Top 3 WWE WrestleMania matches for the Intercontinental Championship

This was Bret's breakthrough match in the WWE!
This was Bret's breakthrough match in the WWE!

WrestleMania, the Grandest Stage of Them All, is less than two months away. With two matches already scheduled to take place, things are looking great.

There was a time when the Intercontinental Championship was one of the most prestigious titles in World Wrestling Entertainment. It was once a title that the WWF would put on a superstar that it wanted to push to the main event scene. It was used as a stepping stone to the WWE Championship.

It has been a witness to some of the greatest feuds and rivalries in wrestling history, and the biggest stage has seen plenty of them. With another WrestleMania around the corner, we will take a look at the three best Intercontinental title matches in WrestleMania history.


#3 Bret Hart vs Roddy Piper - WrestleMania VIII

In case you didn't know, the bloodbath wasn't allowed in this match!
In case you didn't know, the bloodbath wasn't allowed in this match!

From my perspective, this is the first truly great match of Bret Hart's WWF singles career. Everyone talks about the match from SummerSlam '91 where he wins his first Intercontinental Title from Mr Perfect as Bret's breakthrough as a solo star, but for real, this is his first real, bonafide classic.

A few months prior to this match, then-Intercontinental champion Bret got sidelined with a bad case of the flu and dropped the title to The Mountie in order to take some time off and recuperate.

The Mountie then lost the belt to Roddy Piper at the Royal Rumble, in what was itself a fun match, mostly because it ended with Piper winning his one and only WWF singles title. Bret came back, asked his old pal Hot Rod for a title shot at WrestleMania, and we get this friendly bout which rapidly descends into a bloodbath.

There was some decent mat wrestling, some intense brawling in and out of the ring, a great character moment from Piper near the end where a pang of conscience kept him from smashing Bret's skull in with the ring bell, and another classic finish when Bret walked up the turnbuckles while Piper has him in a sleeper hold and flips over, pinning Piper and regaining the title.

Bret liked that spot so much he dusted it off and used it to pin Steve Austin at Survivor Series '96. After losing the title, Piper hands the belt to Bret, raises his arm, and they share a manly hug. It's freaking poetry.

#2 Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat - WrestleMania III

This was certainly a classic match!
This was certainly a classic match!

The "Citizen Kane" of professional wrestling matches, the widely acknowledged match between the ultimate babyface Ricky Steamboat and the master heel Randy "Machoman" Savage, for the Intercontinental Title.

The build-up was nearly as good as the match itself. Savage brutally attacked Steamboat, dropping him neck-first across a security barricade and "crushing his larynx." Steamboat returned months later, thirsty for revenge, and so we have this match.

It's about fifteen minutes of the most perfect professional wrestling you'll ever see, from two guys who at the top of their game could go as good as anyone, ever.

The finish, in which Steamboat turns an attempted bodyslam into a small package for the pin and the title, has been copied a hundred times since, including in Steamboat's NWA World Heavyweight Title defense against Ric Flair at WrestleWar '89 when Flair, in a cool bit of continuity, used the same move to win the title from Steamboat.

WrestleMania III was a huge success for the WWF and as a result, has been counted among the best shows in the series despite the fact that everything leading up to and following Steamboat vs. Savage was terrible. There's only one match on WrestleMania III worth seeing, and it sure as hell isn't Andre vs. Hogan.

#1 Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon - WrestleMania X

These two were battling over who was the true Intercontinental Champion!
These two were battling over who was the true Intercontinental Champion!

This is the first high profile ladder match, and probably the only one to really justify the gimmick. Going into this match both Shawn and Razor were claiming to be the Intercontinental Champion, and both were carrying championship belts around.

To settle the feud and end the dispute over the title, both belts are hung from a hook above the ring, and the first guy to climb the ladder and grab both belts is the champion.

Pretty much every ladder match since this one has been booked because it's a popular gimmick and lends itself to the styles of certain wrestlers, without the storyline justification this first one had.

They used a ladder match a decade ago between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho, and that's the only one since WrestleMania X that I've seen that even tried to come up with a specific reason for the ladder stipulation. Anyway, this match is another one a lot of fans, and wrestling know-it-alls nominate as the best ever.

I don't know about that, but it's certainly the best match of its kind I've ever seen - every ladder match since, even really good ones like those between the Hardy Boyz/Edge & Christian in 1999, have essentially been variations on this one, with a few spots added here and there to keep things fresh.

The basic ladder match formula is all here: fighting to be the first to get the ladder in the ring, increasingly brutal manoeuvres to yank each other off and keep the other guy from getting to the top, using the ladder as an offensive weapon in various ingenious and sadistic ways.

Shawn climbs to the top of the ladder to splash Razor and later sets the ladder up in a corner and tips it over, riding the top of it down across Razor as he lies stunned on the canvas.

Razor, having the size and strength advantage, just picks the whole thing up and smashes Shawn in various parts of his anatomy with it. Shawn ends up tangled in the ropes after taking a fall from the ladder, allowing Razor to take his time climbing up, grab the belts and win the match.

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