Examining What Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper Can Learn from Great Ladder Matches

A trio of classic ladder matches need to be Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper's study guide en route to WWE TLC.

While high-flyers have so often dominated that gimmick match, brawlers have made their impact as well. Razor Ramon outlasting Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania X, Mankind battling The Rock on the Feb. 15, 1999 edition of Raw and Sheamus trading blows with John Morrison at TLC 2010 are great examples of that.

Those bouts each provide Harper and Ziggler with lessons on pacing, strategy and ladder usage.

Harper doesn't need to become Jeff Hardy to shine here. He can borrow from Ramon, Mankind and Sheamus' playbook.

The WWE Intercontinental Championship match threatens to steal the show thanks to the two men involved and the fact that their match's stipulation is not a hindrance—as with the steel stairs match—but instead a means to amplify the action in the ring.

For The Showoff and the champ to do that, they would be wise to flash back to WrestleMania X, Raw in the heart of the Attitude Era and the second TLC pay-per-view ever.

Slugfest Without the Steel

In all three of the aforementioned matches, the ladder didn't become a factor right away. The wrestlers threw haymakers and scuffled in and out of the ring.

Mankind and The Rock traded chair shots. Sheamus and Morrison battled against the security barricade. Ramon and Michaels' fight spilled over the ropes and pushed them near the stands.

The big ladder spots came later. In the early going, intensity was the centerpiece of the match. 

Following Harper's low blow on Ziggler during Friday's SmackDown, The Showoff should have no issue in matching those Superstars in terms of fury. Harper's brawling skills beg for the match to have plenty of that type of action.

The Heel Zeroes In

Let the bad guy look vicious. Let the babyface look heroic thanks to his resiliency. That's what the matches in question teach.

The Rock spent a good chunk of his title bout slamming steel against bone in trying to ground Mankind. The fan favorite entered the bout with an injured leg and The Great One pounced.

By smashing a chair against Mankind's knee or squeezing his limb tight between the legs of the ladder, The Rock made it easy for Mankind to generate pathos.

Sheamus followed suit 11 years later. He tried to clip Morrison's wings so to speak, wrenching the high-flyer's leg inside the ladder.

As a result, Morrison fighting through all that allowed him to become the gutsy warrior with no quit in his heart.

Ziggler is a master of that role. He makes every blow he takes in the ring look devastating. He draws the crowd in with his body language, forcing you to care whether or not he escapes all the punishment he's taking.

Harper can come out of this, win or lose, looking like a nasty, relentless predator by targeting a single part of Ziggler's body as The Rock and Sheamus did.

More Baseball Bat than Launchpad

Were this a Ladder match between Kofi Kingston and Adrian Neville, the emphasis would be on all the flights these men would take inside the ring. With Harper in there instead, the purpose of the ladder differs.

Ramon, Mankind and Sheamus all made full use of the available weapons. They just used them as blunt objects rather than as a means to go soaring.

The Bad Guy spent much of his WrestleMania clash smashing Michaels with ladders. He beat his foe with it, seemingly looking to send him flying through the arena like an errant fastball to a major league hitter.

Both The Rock and Mankind did plenty of that with both chairs and ladders. There was very little falling and flying. Ladders thudding against ribs and arms took precedence instead.

The same goes for Sheamus. Morrison defied gravity while The Celtic Warrior relied on brute force.

Credit: WWE.com

That's where Harper is going to be able to make use of the ladder match stipulation and stay true to his strengths. 

The Lasting Image

However you come by it, you have to deliver one huge moment to make a ladder match a classic.

For Mankind, it was beating his chair against the ladder across The Rock's chest. Steel rattled, The Rock writhed. At WrestleMania X, it was Michaels flying off the ladder with his arms spread. That image popped up in highlight clips and video intros for years after that.

Sheamus cracking a ladder in two was his bout's high note.

The headline is that Morrison won. It was the Irishman falling into the steel and splitting it apart that fans were talking about, though.

For Harper vs. Ziggler to get added to the long list of great ladder matches, they need a lasting image like that. They need something for fans to picture when they remember those two gladiators going at it.

Lots of Close Calls

A wrestler atop a ladder with his hands outstretched, his opponent pushing him to the canvas just in time, is the replacement for the standard match's two-count.

There is inherent drama in someone getting that close to victory.

It's an element that is bettered by good timing. If one guy is climbing up the ladder like his legs are made out of cement, it's too obvious he's simply waiting for his foe to stop him. Close calls that look authentic boost this kind of match.

We saw a lot of those in the matches being discussed here. Harper and Ziggler need to insert a good number of them into their own ladder-centric collision.

High Drama at the Climax

Crafting a creative, compelling ending for these matches isn't easy. There are only so many ways one man can be too beat up or too far away to stop his rival from climbing a ladder.

The best ladder matches surprise and impress when it's conclusion time, though.

At WrestleMania X, Michaels fell into the ring ropes and soon found himself tangled up in them. He struggled to escape, but it was as if an octopus had wrapped its tentacles around The Heartbreak Kid. He wasn't going anywhere.

Back in 1999, it was a young Big Show—then wrestling as Paul Wight—who stopped Mankind from grabbing the WWE title. He choke-slammed the would-be victor in a surprising ending that allowed The Rock to walk away as the champion.

At TLC 2010, Sheamus and Morrison had a tug of war with Morrison on the ladder and Sheamus trying to pull him off it. A knockout kick was enough to end that battle.

As different as those are, they all felt like a fitting end, a thriller to cap off a thriller. Harper, Ziggler and WWE need to find their own dramatic way to end things.

These three blueprints for a ladder match masterwork don't all look the same, but they have plenty in common. There are myriad elements for Harper and Ziggler to borrow, build on or pay homage to.