WrestleMania III Intercontinental Championship Belt Sells for Record $716,750
One of the most famous championship belts in WWE history has just set a record. The Intercontinental Championship belt that Ricky Steamboat won from Randy Savage at WrestleMania III sold for $716,750 at Heritage Auctions on Saturday, October 24.
That is the highest price ever paid for a wrestling championship belt at auction.
The sale
- Auction: Heritage Auctions' Fall Sports Catalog Auction, which closed on Saturday, October 24
- Winning bid: $587,500
- Final price: $716,750, including Heritage's 22 percent buyer's premium
- Seller: wrestling podcaster and historian Conrad Thompson
Thompson celebrated on X after the sale: "We set a record! Thank you!"
Why this belt is so special
This red-lettered WWF Intercontinental Championship belt was used in the second half of the 1980s, and four WWE Hall of Famers held it: Tito Santana, Randy Savage, Ricky Steamboat and The Honky Tonk Man.
Savage won the title from Santana in February 1986 and held it for more than a year. Then, on March 29, 1987, at WrestleMania III in Pontiac, Michigan, Steamboat beat him for it in one of the most celebrated matches in WrestleMania history. Steamboat's reign did not last long. The Honky Tonk Man took the title from him in June 1987 and went on to hold it for what was then a record 454 days.
Ahead of the sale, Tony Giese of Heritage Auctions summed up why the belt mattered so much to collectors: "It was Hogan and Andre that sold the tickets, but it was Steamboat-Savage that stole the show."
How Conrad Thompson got it
The story of how the belt reached the auction is a good one. Thompson has said he got it from WWE in 2020 in a trade. Vince McMahon wanted the original Intercontinental Championship belt worn by Pat Patterson, the first Intercontinental Champion, and Thompson owned it. He offered it in exchange for the WrestleMania III belt, and the deal was done.
How it compares with other big wrestling sales
Wrestling memorabilia has had a huge year at auction, with Heritage behind all three of the biggest sales:
- Hulk Hogan's boots from the first WrestleMania: $1,037,000, the first wrestling item to sell for more than $1 million
- The WrestleMania III Intercontinental Championship belt: $716,750, now the record for a title belt
- Hulk Hogan's WWF Championship belt from WrestleMania 2: $414,800, the previous record for a belt
Prices like these show how much the golden era of the 1980s still means to fans who grew up with it, and how a single classic match can turn a belt into one of the most valuable pieces of wrestling history.
The Intercontinental Championship today
The title is still going strong almost 40 years later. Chad Gable is the current Intercontinental Champion on Raw. See the full list of reigns for every WWE title on our Title Reigns page.
