerly known as the GEW Intercontinental Championship, is Global Extreme Wrestling's tertiary tier title. It has been active since 2001, although not continuously, as it was temporarily retired for the second half of 2007.


Due to the GEW records fire in May 2006, much of the information on the title prior to that date is unknown; this page only lists champions from early 2005 onwards as information from prior to that point is too sketchy to be reliable. In addition to the reigns below, Knuckles is known to be a former champion and Edge is known to be a one-time champion. Currently, and pending further records being discovered, GEW management only recognises reigns by Knuckles, Jeff Hardy, Undertaker and Edge prior to those on the list below. Twenty-one different individuals are currently recognised as former or current International Champions by GEW.


The current champion is The Engineer, who is in his first reign.


History[]

Almost nothing is known about the Intercontinental Championship from before January 2005, other than the fact that the most successful champions had been Jeff Hardy and Undertaker, and that it was one of GEW's two secondary tier titles, along with the GEW United States Championship. Hardy and Undertaker also represent the first recorded feud over the title, although Undertaker's ally and Hardy's nemesis Triple H would soon get involved and claim his first of two reigns. He in turn lost the title to Christopher Daniels, who was the last person to hold the title before GEW took a brief hiatus over the summer of 2005.


When GEW returned, Daniels was awarded the championship, and successfully held it until vacating it to challenged Shawn Michaels for the GEW World Heavyweight Championship. Relative newcomer Luke "The Ghost" Ingamells won it, becoming the final champion of GEW's old era. GEW took another hiatus over the following winter, after which Michaels and Daniels resumed their intense feud, with Michaels defeating Daniels in a cage match to be crowned the first Intercontinental Champion of GEW's new era, albeit as Daniels' ally Alex Shelley inadvertently cost him the match when he failed to open the cage door quickly enough.


Daniels went on to recapture the title from Michaels, and then on to feud with former champion Undertaker. This overlapped with Ingamells' (now Luke Mason) ongoing battle of one-upmanship with tag team partner Dean Heartly, which saw the title transition from Daniels' and Undertaker's feud to Mason's and Heartly's. Heartly and Mason feuded over the championship along with "Superstar" Nathan Irwin and X-Psc, with Mason getting a further two reigns and Irwin getting one. However the most successful challenger came from newcomer Ciara Jo, who - sick of being treated as incapable of fighting due to her gender, despite posting an almost unbeaten record - became both the first woman to hold the Intercontinental Championship and the first person to hold it for more than one hundred continuous days.


In fact Ciara Jo also became the last person to hold the Intercontinental Championship as following her dismissal from GEW under as-yet-unexplained circumstances, it was renamed the International Championship. Lita became the first person to hold it under the new name, successfully defending the belt from a number of competitors - most notably James Ward - until she vacated it when she was injured and forced to take a break from competition at the end of July 2007.


At this point GEW management, noting both the high number of active championships in the company and the number of times the International Championship had been vacated, retired it. It lay dormant for over half a year until owner Triple H returned to active competition and reinstated the belt, noting that the since the International Championship's retirement, the GEW Chaos Undisputed Championship had been unified with the GEW World Heavyweight Championship and thus there would still be three non-hardcore singles championships. The International Championship became the tertiary tier title and the GEW Omega Championship (formerly the United States Championship) was made the secondary tier title.


Triple H became the first person to hold the reinstated International Championship, defeating member of rival faction The Dead Precedents, Rhys Matterson, to enter his second reign, although Matterson was considered to have performed admirably against the owner and then-nine time World Heavyweight Champion, almost upsetting on several occasions. However Triple H's reign was cut short when he was fired by new General Manager and old enemy Kameron Chase, who organised a twelve-person battle royale at GEW Auld Lang Syne 2008 to compensate. Kirsten last eliminated Omega Champion BaY-B Dogg to become the new International Champion. Dogg and Kirsten met again at Extreme Extravaganza 2008, this time in a unification ladder match, an attempt by Chase to once more reduce the number of active belts. But the plan backfired as Kirsten retrieved Dogg's Omega Championship and Dogg retrieved Kirsten's International Championship at the same time, effectively drawing the match and thus rendering unification impossible.


Dogg went on to have the longest International Championship reign to date, which ended with her being forced to vacate the title due to having not defended it in thirty days. A hasty match was found which saw Oliver Queen defeating Kelly Hall and Troy Gafgen to become the new champion. Queen successfully feuded with returning veteran Mark Criteria, before losing the title to Hall at Pushed to the Limit 2008. Hall's reign is the shortest on record, as almost immediately after her match with Queen she was unseated by Heather Phoenix who had won a #1 contender's battle royale earlier that evening. Phoenix was later defeated by Gafgen, the latter finally ending a year-long quest to become a singles champion in GEW. Following a fairly long reign he was defeated in a ladder match by Morgan Greene on Chaos, in a match which saw Maria Giordano, Napalm, Mark Chapman and Shane Tallin all interfere. As a result of this and other interferences on Chaos over the previous weeks, General Manager Dexter Sinister ordered that the following week at GEW Carpe Diem 2009 Gafgen would go on to face Magnum for the GEW Heavyweight Championship and Greene would defend her newly-won International Championship against Tallin. Gafgen and Greene lost their respective matches, making Tallin the new International Champion. He subsequently defended his champion against Gafgen and Greene in a triple threat match on Chaos and Gafgen in barbed wire hell match at Extreme Extravaganza 2009, cementing his reign. He would finally lose to Sah'ta Thor at GEW Open Season 2009, but regained it at the following pay-per-view, GEW Payback. During Thor's reign, and Tallin's second reign, the physical belt was stolen. The thief would prove to be Gafgen, who used it to reinsert himself into the title scene. He proved unsuccessful however, As Thor retrieved the belt after attacking Gafgen and gave it back to Tallin, and the following week Tallin retained the title in a triple threat match against Gafgen and Thor. During this period Damien Synn won a match to become #1 contender. At GEW Enemy Territory 2009, Tallin faced Synn with Tallin's partner-turned-nemesis James Magnum as the guest referee. Magnum helped Synn win the match and the championship, albeit without Synn's knowledge or consent. Synn later lost the title to his close friend Dwight Mare, who had won the #1 contendership in a match against Synn and Mare's friend, and former champion, Morgan Greene. Mare held the title long enough to become the longest reigning champion in the title's history, but lost it at Extreme Extravaganza 2010 to newcomer The Engineer.



List of Champions[]

# Wrestler: Reigns: Date: Days held: Location: Event: Notes:
Sortable list of GEW International Champions
1 (Vacated) (1) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown At the first point the Intercontinental Championship is listed on surviving GEW records, it is vacant.
2 Undertaker 5 26 January 2005 6 Unknown GEW Chaos Defeated Shawn Michaels to win the vacant championship.
3 Jeff Hardy 5 2 February 2005 25 Unknown GEW Chaos -
4 Triple H 1 27 February 2005 10 Unknown GEW Hell on Earth 2005 -
5 Christopher Daniels 1 9 March 2005 Unknown Unknown GEW Chaos -
6 (Vacated) (2) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Records between the 9th of March and the 10th of September no longer exist. At some point during this time, GEW went on a brief hiatus, and the title was vacated.
7 Christopher Daniels 2 Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Records start again from the 10th September, at which point Daniels was already in his second reign, having been awarded the title as the last person to hold it before the break..
8 (Vacated) (3) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Vacated when Daniels was announced as #1 contender to the GEW World Heavyweight Championship.
9 Luke Ingamells 1 16 October 2005 Unknown Unknown GEW Pushed to the Limit 2005 Defeated Edge, Batista and Rob Conway in a four corners elimination match. Ingamells eliminated Conway, Edge eliminated Batista, and Ingamells eliminated Edge.
10 (Vacated) (4) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Vacated when GEW went on hiatus.
11 Shawn Michaels 1 28 June 2006 24 Unknown GEW Deadly Game 2006 Defeated Christopher Daniels in a cage match to win the vacant title.
12 Christopher Daniels 3 23 July 2006 21 KC Stadium, Hull, England GEW Extreme Extravaganza 2006 -
13 Undertaker 6 13 August 2006 4 Unknown GEW Payback 2006 -
14 Christopher Daniels 4 17 August 2006 91 New Haven Coliseum, New Haven CT, USA GEW Chaos -
15 Luke Mason 2 16 November 2006 38 Unknown GEW Chaos This was a triple threat match also involving Dean Heartly.
16 Nathan Irwin 1 24 December 2006 23 AlamoDome, San Antonio TX, USA GEW Winter Bash 2006 This was a Journey to Hell match also involving Dean Heartly and X-Pac.
17 Luke Mason 3 11 January 2007 10 Unknown GEW Chaos -
18 Ciara Jo 1 21 January 2007 101 U.S. Airways Center, Phoenix AZ, USA GEW New Year’s Revolution 2007 -
19 (Vacated) (5) 3 May 2007 17 Mediolanum Forum, Milan, Italy GEW Chaos Vacated when Ciara Jo quit GEW. During this time it is renamed the International Championship.
20 Lita 1 20 May 2007 70 Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan GEW Deadly Game 2007 Defeated James Ward, Sting and CM Punk a triple threat over-the-top-rope elimination match to win the vacant championship. Ward eliminated Punk and then Lita eliminated Sting and then Ward.
21 (Vacated) (6) 30 July 2007 165 N/A N/A Vacated and retired when Lita suffered an injury and was removed from active competition.
22 Triple H 2 11 January 2008 13 Richmond Coliseum, Richmond VA, USA GEW Chaos Reinstated by Triple H. Defeated Rhys Matterson to win the vacant title.
23 (Vacated) (7) 23 January 2008 3 N/A N/A Vacated when General Manager Kameron Chase fired Triple H.
24 Kirsten 1 26 January 2008 56 Unknown GEW Auld Lang Syne 2008 The scheduled main event of Triple H versus Shawn Michaels for the International Championship was cancelled due to General Manager Kameron Chase firing both men. In its stead he made a twelve-person battle royale. Kirsten last eliminated BaY-B Dogg to win the vacant title.
25 BaY-B Dogg 1 22 March 2008 171 MGM Garden Arena, Las Vegas NV, USA GEW Extreme Extravaganza 2008 This was a unification ladder match for Kirsten’s International Championship and Dogg’s GEW Omega Championship. Dogg and Kirsten simultaneously retrieved each other’s belts, meaning the titles switched hands rather than being vacated.
26 (Vacated) (8) 7 September 2008 20 Unknown GEW Chaos Vacated by General Manager Shawn Michaels as Dogg had not defended the title in thirty days.
27 Oliver Queen 1 28 September 2008 27 Target Center, Minneapolis MN, USA GEW Collision Course 2008 Defeated Troy Gafgen and Kelly Hall in a triple threat over-the-top-rope elimination match to win the vacant championship. Queen eliminated Gafgen and then Hall.
28 Kelly Hall 1 26 October 2008 <1 Target Center, Minneapolis MN, USA GEW Pushed to the Limit 2008 -
29 Heather Phoenix 1 26 October 2008 52 Target Center, Minneapolis MN, USA GEW Pushed to the Limit 2008 Phoenix had won a battle royale earlier in the night to be named #1 contender. With the backing of then-owner Shawn Michaels, Phoenix had her championship match immediately after Hall beat Queen.
30 Troy Gafgen 1 18 December 2008 77 Unknown GEW Chaos -
31 Morgan Greene 1 5 March 2009 10 XL Center, Hartford CT, USA GEW Chaos This was a ladder match.
32 Shane Tallin 1 15 March 2009 84 Madison Square Garden, New York City NY, USA GEW Carpe Diem 2009 This was an Ultimate X match.
33 Sah'ta Thor 1 7 June 2009 49 Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia GEW Open Season 2009 This was an elimination match also involving Damien Synn.
34 Shane Tallin 2 26 July 2009 35 Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan GEW Payback 2009 This was a steel cage match.
35 Damien Synn 1 30 August 2009 42 AT&T Center, San Antonio TX, USA GEW Enemy Territory 2009 -
36 Dwight Mare 1 11 October 2009 186 Qwest Center, Omaha NE, USA GEW Collision Course 2009 -
37 The Engineer 1 - 85+, as of 18/07/2010 - GEW Extreme Extravaganza 2010 -

Records[]

  • Most Reigns - Undertaker - 6

List of Champions by Combined Reign Length[]

Note that this table only covers those reigns for which the total number of days is known.


Sortable list of GEW International Champions by Combined Reign Length
# Wrestler: Reigns: Days held: 1 BaY-B Dogg 1 171
2 Shane Tallin 2 119
3 Christopher Daniels 4 (2 count towards this list) 112
4 Ciara Jo 1 101
5 Troy Gafgen 1 77
6 Lita 1 70
7 Kirsten 1 56
8 Heather Phoenix 1 52
9 Sah'ta Thor 1 49
10 Luke Mason 3 (2 count towards this list) 47
11 Damien Synn 1 42
12 Oliver Queen 1 27
13 Jeff Hardy 5 (1 counts towards this list) 25
14 Shawn Michaels 1 24
15= Nathan Irwin 1 23
15= Triple H 2 23
17= Morgan Greene 1 10
17= Undertaker 6 (2 count towards this list) 10
19 Dwight Mare 1 5+, as of 15/10/09
20 Kelly Hall 1 <1

Gallery[]

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