WWE Buy Or Sell: The WrestleMania 34 IC Title Match
By Josh Raibick
The Intercontinental Championship will be defended at WrestleMania 34 when current champion The Miz takes on Finn Balor and Seth Rollins. Considering the possible positioning on the card of the Intercontinental Championship and the candidates currently involved, is this good or lazy booking by WWE?
Since WWE Elimination Chamber 2018, Rollins has made it his mission to capture the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz. Yet every time Rollins takes another step forward there is Balor to match him.
This past Monday on Raw, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle made it official at WrestleMania 34, it will be a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship with Rollins and Balor challenging Miz. So now it is official, all three participants now have their WrestleMania plans locked in.
Rollins, Balor, and Miz sharing a ring together could have a positive impact on all three superstars not only in the build to the match, but in the match itself. Miz is known as one of the best talkers in WWE, and Rollins and Balor have a long resume as far as in ring performance goes.
This past Monday, the WWE Universe saw Miz insult both Rollins and Balor. It is performances like Miz had on the microphone that get the most out of his opponents, it helps them get to place to deliver a riveting, emotion driven promo.
Also Miz has not had a great opportunity to steal the show at recent WrestleManias as his resume reads: Total Divas mixed tag storyline, seven man ladder match, and Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal participant. At least with the presence of Rollins and Balor, Miz will have an opportunity to over-deliver at the biggest show of the year.
For Balor, considering how he was being booked towards the end of 2017, this is best case scenario. Balor was losing to Kane and Bray Wyatt clean on Raw, and did not look like the top star that most view him as.
Rollins on the other hand is saving face by being added to this match. With injuries to Dean Ambrose and Jason Jordan (both potential WrestleMania opponents) it appeared as if Rollins was snake bitten.
It would have been an embarrassing look for Rollins if he went from battling Triple H to not even being featured on the main card of WrestleMania. Yet all three superstars are not out of the woods, and there is reason for concern.
What if this isn’t the full list of participants in the match? As we learned from WWE programming the past few months, participants can easily be added to a match all the way up to the actual event.
There are other superstars that easily could be added to the Intercontinental Championship scene in the four weeks before WrestleMania. What is Samoa Joe’s status? Braun Strowman doesn’t have solid plans. Elias also seems to be free.
The potential for the Intercontinental Championship to turn into a match for talent that WWE doesn’t have a clear direction for is the reason why I have to SELL. This might sound harsh, but this match is beneath all three participants currently involved.
I do not want to hear about how prestigious the Intercontinental Championship is, because each year at WrestleMania the WWE Universe gets reminded how unimportant the championship really is. The Intercontinental Championship has been defended in a lot of “crowded” matches, and last year the one time it was a one on one match it was defended on the pre-show.
Rollins proved a few weeks back on Raw that he is The Man in WWE right now. Miz has proved over the past two years that with the microphone he can accomplish whatever is asked of him. And Balor has been the good soldier who hasn’t been featured anywhere near his potential.
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I do not believe that this match is going to stay a triple threat, and once again WWE will remind us as fans that they do not care about the Intercontinental Championship like they once did. The lack of direction for the superstars that show up every pay=per=view and every Monday night is why I am SELLING the Intercontinental Championship match at WrestleMania 34.