10 Best Intercontinental Title Matches Of WWE's PG Era
The secondary belt deserves a little recognition.
Thanks to the efforts of Randy Savage, Mr. Perfect, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and others, the WWE Intercontinental Championship was at one time considered the company's 'workhorse' belt.
While the World Championship was contested over by lumbering heavyweights and other assorted monstrosities, the secondary belt held promise as a show-stealer, pitting better athletes (mostly) in faster-paced exhibitions with prestige at stake.
For the most part, since the belt was resurrected from seven months of exile in 2003, it's been a half-hearted token, in which the wearer of the gold puts over McMahon's favourite flavours in non-title matches around the horn. Efforts to have wrestlers vow to restore the heritage of the belt are usually short-lived, but they do conjure up some assuring nostalgia.
At WWE Extreme Rules this past Sunday night, viewers marvelled at one of the better Intercontinental title matches in quite some time, as The Miz, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and Cesaro stole the show with a frenetically-paced showcase that never stopped to breathe. Some are calling it WWE's best main roster match of 2016 thus far.
Looking back at the PG era of WWE (that's July 2008 onward), there hasn't been a plethora of great Intercontinental title matches, but there are certainly a few worth noting. Here are the ten best of the bunch.
10. Intercontinental Ladder Match (WrestleMania 31)
Usually when you cram seven midcard performers into one match like WWE, you're admitting that you don't have any substantial storylines in place for them. Remedying that sort of empty booking with a chaotic multi-man ladder match at least gives the fans something to sink their teeth into, even without giving them a story they'd want to see paid off.
As it was, it was the first great Intercontinental title match at a WrestleMania since probably the two-fall match from 2000. Dean Ambrose just about died for the cause when Luke Harper flung him through a ladder bridge, and Daniel Bryan got to stand tall at WrestleMania one final time, in a last hurrah that few realised it was.