I asked this in the legend's section but it doesn't look like he knows. Now I'm asking if anyone knows or can direct me to where I can find an answer.
 
Why make a fake tourney to crown the the first IC champ Pat Patterson? I read that Patterson beat Ted Dibiase for the WWF North American Heavyweight Championship. Then a fake tourney held in Rio to unify NAHC with the South American Heavyweight Championship. I imagine the SAHC was fake
 
-Why not just change the name of the belt?
-Wouldn't a tourney that actually took place have drawn interest?
-WWF could have brought in guys not seen or often seen as the wrestlers from South America
-Was unifying the NAHC with SAHC (which was not real) to give a kayfabe reason to change the name of the belt?
-What was the name change for anyway? Too many US or North American titles in other federations? Intercontinental more prestigous because it's more than one continent?
 

Thanks, that's the best answer I've ever heard and I've asked quite a few people. If you can track down any sources (whenever you have time) that would be great. I thought this question might be unanswerable unless one were to ask McMahon, Patterson or Dibiase.  
 
I've wondered about this since I found out about it around 20 yrs. ago. I'm 35 now and like to learn about the history of wrestling.

I've never actually seen the footage of Patterson saying that. I didn't know if it was part of the whole fake tournament or he had actually had said it.  I'll look for it on youtube. What I'd really like to see is Vince sr., jr., Patterson or even another wrestler say something definite about my questions. I have yet to come across anything or anyone who has one of those 3 on record talking about it. Never seen any other person involved in wrestling talk about it either as to what the exact reasons were for the IC belt.

Hey kaveman I was wondering if you could give me more info about the WWWF title fake tourney in Brazil --Rogers vs. Rocca.
 
From what I understand WWWF broke away after the match between Thesz vs. Rogers in Canada, recognizing Rogers as the WWWF champ. Then a few months later a fake tourney was said to have taken place saying Rogers beat Rocca for the belt.
 
What I want to know is was that tournament (Rogers vs. Rocca final) mentioned right away or was it years later the tourney with Rogers vs. Rocca was mentioned.
 
What was Rogers the champ of between Jan 24th and April when the fake tourney thing was done. Was Rogers announced as WWWF champ or was he still NWA champ according to the Northeast between Jan - Apr 1963?  
 
Some knucklehead is giving me grief over this in the WWe forums. Saying there never was a ficticious tourney for the  WWWF world title. Even though I gave links including WWE's own official version that matches with what you said.  
 
The only point I can fathom he's trying to make is that the tourney story was made up much later (as in not Apr '63). I think he's just wrong and doesn't want to admit his mistake. I'm giving way too much benefit of the doubt I think.
 
 

Quote from kaveman1969 on Apr 11^th, 2010, 10:51pm:

 
Just to add a little information, I've heard that the reason that the location of the ficticious tournament was announced as being Rio de Jainero is that it was an inside joke the front office made about Patterson being gay.  Apparently Rio is a place known to have a large amount of gay people.
 
The first wrestling card I ever attended as a child was a WWWF card in a high school gym in New Hampshire where the main event was Pat Patterson defending his title against Ken Patera.  I was amazed at how much more exciting the match was than the matches they showed on TV.  There was one point where Patterson grabbed the timekeeper's hammer that he uses to ring the bell at the end of a match.  Patterson took the hammer and hit Patera over the kneecap with it.  That was the most "hardcore" thing I had ever seen at that time, LOL.  Eventually Patterson was counted out, and so he kept the title.  In fact, Patterson was lying on the ground just 2 or 3 feet in front of me when he got counted out, as I was in the front row.  They didn't have any security barriers back then.  Some fans next to me where talking about helping Patterson to his feet so he wouldn't get disqualified but then one fan yelled "Don't help him!  They'll disqualify him!" LOL  
 
Earlier in the night, Hulk Hogan defeated Tito Santana, which was the biggest star Hogan had wrestled so far in WWWF as he was new to the promotion and the month before his opponent had been Rene Goulet.  They kept building Hogan up as a heel and then he just disappeared from WWWF. No explanation was ever given when a star wrestler left the area; I always hated that, acting as if we fans wouldn't notice someone had left and wouldn't want some explanation for his sudden disappearance!
 
Then on TV it was announced that there would be a return match coming to that same general area, but this time it was held at The Civic Center in Portland, Maine where Patera would get another shot at the title.  What was confusing is that Patera walked to the ring with The Intercontinental Title around his waist!  I heard some fans in the crowd say that Patera had won the IC Title from Patterson a few nights ago in Madison Square Garden.  So, the match turned out to be Patterson trying to reclaim the title.  This time Patterson hit Patera over the head with a chair and Patera appeared to be bleeding from around one of his eyes.  It was a double DQ. That was the first time I ever saw a wrestler bleed in a match I attended.
 
Patera went on TV the next week with a patch over his eye claiming Patterson had injured Patera's optical nerve.  That was to set up another match but I didn't get to go to that.