5 Opportunities WWE missed on this week's SmackDown - Building a credible babyface, more title challenges (April 18th, 2020)

#4 Establishing a challenger for the Intercontinental Championship

Sami Zayn has been absent on WWE TV since WrestleMania

It's been two weeks since WrestleMania, but we're yet to see Sami Zayn on SmackDown. At the same time, Zayn's friends from The Artist Collective, Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura, have been present and accounted for.

I can't stress how important it is to have all champions appear on shows in situations like these where WWE is losing viewership on its shows literally by the minute. However, since there hasn't been an update, we can't be sure as to the reasons behind Sami Zayn's absence. Who knows, it could be related to maintaining safety protocols?

At the same time, WWE shouldn't find it hard to book a new challenger for the Intercontinental title without Sami in attendance. The most simple way would've been to have Cesaro and Nakamura come out to the ring and gloat about The Artist Collective.

Thereafter we could have the prospective challenger coming out and complaining about Sami Zayn's absence to eventually spark a melee which would, in turn, finalize a title match.

WWE Creative can design much better storylines to set up a feud. All I am saying is that they should try to best to have all championships involved in the storyline and it's certainly possible to do so as far as the Intercontinental Championship is concerned.