Intercontinental Championship Match
Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Finn Balor
It started with two men with disappointing Royal Rumbles. And what’s followed hasn’t exactly impressed, either.
The Road to WrestleMania
It started with a Finn Balor loss.
At the Royal Rumble, Balor had Brock Lesnar on the ropes. He’d found Lesnar’s metaphorical Achilles heel and was mere moments from winning the Universal Championship. But a lazy pin attempt got reversed, and Balor was left nursing injuries and scrounging together moral victories.
That same night, Bobby Lashley was embarrassed in the men’s royal rumble match. The Intercontinental Champion confronted Balor the following night with Lio Rush by his side, fuming and looking for someone to take it out on. Rush claimed that Balor never deserved the honor of fighting Lesnar – and besides, Lashley is better anyway. Lashley beat Balor up when his own failings were brought up, and a feud was born.
A title match was quickly put together for Elimination Chamber, where the challenger Balor would fight both Lashley and Rush in a handicap match. During the match, Balor was able to isolate Rush and won his first championship since his shoulder injury in 2016.
The weeks that followed were...fairly uneventful. Lashley was incensed at Rush’s failures and the duo were on rocky ground for a bit, until Lashley was granted a rematch for the championship. Rush, desperate to redeem himself, came through for the All Mighty. Finn Balor’s brief run was ended at 21 days.
Since that moment, Balor’s been on the chase. He finally earned a championship match by once again defeating Lashley in a handicap match – this time with Jinder Mahal substituting in for Rush. In the past week, Balor has thrown another wrinkle into the feud by announcing that the Demon will be making a return for WrestleMania.
...He also hissed at his opponent. Yup.
What’s at stake?
For both men, what’s at stake is relevancy. I think it’s fair to say that this match isn’t a featured match on the WrestleMania card. Even on their own show, it’s right smack-dab in the middle of the card.
That is not a good place to be.
It’s also shown in the storytelling. Nothing truly interesting has happened. It’s been the sort of story you’d expect from a lower card feud rather than one for a singles championship. For Balor especially, it’s a huge step down from fighting Brock Lesnar on one of WWE’s biggest shows of the year.
The Superstar Shakeup is right around the corner, and we have no idea where either of these superstars will be. But with that said, what’s at stake here is relevancy and momentum to move into a better position once WrestleMania is behind us.