WWE WrestleMania 31 - Ladder Match For Intercontinental Title Set

It was announced on Thursday night that the Intercontinental Title will be up for grabs at WrestleMania in a Ladder Match. WWE made the announcement on their Facebook page and confirmed it on WWE.com. At this point no official challengers for the IC Title held by Bad News Barrett have been although there are plenty of people in the mix. Doing a Ladder Match at a WrestleMania is a good way to involve several people in an exciting, fast paced matchup that is much more fun to watch than a battle royal. While the Andre the Giant battle royal still exists, the Intercontinental Title match will definitely be the better of the two matches. Fans love Ladder Matches, especially when multiple people are involved. Money in the Bank is a few months away, so it's not like this match is going to steal the spotlight. Plus, this is WrestleMania. It needs a unique match like this. The most obvious challenger for the IC Title is Dean Ambrose, who nearly won the gold at Fastlane this past Sunday. He was so aggressive in his challenge against Barrett that the referee had to disqualify him for not letting Barrett get out of the corner. Ambrose, who is known as the Lunatic Fringe, left with the IC Title even though Barrett's still the champion. Dolph Ziggler is another man that's in the mix. He's held the title four times and it seems like every time he wins it he's on his way for superstardom, but he's been in the title picture so much in the last six years that we're still waiting for it. Seeing him in another multi-man match at a WrestleMania is disappointing because he deserves better. R-Truth has also recently pushed for a title match. That's because he beat Barrett non-title. He barely wins matches anymore, so it feels weird that he's in the title picture. Perhaps this is WWE's way of rewarding a long time employee that's in his early 40s that may not have too many more WrestleManias left. This week's Smackdown also saw Daniel Bryan getting involved in the title picture. He beat Barrett in a non-title match just like so many others have. It was mentioned in the recent Wrestling Observer that Bryan is in the match, so it's only a matter of time until it's official. It's a downgrade for Bryan after being in the main event of WrestleMania last year. I'll have more thoughts on this later today in the Smackdown Ups and Downs feature. WWE has done a poor job of booking the IC Title in recent years. They can talk all they want about how they want it to be prestigious like it was over 20 years ago, but they've had too many short title reigns and too many non-title losses by the champion. Even though Bryan is the biggest name in the match, Ambrose is likely the favorite just because of how close he came to winning it and his promos about wanting to win the gold have been very good. WWE hasn't officially announced how many guys will be involved, but it seems like it will be at least five men with others possibly added to the match as well.