The Name on the Marquee: Legacy of the Intercontinental Championship 28 (WWEClassics.com)

-Your host is Joey Styles.

UNDERTAKER (with Paul Bearer) vs. “The Slammy Award Winning King of Harts” OWEN HART (with Jim Cornette)
-Goldust is on guest commentary for this match and Vince McMahon surprises him by revealing that his impending title defense against the Undertaker is a casket match. Goldust & Marlena start to leave in a huff, but Taker’s entrance makes them double back to the commentary table. Goldust is completely freaking out, showing that he’s finally getting in the ring with somebody who can match him for mind games.

-Taker stalks Owen a little bit. Owen throws right hands and they’re all no-sold. Taker tosses him into the corner and wails on him with punches and kicks. Taker lifts and chokes Owen as Goldust does an about-face and talks about how tall and lean and impressive a man the Undertaker is.

-Taker chokes Owen while staring at Goldust. He gets a little distracted and Owen clips the leg and starts going to work on it. Goldust leaves the table again as we pause for commercial.

-Back from the break, Goldust comes on to Paul Bearer at ringside; Lawler declares him to be a “chubby chaser.” Goldust feels up Bearer until he gets frightened and leaves ringside in a panic. Meanwhile, Taker is throwing upper cuts at Owen. Owen dodges a boot and goes after the leg again.

-Owen stays with the leg and comes off the top rope with a missile dropkick. He goes for the sharpshooter, but Taker grabs the neck until Owen releases the hold. Big boot and a chokeslam over the top rope and onto the floor. Goldust tries to help Owen back into the ring, but Owen mistakes it for a pass and goes off on the Golden One. That’s enough of a distraction for Taker to sneak up, trap Owen, and give him the Tombstone for three. 1 for 1. Good match from the standpoint of actual match quality and for the angle taking shape throughout it.

SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH VINCE MCMAHON
-Vince has a few words with the Undertaker & Paul Bearer, while a gold casket sits on display at ringside. Goldust arrives at ringside to have a confrontation. Goldust comes onto Undertaker with a variety of pick-up lines (My favorite: “What’s your cologne? Embalming Fluid #5?”) Goldust tries to feel him up while discussing rigor mortis, which, as we know, is a stiffening process…

-Taker’s had enough and brings Goldust to his knees, but not in the way you’re thinking…but in comes Mankind with a sneak attack. He finishes with the mandible claw, and Taker is motionless.

-And that’s the way Taker likes it. Goldust spends a minute doing all sorts of weird stuff to Taker. Goldust starts to get below the waist and we get an obvious edit while the crowd SCREAMS. Taker finally wakes up and Goldust bolts, getting out of the ring so fast that he accidentally crashes into the barricade on the way out.

CASKET MATCH: GOLDUST (Champion, with Marlena) vs. UNDERTAKER (with Paul Bearer)
-This is from In Your House: Beware of Dog #2, the “do-over” pay-per-view that had to be done when a power outage held up the first one for an hour.

-Taker sneaks up on Goldust and beats on him to start off, then tosses him on top of the casket, onto the floor, and onto the steps. Back inside, Taker slams Goldust and drops the leg. Taker goes old school and whips Goldust from corner to corner. Goldust fends him off with an elbow to the jaw and a slam, but Taker sits right up and goes right back to work.

-Goldust, doing what I guess could be called role-playing, tombstones the Undertaker and throws a few punches at him for good measure. Goldust is able to get him into the casket, but can’t get the lid shut; Taker fights that off by throwing punches. Back inside, Taker charges, and Goldust ducks and sends him over the top rope and onto the floor. Outside, Goldust strangles him with a cable.

-And back in, Goldust hammers the Taker. Taker hammers back but gets trapped in a sleeper. Taker goes limp and Goldust rolls him into the casket and slams the lid, but Taker sticks out his arm, and the lid won’t stay shut. Goldust tries climbing on top of the lid, but Taker shoves so hard that the lid comes off and Goldust flies into the barricade.

-Back in the ring and right back out, Taker grabs a chair, but Goldust kicks him away and clotheslines him. Back inside, Goldust powerslams the Taker. Goldust heads to the top rope, but Goldust whips him by the arm onto the mat, then tombstones him. That looks to be the end, but when he opens the lid to stuff Goldust in there, Mankind suddenly pops out, applies the mandible claw, stuffs the Taker in, shuts the lid, and locks it for good measure. Goldust retains the gold. 2 for 2. Taker’s a LOT more fun to watch when he actually gives his opponent something to do.

-Joey Styles turns our attention to Ahmed Johnson, whose “speaking abilities paled only in comparison to his in-ring abilities, which also stunk.”

AHMED JOHNSON vs. VADER (with Jim Cornette)
-Despite what Joey says, Ahmed as blazing up the ladder, he was insanely over, and you could see at the time without being “in the know” that this guy was probably going to capture the World Title at some point. And then it turned out he was injury-prone, both in regards to himself and to his opponents, and after being on the shelf so many times, he never had a chance in hell of recapturing the momentum he had for his first year in the company.

-We’re joined in progress at Ahmed powerslamming Vader. Corny freaks and hops up to the apron, and Ahmed slingshots him inside, enraging guest commentator Owen Hart. Ahmed Irish whips him into Vader and follows with a spinebuster on Vader, but the referee is pre-occupied with getting Corny out of the ring and doesn’t count. Owen comes off the top rope with a Bob Orton cast and KOs Ahmed, allowing Vader to get the three-count and giving Ahmed his first WWF loss.

-Back from the break, Ahmed is taken out of the arena by paramedics. Goldust stops the stretcher from exiting the arena and insists that Ahmed needs mouth-to-mouth. So he does it and bolts out of the vicinity. The mouth-to-mouth actually revives Ahmed, but he sees the gold paint all over his mouth and throws a fit.

-He storms down the stairs of the arena and stalks the locker room looking for him, beating up Bob Holly for the sake of his being Bob Holly. Marc Mero directs him to the correct dressing room. A bodyguard tries to stop Ahmed from going in, but Ahmed charges and breaks down the door and the bodyguard. He still can’t find Goldust, and the show ends with Ahmed roaming the building with a “somebody goin’die” walk. Good angle. 3 for 3.

A MOMENT WITH GOLDUST
-Goldust quotes “The Color Purple” while wearing nothing but the belt and his wig. He insists that he saved Ahmed’s life. Saving Ahmed’s life satisfied Goldust, much like chocolate satisfies one’s mouth. Good god. He promises that Ahmed will melt in his hands. Was this guy devoted to his gimmick or WHAT? 4 for 4. By the way, if you ever get the chance to see the national touring company of “The Color Purple” in your area, see it because the musical actually blows the movie out of the water. Mister is a more complex character than the blustery cartoon character that he basically is in the film and his redemption in Act II is far more satisfying. It’s also a little more courageous in its depiction of the relationship between Celie & Shug. The brash, exaggerating bravado of a musical suits the character of Sofia a lot more than the big screen and the musical seems to get more out of the character than even Oprah Winfrey did.

GOLDUST (Champion, with Marlena) vs. AHMED JOHNSON
-From the 1996 King of the Ring. Joined in progress at a sleeper by Goldust. Ahmed raises his arm on the third drop…actually, he drops it and raises it suddenly when he remembers he’s supposed to…and the comeback trail is mounted. Goldust cuts it off by throwing frantic punches. He follows with a piledriver. Goldust cops a bit of a feel before the pin, but that takes a little while and allows Ahmed to recover; he kicks out at two.

-Rear chinlock by Goldust; Ahmed gets to his feet and elbows him away. He gets a few shots in the corner, but misses a charge and Goldust drives a knee into the back. He applies a legscissors, and with Ahmed trapped, Goldust just fondles and kisses him for a few moments…and then rakes his eyes. Ahmed throws some hopeful punches, but misses a dropkick and Goldust gets a two-count from that.

-Sleeper by Goldust once more, but he becomes concerned and releases the hold to give him mouth-to-mouth again. Ahmed wakes right up, chokes him, brings him into the corner, and throws about 20 punches at him. Spinebuster follows, and the Pearl River Plunge finishes to give Ahmed the belt. 5 for 5. Good even in truncated form.

-Joey acknowledges that they aren’t showing Ahmed Johnson’s matches in their entirety and says “You’re welcome.” Ahmed, unfortunately, was plagued by in-ring injuries, a lack of in-ring ability, and a lack of mastery in the English language. Until next time, “I’m Joey Styles and I’ll be running from Ahmed Johnson for the rest of my life.”

Until then, here’s Game Show Utopia.

The 411: No technical classics here, but it's all solid, good wrestling from motivated guys, and the angles involved are well-done. 1996 was a bad year over all for the WWF, but the Intercontinental Title proved to be a saving grace for them at this point.
Final Score:  10.0   [ Virtually Perfect ]