10 Overlooked WWE Ladder Matches
Stepmasters.
It's been almost 18 years since WWE Unforgiven 2004 went down.
Why is that important? Well, it's not really.
It's an arbitrary anniversary of a humdrum show where not much happened. Indeed, Unforgiven 2004 is one of the most unnecessary pay-per-views of its era.
On it, Triple H beat Randy Orton to recapture the World Heavyweight Title after the Legend Killer's disappointing month-long reign, Shawn Michaels had his first match in many months against Kane, Stevie Richards (dressed in drag) had a bowling-shoe ugly bout with Tomko and, well, not much else.
The best match on the night came courtesy of a ladder match that (possibly because it happened on such a nothing event) doesn't get talked about, despite being very good.
That's often the way with ladder matches. Because the classic ones are either so spectacular or historic, others tend to fall by the wayside somewhat.
Let's give them their due, eh?
10. Chris Jericho Vs. Christian - Unforgiven 2004
When Intercontinental Champion Edge went down with a groin injury in the fall of 2004, WWE stripped him of the title and put it up for grabs in a ladder match between Chris Jericho and Christian.
Y2J and Captain Charisma had feuded at the start of the year, having grand matches at WrestleMania XX and Backlash (the latter of which also featured Trish Stratus). Christian himself was coming back from an injury layoff for this high-risk affair, having hurt his back during his cage match loss to Jericho on the May 10 episode of Raw.
The two took their time bringing the ladder into play, teasing its involvement while brawling around the ring, until Christian hit an Unprettier on the floor. After that they focused more on using the ladder as a weapon, throwing each other into and onto it.
Everything they did with the ladder had a viciousness to it (as it should have given the personal nature of their rivalry) and, eventually, they brought out the big bumps.
Few were bigger than Jericho using the ladder as a javelin on Christian, who was hanging from the belts suspended in mid-air. In an ugly moment down the closing stretch, Jericho took a bad bump off the top of the ladder when Christian pushed it over and ended up giving himself what he described in his autobiography as a 'steel enema'.
He recovered and, after one more big stereo tumble from the top, was able to climb up and claim his seventh IC Title.
Written by Lewis Howse
Features journalist for Cultaholic.com and script writer for the Cultaholic YouTube Channel.
