In less than one week, WWE will present its 32nd annual edition of WrestleMania. In a match that many people believe may open the main show, seven men have a chance to leave with the Intercontinental Championship. Unless there’s some sort of miracle (or everyone else gets hurt and they have to call an audible), Stardust, Sin Cara and Zack Ryder have no legitimate shot at winning. Kevin Owens’ other three challengers all have decent odds, as does the champ.
Breaking it down further, though, only three men truly have a true chance to leave Dallas with the Intercontinental Title held high. One is the champ, one is his bitter rival and the last is the only man in the match who has wrestled in the main event of WrestleMania — The Miz.
Dolph Ziggler, though he has all the talent in the world, is just another guy right now. WWE wasted all of the momentum he had by ousting The Authority from power back at the 2014 Survivor Series event. What should have been the biggest moment of his career ended up being something that actually took Ziggler down a notch when all was said and done. That’s art imitating life if I’ve ever seen it.
Unless something changes, the guy is going to exist for the rest of his career as the wrestler you put in the ring when you want somebody to look good. There’s nothing wrong with that distinction. It’s high praise when you get down to it, but that guy doesn’t win championships.
The guy who can win championships, though, is someone who has lived for his entire WWE career as the ultimate pot stirrer, if you will. He’s always trying to instigate fights, always insulting people for as long as he can while trying to avoid any comeuppance, and, although people should avoid trying to dive at him, a better in-ring performer than most give him credit for. The Miz is a great choice to walk away from WrestleMania as the new Intercontinental Champion.
Sami Zayn and Owens don’t need a title to fight over. In due time, they will, but right now the potential rivalry between the two men can stand on its own. It makes sense to allow somebody else to get some of the spotlight by taking the IC Title from Owens.
How do you pull that off in a way that the crowd boos the result, but in the way you want them to boo? First, either Owens or Zayn must sacrifice their own body and their shot to grab the belt just to stop the other from doing so. It doesn’t really matter who does it, but as long as one of them takes himself out, knowing he can’t win the title just so he can make sure the other one cannot win either, the job is done correctly.
Stardust, Ryder and Sin Cara are strewn about the stadium floor, as are the incapacitated Owens and Zayn. It’s down to Ziggler and Miz, and the crowd is excited because they just know that DZ is about to leave town with the gold. They both climb the ladder, they slug it out, and Miz knocks Ziggler off the ladder! Holy cow Miz is going to take the belt! No!
Ziggler stops him just as his fingers are touching the white leather. He hooks Miz by the shoulder and readies himself to pull them both off of the ladder with the Zig Zag — but Miz holds on! Ziggler crashes to the mat! The Miz is the new Intercontinental Champion!
That’s how you finish a ladder match.
The Miz can go on to defend the title successfully against Ziggler and whomever else comes calling, including Owens on an episode of RAW, who ends up being too distracted by Zayn (who isn’t even interfering) because he is so angry and full of spite for his former friend. Miz goes on to be an entertaining and hated champion, Ziggler goes back to being the other guy, Owens and Zayn continue the feud that is destined to never end and the other guys go back to Superstars.