#8 The IC title main-evented Summerslam
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Younger WWE fans might not fully understand why the older generation has so much love and nostalgia for the Intercontinental Championship. Today, we are lucky to get a decent rivalry over the IC title. The one we are having now between Miz and Dean Ambrose is actually a rare treat, seeing as normally the matches for the title are put together seemingly at random, with very little build up and very questionable booking decisions at the end of them.
Back in 1992, the Miz and Ambrose feud would have been considered a very disappointing representation of the meaning and significance of the belt. Historically, the WWF roster used to have more of a division of labour.
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While the big muscle-bound guys would tussle over the World Championship, the smaller, workhorse competitors would put on 4-5 star matches that offered something refreshing and more relatable to the audience. Think back to WrestleMania 3, for example, and you will remember how Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage nearly stole the show from Hogan and Andre by putting on one of the greatest IC title matches of all time.
In August 1992, the IC title would have it’s very brightest day, leapfrogging the WWF Championship match into the main event of that year’s Summerslam. We’ve all seen PPVs in which the main title match does not go on last, but this is usually because the bout involves two men the company don’t care that much about. When John Cena would receive main event after main event during CM Punk’s WWE Championship reign, this, sadly, made quite a lot of sense. Cena was the poster boy, and Punk was very much a backup star.
But in Summerslam 92, the WWF Championship saw two of the company’s biggest ever stars compete, and that still was not enough to discourage Vince from doing the right thing and putting the IC title in the spotlight.
Randy Savage and The Ultimate Warrior can not have felt too aggrieved, however, considering that hometown hero Davey Boy Smith was one of the competitors in the main event, but it wasn’t just the inclusion of the Bulldog that made this match so special.
Bret and Davey Boy were brothers-in-law at the time, which gave the occasion so many emotional levels. Bulldog’s wife would sit there in attendance, unsure whether to cheer for her husband or her brother. It was a true family occasion for the Hart family, which will live on in WWE folklore forever.
