WWE WrestleMania 34: What Should The IC Title Match Be?
By Jack Clayton
The Road to WWE WrestleMania is currently underway! And with Elimination Chamber only weeks away, it’s time to get everyone into their WrestleMania positions.
One person who will be in the Elimination Chamber match itself will be the Intercontinental Champion, The Miz. However it’s clear that Miz won’t be winning, because it’s been known for a year now that Roman Reigns will go on to face Brock Lesnar at WWE WrestleMania. And to do this, he will most likely win the Elimination Chamber match.
But that doesn’t mean that him being in the match will be without consequence. In fact, the Elimination Chamber is known for setting up other WrestleMania feuds inside the match. And by the looks of it, this year’s match will set up Miz’s challenger, or rather, challengers.
There has been rumor flowing around lately that at WrestleMania, Miz will defend his title against Finn Balor, which by itself sounds amazing. But now with Jason Jordan on the shelf, the word is that Seth Rollins will be penned in, making it a triple threat match. Rollins was of course supposed to have a match with Jordan at WrestleMania before Jordan was forced to have surgery.
But now that Rollins is fighting in the Elimination Chamber, things are now set in motion with this match. On the most recent episode of Raw, Rollins and Balor both pinned Bray Wyatt at the same time. With a decision not able to be made, the two are set to both compete in the Elimination Chamber.
Credit: WWE.com
Building the Match
So the question now is how do they set up this feud in the match? For this to work, a few specific things need to happen. During the match, Rollins gets the advantage over the Miz. This results in him hitting a Blackout on Miz. But right before he can pin him, Balor throws Rollins out of the ring. Just for good measure, Balor hits a Coup de Grace on Miz, and eliminates him from the match.
Rollins, infuriated that Balor stole that elimination from him, hits him with a low blow before eliminating Balor with a Blackout of his own. From there, Rollins can be eliminated by anyone, possibly Reigns as the final elimination. But what’s important here is that the spark has been set for this feud.
On the Raw the night after, Balor calls Miz out, saying since he pinned him, he deserves a title shot. But before he can get a response, Rollins comes out, looking like he wants to tear Balor apart. He goes off on Balor, saying if he hadn’t interfered, Rollins would’ve eliminated Miz, and possibly won the whole match. He says to make up for it, he should get a shot at Miz’s title.
But Raw GM Kurt Angle comes out, and makes an announcement. Rollins and Balor will have a one-on-one the next week, and the winner will face Miz at WrestleMania.
The next week, the two have their match. It goes really well, and is very much like their Universal Championship match at SummerSlam. As the match gets closer to the finish, both men look spent, when out of nowhere, the Miztourage interfere. Angle comes out and announces that Miz will defend his title against the two in a Triple Threat Match.
Credit: WWE.com
And The Winner Is…
It doesn’t really matter who the winner is of the final match. The only thing that does matter is that Miz drops the title to one of the two at WrestleMania. This is important for two reasons.
The first reason is that by having the Miz drop the title, it allows him to win it back eventually. If he does this, it allows him to match Chris Jericho’s record of most Intercontinental Title reigns, which is nine times. With as the Miz has done for the title in the past two years, he certainly deserves to have his name associated with the Intercontinental title in that sort of way.
It also provides a WrestleMania moment for both Balor or Rollins. If Balor would win, it would not only be his first Mania, but his first victory at ‘Mania. If Rollins were to win, it would allow him to become the final member of the Shield to become a Grand Slam winner, which means winning all four of the main titles.
Fun fact: if Rollins were to win, it would also make him the first former NXT champion to become a Grand Slam winner. All Rollins would have to do is drop a few pounds and win the Cruiserweight Championship.
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But regardless, going into WrestleMania, the Intercontinental Championship’s prestige will no doubt be on watch. When it comes to the Grandest Stage, the Intercontinental Championship doesn’t usually disappoint. And with the Miz at the helm of that match, whatever happens is set to be “awesome”.