The Name on the Marquee: The History of the Intercontinental Championship 25 (WWEClassics.com)

Legacy of the Intercontinental Championship 25

-Your host is Joey Styles.

-We look at In Your House in December 1995. Goldust asked Todd Pettingill to deliver a note to Razor Ramon. Razor read the note, looked horrified, threw it away, and stormed off.

RAZOR RAMON (Champion) vs. YOKOZUNA (with Jim Cornette & Mr. Fuji)
-Razor poses for his traditional pyro in his entrance, but a lot of gold glitter falls from the ceiling instead. We see Goldust sitting in a director’s chair near the entrance watching the match.

-Yoko attacks from behind, but gets knocked out of the ring quickly. Back in, they lock up and Razor applies a side headlock. Yoko shoves him off and slams him, but a follow-through elbow misses. Razor goes to work on the arm. Hard clothesline with an audible smack by Razor; he sticks with the clothesline and fakes going for a sunset flip, but it’s a set-up and when Yoko tries a sit-down splash, Razor moves.

-Chop and a series of headbutts by Yoko to turn things around…all right, that’s enough movement for one match. Time for the nerve hold. Ya know, current WWE revisionist history is that Yoko was a freakishly agile for 650 pounds and a good worker. First of all, yes, he was more agile than your average 650-pound man, but exactly how big an achievement is that? And second, he was average, but since he was 600 pounds, any basic move he did was put over like he was a Mac truck in spandex. You can read more about it in my new book, “The Truth About Yokozuna,” available now wherever crazy people distribute handbills.

-Yoko chokes out Razor. Series of punches, but Razor punches back and a clothesline takes Yoko off his feet. Bulldog off the top rope by Razor, but the lights flicker as the Undertaker shows up with a casket to scare Yoko…Lord, was that STILL going on at the end of 1995? You’d think the casket match 13 months earlier would have finished the job.

-Anyway, Yoko is scared, so he runs away and gets counted out. 0 for 1. Not for me.

-Dok Hendrix talks to Razor. Razor is flattered, but he doesn’t swing that way, he says.

NON-TITLE: RAZOR RAMON (Champion) vs. JEFF HARDY
-Jeff was just your run-of-the-mill cannon fodder at this point, so don’t look for a great battle. Mr. Perfect notes that considering that Razor says he’s not interested, he’s noticeably walking to the ring in gold tights, gold boots, and gold chains. So Razor says he’s not interested, but then goes out of his way to make it look like Goldust still has a chance and maybe he’ll change his mind. Razor, I’ve been there. You’re a 19-year-old college girl and you’re a total bitch.

-So Razor squashes the shit out of Hardy, predictably, but an usher comes to the ring and presents Razor with a sexy poster of Goldust. Razor is so horrified that he walks out of the ring to closely examine the poster, and he gets counted out. Jeff gets a big victory over the champ, and Razor avenges it, by going back into the ring and giving him the Razor’s Edge three times. 0 for 2.

GOLDUST vs. BARRY HOROWITZ
-Barry is going down the ladder after a six-month push where he got way the hell over and then went right back to being a jobber. Weird. (Oh, shit…”enhancement talent.” Sorry, Barry.)

-Bodypress by Barry gets two. Goldust goes for a backdrop and gets faceplanted. Series of atomic drops by Barry, but a dropkick misses. Curtain call by Goldust gets three. We go back to the locker room, where Razor is watching on a monitor and looks unimpressed. 0 for 3. Squash. Goldust unzips his wrestling gear to reveal a glittering heart with “Razor” etched on his chest. Good angle, though, so I can’t say I hate them SO much for putting two squashes on here. That’s a lot more fun than “Here’s a match, here’s a match, here’s a match.”

RAZOR RAMON (Champion) vs. GOLDUST (with an usher and a woman carrying a cigar)
-From the 1996 So here’s your big plot twist for the night; after a month of coming onto Razor, Goldust emerges with a mysterious woman (the unnamed-for-now Marlena) to join him at ringside. Check out that sideboob.

-Goldust stalls a lot before charging and walking right into an armbar. Razor jerks the arm over and over again while slapping Goldust. Clean break while Mr. Perfect notes that if Razor loses the gold, he’ll be “The Sad Guy.” Yup.

-They move onto some amateur wrestling and Goldust blatantly cops a feel on Razor, which STUNS the crowd. That reaction cracked me up, actually. Goldust backs him into a corner and does it again, and Razor gets pissed and shoves him on his ass. Razor goes to work on the arm, but Goldust reverses and slaps him across the face. Razor drop-toeholds him and slaps him a lot, first over the head and then on the ass (which Goldust likes).

-Goldust goes to the floor for a breather. Razor follows him, but Goldust uses his director as a human shield. Back in the ring, they exchange side headlocks and headscissors until Razor gets fed up and just punches Goldust to the floor. Razor goes to the floor and Goldust hides behind Marlena again.

-Back in, Goldust stalls some more and Razor gets fed up and clotheslines him over the top and onto the floor. Goldust does the human shield bit one more time. Razor gets fed up and physically moves Marlena out of the way with force this time, and Goldust uses that as an opening to sneak up and knock Razor into the steps.

-Back inside, Goldust comes off the top with a double-axehandle. Series of Irish whips leading into a bulldog by Goldust for two. Springboard back suplex by Goldust gets two. Marlena blows Razor’s…face with some gold dust when he gets too close to the ropes, and Goldust follows that with a neckbreaker for two. Sleeper’s clamped on and Mr. Perfect beats me to a joke by saying that if Razor falls asleep, Goldust could do whatever he wanted.

-Razor breaks the hold with a rear kick to the goldnuts. Right hands by Razor and a chokeslam gets two. Overhead slam for another two. Goldust goes to the eyes and goes to the top rope, but Razor crotches him on the top rope and brings him off with a back suplex. Marlena suddenly climbs onto the apron to complain to the referee that she’s twisted her ankle, and while the referee deals with that, the 1-2-3 Kid shows up and KOs Razor. Goldust gets the three-count from that to capture the gold. 1 for 4. Really good match, with Goldust figuring out how to get into Razor’s head and consistently going back to anything that threw Razor off his game before. Woulda liked it more if that had actually tied into the finish, but beggars and choosers, etc.

-Joey does some weird revisionist history, making it sound like Razor left right after this match, and then does a brief Goldust impression. He promotes the next episode, mentioning that it will feature the Ultimate Warrior, “who I will not attempt to impersonate, because he’s bad enough on his own.”

The 411: Not a great show wrestling-wise, hence the score, but if you're a fan of angles, I'd actually strongly recommend this one. The Goldust stuff was really jarringly different at the time and this angle tapped some new ground that nobody ever came near (and probably didn't even think of before).
Final Score:  2.5   [ Very Bad ]