After facing each other in the final round of the 2002 King of the Ring tournament (which he lost), Van Dam and Brock Lesnar began feuding with each other. Van Dam defended his Intercontinental Championship against Lesnar twice and retained his title both times by disqualification on the June 24 episode of "Raw" and at Vengeance. On the July 22 episode of "Raw", Van Dam unified the WWE European Championship into the WWE Intercontinental Championship after he defeated Jeff Hardy in a title unification ladder match. As a result, the European title was abandoned. On the July 29 episode of "Raw", Van Dam lost the Intercontinental Championship to Chris Benoit.