Sami Zayn is your top contender to the Intercontinental championship

Sami Zayn felt he got screwed over in his Universal championship match against Roman Reigns, and he wanted the authority figures in WWE to make it right. So what did they do? Booked him in a 12-man Gauntlet match on Friday Night SmackDown this week for the right to become top contender to the Intercontinental championship currently held by Shinsuke Nakamura, of course!

Here’s how it played out:

- Angel pinned Mansoor in fairly short order to get the match started

- Angel then managed to overcome Erik of The Viking Raiders after taking something of a beating, pinning him following the Wing Clipper

- Angel’s run ended when Shanky hit the ring and just put him down with little effort

- It may have seemed like Shanky could be in for a big run but Ivar took him out quickly

- Sheamus joined the fray next and while Ivar gave him all he could handle, the Brogue Kick took the big fella down

- Drew Gulak was into the match next, and he literally spent all of five seconds there, as he was ate a Brogue Kick as soon as he got through the ropes and was pinned

- Next up was Cesaro, who once again fell at the hands of Sheamus and his helper, Ridge Holland

- Ricochet came in to thrill the crowd with some high flying before Holland once again stuck his nose in where it didn’t belong. Cesaro made his way back out to take Ridge out of the picture and that allowed Ricochet to pin Sheamus

- Humberto was out next but before he could get involved, Sheamus hit Ricochet with a Brogue Kick. Humberto tried to capitalize and failed spectacularly

- Jinder Mahal was up next but he quickly fell to Ricochet as well

- That left just Sami Zayn, who got to enter last and pick at the bones. Naturally, he very nearly screwed it up, with Ricochet fighting valiantly and getting multiple near falls before ultimately falling to the Helluva Kick

In the end, Zayn had to work harder than he wanted to, and Ricochet looked the best coming out of this match, but Sami is indeed next in line for an Intercontinental championship match.

They did not announce when the match will be taking place, just that it will be in the near future.

Get complete SmackDown results and coverage of this week’s show right here.