It took a months-long feud and some potential discontent brewing in the WWE universe, but Drew McIntyre finally captured the WWE Championship by defeating Cody Rhodes on SmackDown last Friday.
McIntyre defeated Rhodes with an unintentional assist from Jacob Fatu, setting the Samoan Werewolf up for a box-office feud with the QB1 of the company. This feud will at least occupy Rhodes until Saturday Night's Main Event on Jan. 21, and may last even longer with the former champ not getting an instant rematch.
WWE already confirmed in storyline that Rhodes won't rematch McIntrye at the Royal Rumble. Instead, there will be a tournament to decide who McIntrye's first challenger will be. And while there are many different ways to fantasy book the tournament, the Scottish Warrior's first challenger is pretty clear.
Randy Orton will clearly be Drew McIntyre's first challenger for the WWE Championship
Randy Orton is one of eight competitors battling in the tournament to decide the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship. Orton takes on The Miz in round one, which is almost as big of a lay-up as there possibly could be.
How WWE structures the bracket remains to be seen. The entire first round is made up of Damian Priest vs. Solo Sikoa, Matt Cardona vs. Trick Williams, and Sami Zayn vs. Ilya Dragunov. WWE will almost certainly want a face to take on McIntyre at the Rumble, and it makes sense for that face to be a well-known name.
Priest doesn't make sense as we have seen that feud already. It's too soon for Williams, and putting Cardona in a WWE Title match right away seems silly. Zayn could be an option, but there isn't as good of a story that can be told with Orton.
Orton and McIntyre have unfinished business, but they also have a springboard to something bigger, and it all circles back to Cody Rhodes. Whether Rhodes turns heel or not remains to be seen, but the one feud WWE fans have been begging for is a proper feud between Orton and Rhodes.
This could go one of two ways. Orton could win the title and either turn heel on Cody, or Cody could do it himself in pursuit of the title he shouldn't have lost. Rhodes could also accidentally cost Orton the championship at the Royal Rumble just to get retribution on McIntyre. By doing that, he could set up a feud with Orton with either wrestler assuming the bad guy role.
Either way, Rhodes' looming involvement, because he will be back in the title picture, makes far more sense when Orton is the one wrestling for the title, not one of the other babyfaces in the tournament.