Top 3 WWE WrestleMania matches for the Intercontinental Championship

#1 Shawn Michaels vs Razor Ramon - WrestleMania X

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.