Bad News Barrett wins Intercontinental championship from Dolph Ziggler on Raw

After The Authority put Seth Rollins into the John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar WWE world heavyweight championship match at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view later this month in Philadelphia, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon booked Dolph Ziggler to defend the Intercontinental title against Bad News Barrett on tonight's episode of Monday Night Raw in Corpus Christi.

He lost.

How they got there was brilliant.

Ziggler, in a shocking turn, pinned Barrett with a roll up shortly into the match. Then, Barrett delivered a prolonged post-match beatdown that seemed as though it would never end. It did, of course, but only when Corporate Kane made his presence felt, announcing that The Authority had made a mistake and this was actually a 2-out-of-3 Falls match.

Barrett would go on to win the next two falls to become the new Intercontinental champion. In fairness, as Triple H had rightly pointed out, he never actually lost that title.

Don't be surprised if a rematch is booked for the Royal Rumble event.

For complete results and the live blog from Raw click here.