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WrestleMania 31: Intercontinental Title Ladder Match Will Steal the Show

By Evan Gomes

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The Intercontinental Title match at WrestleMania 31 has been announced as a ladder match, currently featuring champion Bad News Barrett and the criminally underused R-Truth. Others who could be in the match include Dolph Ziggler, Daniel Bryan, Luke Harper, Dean Ambrose and (spoilers in the link) others according to Smackdown taping results.

The angle behind the Intercontinental Title picture should not work as well as it has, but it does. Simply put, the belt itself has been treated as a hot potato, with different people stealing it week to week. Dolph Ziggler ended up with the belt at the end of RAW this past Monday, and many others have held it over the past few weeks. Bad News Barrett is still the official champion, and watching his frustration grow as his title is passed around from person to person has been entertaining.

The ladder match that is shaping up involving all the wrestlers who are playing keep away with the title could be the match that steals the show at WrestleMania 31. The amount of talent that will potentially be in the match is more than enough. Ziggler is one of the most consistent performers on the roster. Bryan is the most over babyface of the past calendar year and a half. Ambrose is a great worker with a lot of momentum. All three of these superstars would bring a high level of prestige to the title. Ziggler and Bryan are both former World champions and Ambrose is still extremely popular after his feuds with Seth Rollins and Bray Wyatt. The Intercontinental Title has struggled to stay prominent recently, but any one of those three holding the title will give it higher profile than Bad News Barrett now does.

The rest of the potential ladder match field is intriguing as well. R-Truth is a solid hand in the ring and when he is allowed to show his funny personality like he was this past Monday night, he does wonderful things. He fills the role of wily veteran in the match. Luke Harper fills the role of the monster in the match, providing a strong competitor for the valiant babyfaces to try to overcome. Barrett, while he has been booked poorly following his championship win, is still a great competitor. He has been able to garner more heel heat since his feud with Ambrose which adds to the match. The potential field for this ladder match could produce a wonderful bout if given enough time.

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The reason it will steal the show at WrestleMania is because it provides a different kind of exciting action. There are plenty of singles bouts to be exciting about for the technical wrestling, story telling and brawling. The André the Giant Battle Royal will be excited to see who receives the boost from the match. The ladder match will be about pure excitement. The high spots and hardcore action will captivate viewers and wow them with athleticism and daring. It will give a spark of excitement that earlier WrestleMania ladder matches have also done.

Matches like Razor Ramon vs Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X, the triangle ladder match at WrestleMania 2000, and the first Money in the Bank ladder match at WrestleMania 21 are all classic ladder matches on the grandest stage of them all. This match could join those legendary bouts because of the ensemble of talent in the match. Ever since the Money in the Bank match was given it’s own pay-per-view in 2010, WrestleMania has sorely missed a match like this. Now that gap has the potential to be filled by a talented field fighting over a title that deserves a great match like this.

Do you think the match will live up to the hype? Who will walk out of Levi’s stadium as Intercontinental Championship? Sound off in the comments below.

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