Ranking the Top 10 Intercontinental Title Matches in WWE WrestleMania History

In the 40-year history of WrestleMania, the Intercontinental Championship has been defended 30 times, making it one of the most prominently featured titles at the biggest event of the year.

In fact, the IC belt was defended at the very first WrestleMania, which cannot be said for the World Heavyweight Championship at the time.

Over the last four decades, dozens of Superstars—many of whom are in the Hall of Fame now—have competed for the midcard prize in several different kinds of matches.

We took a look at every Intercontinental Championship match to take place on The Grandest Stage of Them All and ranked the top 10. Let's take a look at which contests made the cut.

In 2001, WWE was flying high. The company had just bought WCW and aired the final episode of Nitro five days prior to the PPV, making WrestleMania 17 a celebration of sorts.

The show is remembered most for the main event with The Rock and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, and the TLC match with the Hardys, Dudleys, Edge and Christian, but the show also featured a fun IC title bout between two former WCW mainstays.

Chris Jericho and William Regal fought in an eight-minute match that illustrated why both men are as lauded as they are today.

Jericho was still at the peak of his career, and Regal was already a celebrated veteran. They had fought a handful of times in WCW, so they had established chemistry.

The bout almost felt like a throwback to WCW Nitro at the time because it was fast-paced, not that long, and it allowed both men to play to their strengths. This is an underrated match in the history of WrestleMania and deserves a rewatch.

One of the biggest matches in WrestleMania history took place at the sixth edition of the event when Hulk Hogan battled The Ultimate Warrior in the main event.

Not only was this match for the IC title, but the World Heavyweight Championship was also on the line in a title vs. title clash.

The match lived up to the hype and delivered over 22 minutes of peak WWF-era entertainment. This was just two powerhouses going at it, and the fans ate it up.

Warrior ultimately prevailed and left WrestleMania with both belts, but he vacated the IC title following the PPV to focus on defending the world title.

Hogan's match with Andre the Giant at WrestleMania 3 is his most famous performance at 'Mania, but his fight with Warrior might be the best bell-to-bell performance either man gave at the PPV.

WrestleMania 31 is mostly remembered for Seth Rollins cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase in the main event against Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar, and for the weirdly booked Triple H vs. Sting encounter.

However, the most exciting contest on the card for a lot of fans was the ladder match for the IC title.

Daniel Bryan emerged victorious after besting Wade Barrett, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth and Stardust (Cody Rhodes).

This was the first bout on the main card, so it was in one of the most important spots on the show. Beginning WrestleMania with a hot match gets the crowd in the right mindset for the rest of the card, and giving The Yes Man a big win in an exciting Ladder match did the trick.

Another main-card opener to make the list took place at WrestleMania 34 when Seth Rollins, The Miz and Finn Balor fought over the IC title.

The A-Lister came into this bout as the champion in his eighth reign, but he didn't leave New Orleans with the belt.

This was a fast-paced, 15-minute bout that made all three men look like top-tier performers. This was three former world champions fighting over a midcard prize, so it made the Intercontinental Championship feel like a big deal.

The Miz and Balor both put up a good fight, but Rollins ultimately prevailed to win his first IC title on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

This is another one of those under-the-radar matches that some fans may have forgotten about, but anyone who revisits it will see why it belongs on this list.

Much like Danielson in the opener of WrestleMania 31, the following year opened with a popular Superstar winning the IC title in a thrilling ladder match.

Zack Ryder defeated Kevin Owens, Ziggler, The Miz, Sami Zayn, Sin Cara and Stardust to claim the Intercontinental Championship and fulfill a boyhood dream.

WWE made a big deal out of Ryder wanting to win the belt at 'Mania, and the crowd erupted when he pulled the title down to claim victory.

Sadly, his reign only lasted one day. The Miz beat him for the title the following night on Raw and cemented Ryder as one of the few one-day champions in WWE history.

Bret Hart had some memorable clashes over the Intercontinental Championship against the likes of Mr. Perfect and The British Bulldog, but his most famous match for the title was his showdown with Roddy Piper at WrestleMania 8.

They told a great story across a 14-minute match, but it was the final couple of minutes that made this contest famous.

Piper was considering going back to his heel ways and almost used the ring bell to take out The Hitman, but the crowd's reaction convinced him not to. He attempted to win with a sleeper hold, but Hart countered into a pin to win his second IC title.

As the referee was about to present Hart with the belt, The Rowdy One snatched it away. He awarded the prize to a battered and bloody Hitman and helped him put the championship around his waist to end the match on a high note.

This was a feel-good moment that has stood the test of time as one of the most memorable bouts in either man's WWE career.

Gunther had a record-breaking Intercontinental Championship run that spanned 666 days, which not only gave him the longest reign in history but also put him at the top of the list for total days as champion. Even The Miz's combined eight reigns don't add up to as many days.

Zayn not only managed to defeat Gunther for the title at WrestleMania 40, but he also did it in one of the best IC title bouts in the 40-year history of the event.

The Ring General played his part as an overbearing heel to perfection. Nobody would have been surprised to see him retain the title just as he had in every encounter for two years.

The Underdog from the Underground had earned the love of the WWE Universe, especially during his time with The Bloodline, so his win caused an eruption of cheers in Philadelphia that night.

Zayn has had a lot of great moments in his career, but few are as memorable as this victory.

If you asked 100 WWE fans what their favorite IC title match at WrestleMania is, it's almost guaranteed that a large percentage of them will say Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat.

At a time when WWE was relying most on larger-than-life powerhouses to sell tickets, The Macho Man and The Dragon put on a clinic to remind people that professional wrestling wasn't all about flash. It could still have substance.

This was the same show with Hogan's famous bout against Andre the Giant, but other than the famous slam, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say that was a better bell-to-bell performance than Savage vs. Steamboat.

The great thing about this match is that even after almost 40 years, it still stands up against most of what we see today.

What happens when you take three gigantic Europeans who love to fight and put them in the ring together?

It turns out the answer is they produce one of the best IC title matches of all time.

The Austrian Gunther, the Irish Sheamus and the Scottish Drew McIntyre met at WrestleMania 39 in a Triple Threat that had the crowd on its feet almost the entire time.

They had less than half the time of the main event and managed to put on a match that might just be the most exciting thing from Night 2 of WrestleMania 39.

Gunther retained his title and held onto it for another year before Zayn finally beat him.

WrestleMania has played host to some epic IC title encounters, but the best of the bunch was Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon in a ladder match at WrestleMania 10.

WWE had never had a ladder match on a PPV before. In fact, most fans had never seen one at this point, so it was on The Bad Guy and The Heartbreak Kid to prove it was a viable stipulation.

Others like Edge, Christian and the Hardys have helped elevate ladder matches since then, but Ramon and Michaels will always be credited with popularizing the stipulation in both this bout and the sequel at SummerSlam 1995.

Leading into the encounter, both men claimed to be the champion. Ramon had won the vacated title after HBK had been suspended, so Michaels returned with his belt and claimed to be the rightful champion.

Both championships hung above the ring as the rivals fought using the ladders to inflict extra damage. The late Scott Hall climbed the ladder and took down both titles to become the undisputed IC champion and cement himself in WrestleMania history.

It's interesting to see Hall and Michaels reflect on this match many years later in the video included above, so give it a watch and see two legends give their thoughts on that famous night.