WWE European Championship 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 Championship s 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 scripted finishes rather than contend in direct competition . History . The WWE European Championship was originally known as the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) European Championship . The WWF European Championship , as it was then known , emerged in 1997 when The British Bulldog became the first Champion after winning a tournament that was held over several shows in Germany , culminating in a finals victory over Owen Hart . With Shawn Michaels winning the belt , it made him the first Grand Slam Champion in WWE . Michaels is the only wrestler to have held both the WWF Championship and the European title at the same time . After winning the European title , both D ' Lo Brown and Al Snow were billed from different parts of Europe each week while champion . During Snow ' s reign , he and " Head " dressed up as various ethnic stereotypes corresponding to the European location they were billed from , though not always in a politically or geographically correct manner . The belt was retired briefly in April 1999 by then - champion Shane McMahon , who wanted to retire as an " undefeated champion " . McMahon reintroduced the championship two months later and gave it to Mideon , who saw the title belt in Shane ' s travel bag and asked if he could have it . The British Bulldog was the inaugural champion and has had the longest title reign with 206 days . William Regal and D ' Lo Brown both have had the most title reigns , each holding it four times . Rob Van Dam is essentially the shortest reigning European Champion as he only held it for one night when he defeated Jeff Hardy to unify it with the Intercontinental title . The shortest reign ( s ) as European Champion that wasn ' t a unification goes to Jeff Jarrett and Chris Jericho who held the championship for one day each . Jeff Jarrett defeated D ' lo Brown for the European Championship ( along with the Intercontintal Championship ) at Summerslam 1999 and gave it to Mark Henry the following night on RAW . Chris Jericho defeated Kurt Angle in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 2000 ( by pinning Chris Benoit ) and lost the title to Eddie Guerrero on RAW the night after . Jeff Hardy was the youngest champion having it won at the age of 24 . Eurocontinental Champions . The term " Eurocontinental Champion " is a portmanteau of European and Intercontinental , used to describe wrestlers who held both titles simultaneously . Three wrestlers were booked to accomplish this feat . The first was D ' Lo Brown , who defeated Mideon for the European title at Fully Loaded in 1999 and two nights later at a Monday Night Raw taping , defeated Jeff Jarrett to win the Intercontinental Championship . A month later at SummerSlam Jarrett defeated Brown to win both titles , thus becoming the second Eurocontinental Champion . On the February 10 , 2000 edition of " SmackDown ! " Kurt Angle defeated Val Venis to win the European Championship . At No Way Out seventeen days later Angle defeated Chris Jericho for the Intercontinental Championship and became the third man to hold both the European and Intercontinental Championships simultaneously . Angle held the titles until " WrestleMania 2000 " , when he faced Jericho and Chris Benoit in a two - fall triple threat match for his belts . In a rarity , Angle lost both of his championships without being pinned or forced to submit ; Benoit defeated Jericho in the first fall for the Intercontinental Championship and Jericho returned the favor in the second fall to take the European Championship . There is some question as to whether Rob Van Dam could be considered the fourth and final Eurocontinental Champion , as he was the Intercontinental Champion and won the European Championship in a unification match ; the latter of which became retired . So far , World Wrestling Entertainment has not credited this as a Eurocontinental title reign . Deactivation . The WWE European Championship , as it was next known , was retired in a ladder match on July 22 , 2002 when Rob Van Dam ( RVD ) put his WWE Intercontinental Championship on the line , along with Jeff Hardy ' s European Championship . By winning that match , RVD merged the two titles together , and continued to hold the Intercontinental Title . RVD ' s title reign is not listed in the official European title history on WWE ' s official website , but is acknowledged in WWE ' s official encyclopedia and past superstar profiles . The championship was once again deemed inactive . The title appears in WWE ' 12 in one of the Road to Wrestlemania stories .