4 Era-Defining Matches Responsible for Our Readers' Fandom

#3 The Ladder Match

Spots like this were memorable in 1994 because they were unique; they're still memorable 24 years later because of how well they told the story of our readers' favorite 90s match.

This match is on my personal top four list (alongside the Iron Man Match from WrestleMania XII, Daniel Bryan vs. Triple H from WrestleMania XXX, and Nakamura-Zayn from NXT TakeOver: Dallas, if you're curious); my copy of the WrestleMania X VHS had to be taped together multiple times because of how often I watched it between 1995 and 2002 (when the Shawn Michaels DVD set came out, featuring this contest).

My first features for Sportskeeda were a gimmick match retrospective, and I solidly refused to cover this match for one solid reason: there's nothing more a writer can say about it. A creative writing professor in college once told me the mark of a true artist is whether they can say something original about the moon; as wrestling goes, this match is basically the moon.

Wrestling fans are the most notoriously fickle bunch of fans on the planet; nobody hates and criticizes the thing they love like us. It's telling that one of the few contests where most fans would not change a single second is the WrestleMania X ladder match.

It has every element fans could ask for: a hot crowd, two men in their prime willing to do absolutely anything to steal the show, a unique match type where fans had no idea what to expect, and a fantastic set of visuals with the dual Intercontinental Championships hanging from the MSG ceiling.

Great matches are timeless, and this one is no exception; its high spots would still excite even in the modern era, and the dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of ladder matches that have followed have failed to top the excitement and drama that Michaels and Ramon brought to Madison Square Garden.