5 Best Intercontinental Title Matches of All Time

#1 Randy Savage (C) vs. Ricky Steamboat (WrestleMania III)

Ricky Steamboat won the IC Title in one of the best matches of all time.

Indeed, this match is synonymous with the Intercontinental Championship. For all of the amazing matches that Ricky Steamboat has had in his career, this is the one he will be most remembered for. It was the biggest match ever, before or since.

Steamboat himself has said that when he meets fans, more often than not, this is the match they talk about.

In front of a giant crowd (whether it was 93, 173 or otherwise), the biggest, by far, that the Steamer had seen, he and Macho Man Randy Savage put together what is generally considered to be the best match in WWF history at that point in time, and to this day one of the best ever.

They (especially Savage, who was a stickler for meticulously mapping out his big matches) had a smartly constructed, simple match that allowed them to take the fans on the roller coaster that they built, and completely control every twist and turn.

Many fans, especially ones who may consider themselves to be purists, despise when a "ref bump" happens in a match. The apex of this match, the climax, featured not only referee Dave Hebner being inadvertently knocked down but Steamboat's cornerman for the match, George "The Animal" Steele, pushed Savage off the top rope just before the finish, which led directly to Steamboat getting the three-count and the Intercontinental Title.

Granted, this was a bit of revenge and poetic justice based on the three months prior -- Savage was trying to use the ring bell again, and Steele, whom Savage wrestled for the better part of the three months before WrestleMania, stopped him from doing it.

In the end, this is not the match that Savage is most remembered for (his match with Hogan that closed WrestleMania V may be the one), but he step-by-step wrote and performed one of the most memorable matches of all time. And on top of it all, this match was on the same show as the absolute biggest match ever, Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant.

While Hogan vs. Andre eclipsed this match by a wide margin in terms of overall history, the fact that an undercard match is remembered as fondly as it is when it was window dressing for what is often described as THE match in professional wrestling history, is amazing.

That, along with the sheer brilliance of the match itself, is what makes this the best Intercontinental Championship match in history.