WWE: The 5 Best Intercontinental Title Matches in WrestleMania History

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3. Roddy Piper vs Bret Hart – WrestleMania VIII

In 1989 “Rowdy” Roddy Piper returned to the WWF after a two year hiatus. Over the course of the next two and a half years, Piper would toil around the mid-card scene and even took a turn as a color commentator for the company’s biggest shows. However, at the 1992 Royal Rumble, Piper scored one of the biggest wins of his career when he toppled The Mountie for the IC title. It was Piper’s first and only championship under the WWF banner.

77 days later, Piper would defend that belt against a then budding superstar in Bret “Hitman” Hart. Hart, mostly a tag team specialist up until about nine months before this match when he won the IC title from Mr. Perfect at the 1991 SummerSlam, walked into WrestleMania VIII as a guy who many seemed destined for a run as the company’s top champion in the very near future.

But running into Piper on this night in Indianapolis proved to be a much more difficult challenge for Hart as “Hot Rod” was on unquestionably the best run of his then near 20 year career. Hart looked great in the early moments of this match as he seemed just a bit too fast and technically skilled than his opponent who was three years his senior.

But that was all up until Hart’s face met a harsh reality called the steel ring post. After that, Piper seemed well on his way to a successful title defense. But there was one problem, Hart refused to give in. Leaking blood and on rubbery legs, the challenger kept battling back forcing Piper to consider reverting back to his old, nefarious self by bringing the ring bell into the mix. But his conscious got the better of him and he instead locked Hart into his sleeper hold finisher only for “The Hitman”, who had time to recover, to roll the soon to be ex-champion up for the 3-count.

It was a tremendous bit of story-telling and it got Piper the one big WrestleMania moment he rightfully deserved and the hot crowd in Indiana gave both men their props. Outside of some fleeting appearances, this was basically Piper’s last run with the company. And if the company didn’t completely believe in Hart as the next main event type guy, they had no choice after this performance. This match was a perfect representation of what an IC title should be like at “The Grand Daddy of Them All”.