The WWE European Championship was a professional wrestling championship competed for in World Wrestling Entertainment. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, multiple superstars held the European and WWE Intercontinental Championships within short spans of each other, and several held both titles simultaneously—dubbed as "Eurocontinental champions".
Established in 1997 as the "WWF European Championship", the title incurred a brief hiatus in 1999 due to then-champion Shane McMahon's desire to retire an "undefeated champion", before finally being unified with the WWE Intercontinental Championship in 2002. Despite its name, only two holders were actually from Europe: the British Bulldog and William Regal. It became a coveted singles title of the Attitude Era, being held by superstars such as Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero, and competed for in the main event of the One Night Only pay-per-view in 1997. The championship was generally contested in professional wrestling matches, in which participants execute worked finishes rather than contend in direct competition.
Read more about WWE European Championship: History, Eurocontinental Champions, Deactivation, Other Media
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“England is nothing but the last ward of the European madhouse, and quite possibly it will prove to be the ward for particularly violent cases.”
—Leon Trotsky (18791940)