Fans of professional sports-entertainment are rejoicing today after WWE announced that footage of the 1979 tournament to crown the inaugural Intercontinental Champion, presumed to have been lost forever, has finally been located.

The footage sat neglected for decades, gathering dust in a warehouse in Rio De Janeiro, where Pat Patterson defeated [NAME UNKNOWN] to unify Patterson’s North American Heavyweight Championship with the totally-not-fictional South American Heavyweight Championship.

Although the footage is grainy from years of degradation, it clearly shows Patterson defeating a totally real human person with his patented finisher, the Crowd Goes Banana.

Patterson’s victory in the tournament is considered one of the most important wrestling milestones to happen in South America since Buddy Rogers captured the WWF World Championship in Brazil.

The discovery of the footage is among the most important finds in wrestling history, alongside the archeological dig that uncovered the biblical Book of Austin.

Watch the Rio De Janeiro Intercontinental Championship tournament in its entirety.

 

 

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