His career highlights were 2 matches against Sgt. Slaughter at Madison Square Garden in 1981. The rematch was called an "Alley Fight" (with no referee) and remains the wildest and one of the greatest matches in wrestling history. Patterson was the very first man to hold the Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship. Patterson was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1996. Patterson invented the WWE Royal Rumble, which is one of the most popular type of matches and is a hit with fans every year since the first one in 1988.