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At Elimination Chamber 2020, Braun Strowman defended his Intercontinental Championship in a handicap match against Shinsuke Nakamura, Sami Zayn, and Cesaro. The rules of the match were such that the man who pinned Strowman would win the title. Zayn pinned Strowman to end the match and won his first title on SmackDown in the process.
Soon after, Zayn and his faction, now known as The Artist Collective, picked a fight with the new team of Daniel Bryan and Drew Gulak. After Bryan and Gulak defeated Nakamura and Cesaro in a tag team match, Zayn offered Bryan an opportunity for a match at WrestleMania for the Intercontinental Championship if Gulak could beat The Artist one-on-one.
Last week on SmackDown, Gulak did the unthinkable with a little help from The Planet’s Champion, and pinned Nakamura to win the match and earn the opportunity for Bryan.
Zayn, who must be extremely unhappy with the result of the match, will now be forced to defend his title against the former WWE Champion in a match at WrestleMania that could potentially steal the show.
In this article, we will look at the 5 possible endings to the Intercontinental Championship match between The Great Liberator and The Planet’s Champion.
#5 The Artist Collective help Sami Zayn win the match
This one is the most likely outcomes that we could see from the match. Sami Zayn has proven to be The Great Liberator as he has bought together two diverse individuals such as Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro on SmackDown and has been leading them in some interesting rivalries.
While neither men have been too successful, they have had a lot of television time and been giving fans some interesting and comical segments.
At Elimination Chamber, Zayn delivered a Helluva Kick to Strowman who was being suplexed by Cesaro and Nakamura. He then pinned the big man to pick up the victory and the title.
Similarly, we could once again watch The Artist Collective come together to help Zayn pick up the victory and retain the title. Gulak will likely be on Bryan’s side during the match and we could watch the heels attack him at ringside to distract Bryan and allow Zayn to hit the Helluva Kick for the victory. Alternatively, they could attack Bryan after distracting the referee.
This would allow Zayn to retain his title and all three men to remain big heels who work together to protect each other from losing the title.
#4 Daniel Bryan becomes a two-time Intercontinental Champion clean
Daniel Bryan has been having a good time on SmackDown over the past few months. Even though his rivalry with ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt took a toll on his mind, body, and character, he has still been holding up pretty well.
Recently, Bryan fought against a few underused men on SmackDown before he got into a short rivalry with Drew Gulak. However, their rivalry turned into a partnership and Bryan has earned his shot at the title thanks to Gulak.
Fans are hoping to see their partnership continue for longer before something goes wrong, and the Intercontinental Championship could play a huge role in getting the story forward.
Even though Sami Zayn has just recently won the title - his first since his NXT Championship victory years ago - we could see WWE pull off a swerve and take the title away from him just like they did with Braun Strowman.
At WrestleMania, we could watch Bryan have another big match and win another big title, making him a two-time Intercontinental Champion. Zayn is still just getting back to competing in the ring after a long time as The Artist Collective’s manager, and we could watch Bryan defeat him clean to get ahead.
This would allow his partnership with Gulak to get more mileage and get stronger before one of the two men turn on the other and spark a full-blown rivalry for the title.
#3 Sami Zayn retains his title clean, extends his reign
Sami Zayn has turned into a major heel in WWE in recent times. The man who looks like the underdog and seems to be the perfect babyface has always done wonders as a heel too whenever given the chance.
However, we’ve seen him invest a lot of his time leading and acting as the mouthpiece for Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro rather than getting a chance to get forward himself.
At Elimination Chamber, WWE surprised fans when they allowed Zayn to pin Braun Storwman to win the Intercontinental Championship, his first title in over five years.
While Zayn is still playing a major heel character, the WWE Universe is actually behind the villain at this time as they’ve been wanting to see the deserving Superstar win a title for a long time.
This will arguably be Zayn’s biggest WrestleMania match to date, and we could watch WWE carry on the good feeling by allowing him to overcome a Superstar as big as Daniel Bryan clean.
While we know that Zayn will have a backup in the form of Nakamura and Cesaro, the company could allow The Great Liberator to go over on his own and get back to winning some big matches without any heelish tactics.
Taking the title off Zayn so early in his reign could enrage the fans who think Zayn could be a good secondary titleholder, and he deserves a longer reign with his first title in half a decade!
#2 Bryan wins the title, Gulak attacks him
Daniel Bryan’s journey to the mid-card of SmackDown has been rather interesting. From battling ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship to taking on Heath Slater back to back, it has been interesting how The Planet’s Champion has progressed this year.
One major reason why Bryan has been at the forefront of SmackDown is the former Cruiserweight Champion, Drew Gulak. Gulak was mentoring Heath Slater and Curtis Axel in their battles against Bryan, and later Gulak took on Bryan himself at Elimination Chamber.
Now the two men have been working together, and Gulak was the one who helped Bryan get this opportunity for a title match at WrestleMania.
During The Showcase of The Immortals, we could see Bryan defeat Sami Zayn clean, or Gulak could help his student by distracting or attacking Zayn, giving Bryan an easier path to victory.
After the victory celebrations, we could watch Gulak turn on Bryan and attack him as Gulak has never been a big babyface and works well as a heel. Gulak could be angry at the fact that he defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to get Bryan to title opportunity and did not get it himself.
This will allow fans to get a great rivalry between two technical geniuses with a major title on the line that could give SmackDown fans something to look forward to before Bryan heads towards his paternity leave.
#1 Shinsuke Nakamura betrays Sami Zayn, costs him the title
Before Sami Zayn won the title from Braun Strowman, it was Shinsuke Nakamura who held the Intercontinental Championship for over 200 days but rarely ever defended it.
During the match between Strowman and The Artist Collective, not many would have thought that Zayn would be the man who’d pin Strowman and win his first title in the process.
While Nakamura and Cesaro both seemed happy with Zayn’s victory, let’s not forget that The Artist looks more of a heel than any of the other men in the faction and won’t be happy with having Zayn as the Champion as he was the titleholder not too long ago.
With that in mind, we could watch Nakamura accompany Zayn for the match, and then cause some sort of distraction or interruption, leading to Zayn losing the title to title to Bryan.
This would allow one of the two heels to turn babyface in the coming weeks while building a rivalry between the two and allowing Zayn to get more in-ring competition in the coming weeks.
It could also give fans an interesting Bryan vs Nakamura storyline for the Intercontinental Championship which would be a treat to watch!
