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Intercontinental Championship
Big E Langston (c) vs. Curtis Axel
It was supposed to happen at Hell in a Cell. It finally happened on Raw. Now it's a pay-per-view (PPV) rematch, as Curtis Axel attempts to get his belt back in Boston.
The Road to Survivor Series
His victory for the Intercontinental title on this past Monday's Raw was the latest achievement in the short career of rising star Big E Langston. In the last twelve months, he's held the singles title of WWE's developmental system, the NXT championship, been promoted to the main roster, had a match at WrestleMania, turned babyface while working with the likes of CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and John Cena and now holds the prestigious white and gold strap.
Curtis Axel, on the other hand, is a legacy star who has been toiling to get over for years. Despite his lineage, sterling reputation as a worker among some of the biggest names in the business and a couple of different shots in the spotlight, he hasn't been able to connect with the WWE Universe.
Is it the third generation Superstar's fault? A lot of guys would kill for a shot to be managed by Paul Heyman. But Axel was booked as a doofus throughout his time with the ECW founder. His program with HHH evaporated before it could do anything for him and he was then made to look ineffective by opponents like Punk and allies like Ryback.
Will Langston hold a mid-card title for long? Rumors are that the company has even bigger plans for the powerlifter in 2014 and the announce team has been talking him up as a future world champ every time he steps in the ring. He still needs to establish more of a good guy character, and show an ability to work a longer match by himself than what we've seen so far.
What's at stake?
It seems unlikely that Big E would drop the IC championship so quickly after winning it, but WWE does sometimes like to hot potato around the mid-card belts.
The question is, is this a blow-off to their mini-program designed to move Langston on to bigger things and brush Axel back to the B-shows? Or could a nice showing here lead to a longer feud - one that might help both men in the long run?
We won't know until the bell rings on their rematch, Sunday night in TD Gardens!
We'll have you covered with all the news - including any mysterious ailments that might effect whether or not the match even takes place - and fallout, right here at Cageside Seats!