Editor’s Note: This piece was written on June 22, 2024 – I just thought of it recently as one of the more underrated Intercontinental Championship matches in the last 15 years and felt like sharing it again.
We all get into the art of professional wrestling for our own reasons, sure. For me, I discovered it in my youth…the mid 1990s…back when wrestlers had over the top gimmicks and came across more like heroes and villains than ordinary Joes. It was like the pages of a comic book coming to life for me – the characters, the athleticism, the storylines. It was high drama. Never mind that the first match I watched was a Saturday morning glorified house show match between the 1-2-3 Kid and fabled jobber Barry Horowitz. It mattered not. I was hooked.
I used to want to be a professional wrestler. In fact, the only reason I went to college was because I’d always heard from people in and around the industry that “it’s fine if you want to be a wrestler, but you better have a good Plan B.” But, things change, shit happens, and sometimes, you end up with five concussions, a bad back, and two bad knees by the time you hit 20. That’s another story for another day. My point is that I love professional wrestling. Sometimes, I still want to share that love with the internet in the form of a deep dive into a random topic that resembles something like my NFL Draft coverage of D-II wide receivers.
The purpose of my “wrasslin’ journal” here on SoBros Saturday is to relive some of the all-time classic angles, superstars, and matches. It may also serve as a reminder for some of you, who, like me, are more casual fans these days, to go back and catch up on some of the hidden gems you might’ve missed along the way. That’s where we landed for this column. We may be drawn to wrestling by a good long-term story between two bitter rivals. But, if you ask me, the spark between two good wrestlers with styles that mesh well to produce an unexpectedly good match out of nowhere can be just as magical. That’s part of the beauty of wrestling – there’s a little something for everyone in it.
The debut of the Wyatt Sicks on Monday Night Raw this week, particularly the nice nod to Luke Harper (known later on in AEW as Brodie Lee before his untimely passing in 2020) in Erick Rowan’s costume had me thinking back to his greatest matches in WWE. While he had a good run in AEW that highlighted a more well-rounded performer, Harper’s stuff in WWE is underrated in my book. Regardless of what he was asked to do, he could consistently be relied upon to put on a steady match. As a member of The Wyatt Family, Harper was apart of some real wars in the ring. But, as far as singles contests go, it was his ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship against Dolph Ziggler at TLC in 2014 that first came to mind.
With Brock Lesnar serving as the WWE World Heavyweight Champion down the stretch that year, not having a world title defense on every pay-per-view opened the door for the mid-card titles to earn some shine. While the Intercontinental Championship floundered a bit late in 2013 and early in 2014, Bad News Barrett brought a little juice to the division when he won it at Extreme Rules that spring. After suffering an injury that forced him to relinquish the title, The Miz and Dolph Ziggler swapped the title a few times that summer in some fun contests. Ziggler even had a solid two-out-of-three falls title defense against Cesaro in there somewhere. It felt like the workhorse belt…the stepping stone belt…whatever you want to call it…was back.
Then, out of nowhere, on an episode of Raw in Roanoke, Virginia that November, Luke Harper defeated Ziggler to win his first singles title in WWE. The Wyatt Family had split up and every guy was branching out on his own. Harper and Ziggler had a series of good matches together, but after his surprise title win on Raw, the stage was set for one doozy of a rematch. That December, Ziggler’s hometown of Cleveland, Ohio played host for WWE’s advertised “demolition derby,” a show titled ‘TLC.’ For whatever reason, Harper and Ziggler showed up and decided to go harder than anyone was expecting that night.
The match opened the show. If you don’t already know this, that’s a hot spot on a wrestling card. If you’re not main eventing the show, you want to be opening it. It’s a spot that’s usually reserved for a big match that decision makers believe can bring the energy early to a show. On a card that had a few matches that could’ve fit that role, it was interesting that they went with this one. Serving as the hometown hero, Ziggler got quite the pop when his entrance theme was the first to hit that night.
You may be able to find some ripped stream of the match up on YouTube, but your safest bet to relive this classic Intercontinental Championship match is to just fire up the Peacock app and search “TLC 2014.” The match made for a classic clash of styles between Ziggler’s speed, athleticism, and technical acumen paired against Harper’s big-bodied bruising style.
The two really leaned into that, and who can blame them for it? It’s a basic story to tell, but the hot crowd and the flair a ladder match can add enhanced it. The two had a strong foundation to build on. Harper was out there just throwing Ziggler into shit and Ziggler was out there bumping his ass off to sell it. That’s a hallmark of Ziggler’s style – he’s one of the best to ever sell a punch. In this case, it was the way he sold Harper’s big boot to his face that looked particularly vicious. His style always worked well against the big guys because he could make any move look truly devastating.
The commentary squad called a great match in this one too. They did a great job of building Harper as a rock solid menace and a weirdo who enjoyed the violence. Michael Cole leaned into the dynamic the match took on early by saying, “every time Dolph Ziggler tries to mount some offense, Luke Harper is right there.” JBL would later add, “right when you think he’s done, he finds something left,” aghast at how much fight Ziggler had in him against this stout psychopath. It really was the sweet spot where you had two guys who could work, a commentary team that could sell the action, styles that meshed well, and a hometown crowd that was ready to eat it all up.
A few minutes into the match, Harper attempted a suicide dive to the outside of the ring. It’s the first thing I remembered about this match. His arm gets tangled up in the ladder and he lands hard on the outside (I don’t remember if he was actually hurt during this spot or not). It looked pretty nasty. Ziggler, ever the ring psychologist, did a masterful job of bolting into the ring to climb the ladder while Harper was hurt. The crowd erupted…eagerly anticipating a moment for Ziggler to get back into the game. This was such good foundational wrestling psychology in the moment. The big guy dominated early until he hit a risky move that went wrong and served as an equalizer for the underdog.
The crowd went wild when Ziggler dropkicked Harper only to boo when Harper powerbombed Ziggler onto a ladder in the corner of the ring. The action was back and forth, and the crowd swayed with every swing of a fist. Ziggler was shown with welts and cuts up his side. He was busted open at a time when WWE didn’t allow blood, but he fought off the doctors to climb the ladder and meet Harper at the top. The crowd was super into it.
In the later stages of the match, both guys did a fantastic job of selling the rigors of competing in a ladder match. Both looked exhausted and brutalized, running on nothing but pure love of the game and the desire to raise the prestigious Intercontinental Championship at the end of the match. The match drew the coveted “this is awesome” chant from the crowd. Finally, with both men atop separate ladders in the ring, Ziggler kicked Harper in the face. Harper would come crashing down to the mat, giving Ziggler the time he needed to retrieve the championship. And, damn – he always looked good with that belt.
The match proved to be a real pace-setter. It went 16 minutes and 40 seconds, perfectly encapsulating the reckless spirit of a dangerous ladder match while also telling a story that made logical sense from a pure competition standpoint. To this day, it’s still a great case study in how you can have an unexpected champion and the quality of the matches can still elevate the prestige of the title. I still think of this match as one of the best “holy shit, they caught lightning in a bottle” matches of the last decade.
