WWE TLC match card preview: Langston vs. Sandow for the Intercontinental Championship

WWE Intercontinental Championship

Big E Langston (c) vs. Damien Sandow

If the WWE and World Heavyweight Titles do indeed get unified tonight, then the Intercontinental Championship will once again be the second most prestigious belt in the company, a spot it held from its inception in September 1979 for 23 years until the big gold belt was brought back to be Raw brand's top prize.

Thus, this hastily put together match may have greater significance with the benefit of hindsight, as the winner may face stiffer main event level competition, instead of it being a leftover scrap for the newbies and perennial mid-carders to fight over.

Tonight, Big E Langston faces the biggest challenge of his short reign so far, as he goes against the failed Money In The Bank briefcase casher in Damien Sandow. Will his path of destruction continue at TLC tonight?

The Road to TLC

Damien Sandow the cerebral shark smelt blood on the Oct. 28th Raw. Being a canny student of anatomy, he realised that John Cena, who had won the World Heavyweight Championship at Hell In A Cell one night prior, couldn't be fully healed in less than two months from major elbow surgery. So he battered the Champ with his briefcase, tossed the injured limb into the ring post and barricade, and cashed in right there and then! But even that head start by the evil genius wasn't enough kryptonite to vanquish the Superman, he laid down to the Attitude Adjustment like everyone else who faces the good Captain Cena.

If Sandow was slumping downward, then Big E Langston was on the opposite trajectory, cleanly defeating Curtis Axel for the IC Title with the Big Ending on the Nov. 18th Raw and successfully retaining the belt in similar fashion just six days later at Survivor Series.

However, Sandow regrouped from his MiTB embarrassment by pinning Dolph Ziggler in a Hamptons Hardcore match on the Nov. 25th Raw and decisively winning their rubber match on the Dec. 2nd Raw to become the number one contender to Langston's Intercontinental Championship.

Really, other than Langston staring down his prey after Sandow's recent televised victories, there's been no build for this match. Just three weeks between pay-per-views is always too little time to do much hype for the undercard.

What's at stake?

A loss here would really derail Big E's momentum who has looked simply unstoppable of late and seems destined for big things in 2014. However, that shocking upset would allow Damien Sandow to wash the bitter taste of the WHC defeat to John Cena out of his mouth and maybe slowly crawl his way up the WWE ladder to such a lofty position again.

With only one World Champion in WWE again, the winner of this match would be in a plum spot and likely avoid the recent secondary title holder curse whereby the champion ends up in a worse position at the end of the reign than he did at the beginning. So victory for both men is imperative!

For complete results and live match coverage of Survivor Series tonight click here.