WWE SmackDown: 5 reasons why Braun Strowman won the Intercontinental Championship

Perhaps the highlight of SmackDown after the Royal Rumble 2020 was Braun Strowman winning the Intercontinental Championship. In doing so, Braun Strowman won his first individual title in WWE since debuting nearly 4 and a half years ago.

It's a bit surprising, but a change that many consider a welcome one. Considering the time of the year that it is now, perhaps a title change was the right call. Most people will tell you that Strowman winning was the right call and we find it hard to disagree.

It seemed inevitable that Strowman would get a title shot. He was supposed to be in this feud at the end of last year, but a minor injury kept him out for a while. The two men entered the Royal Rumble match rather than pulling double-duty and were both eliminated in short order by Brock Lesnar. Either way, The Monster Among Men is now your Intercontinental Champion and here are a few reasons why!

---

#5 Long overdue

Braun Strowman was ecstatic

It's a fairly simple reason, isn't it? Braun Strowman was ready to be a World Champion going back to 2017. He was the hottest Superstar in the entire company in 2017 and for a small part of 2018 as well.

However, it was one of those cases of WWE not knowing how to book giants and used him instead to elevate Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. In short, Strowman would run through everyone but always lose the "big one" - a booking mistake that cooled him down quite a bit.

While he doesn't have the momentum he had a couple of years ago, he's still an over babyface with the WWE fans and he has been long overdue to win a singles title for a while now.

The Intercontinental title is perfect for him.

#4 An underwhelming reign from Shinsuke Nakamura

The Artist held the title for 200 days

It's not often that we see Superstars hold the United States and Intercontinental Championship for very long. For the former title, the last few years have seen it plagued with short reigns.

One of the few reigns in recent years that wasn't short was that of Shinsuke Nakamura. Unfortunately, nothing was done in that reign as well. In this case, Nakamura earned a title shot against then-champion Finn Balor around the Summer of 2019 and on an almost-unannounced kickoff show match, the Japanese star beat Finn Balor to become the Intercontinental Championship.

He ended up holding the title for 200 days and even brought a new title design to the mix. However, nothing productive was made of this reign either. For various reasons, the lack of feuds or support has made it seem like Nakamura isn't the man to elevate the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship.

Perhaps WWE had enough of this and decided that it was time to pull the trigger on Strowman.

#3 Perfect time for a change

Sami Zayn playing the hype man

More often than not, timing is key. In this case, WWE uses post-PPV shows to create a buzz about the product. It's clear that creatively, SmackDown has been the weaker of the two shows. That probably explains the excessive use of dog food in the never-ending rivalry between Roman Reigns and King Corbin.

WWE knew that there would be a lot of eyes on SmackDown this week. It wasn't just any show - it was "Super SmackDown" - which was a cross-over to promote the upcoming Superbowl on FOX.

When that happens, there are more eyes on the product and WWE knows they have to do something special in that window to keep fans engaged and want to tune in next week. Fans are undoubtedly going to be excited to tune in for Braun Strowman as Intercontinental Champion.

In our opinion, had WWE pulled the trigger on him in 2017 against Brock Lesnar, he could have become a legitimate big draw. Unfortunately, he was given the unfortunately cursed "monster" booking.

#2 To transition it to someone else

Super SmackDown ahead of the Superbowl

This could be one of the likeliest theories. It sounds bizarre to think of Strowman as a transitional Champion, but how long were his last two Tag Team title reigns, to begin with? One lasted one night and the other hardly lasted for the length of his Universal Championship feud against Seth Rollins.

And here's another major problem that we don't want to address but have to - WWE struggles with booking babyface Champions of late. Becky Lynch might just be the sole exception to that - and that's more credit to her for staying relevant and maintaining popularity.

Usually, after a long reign, we see a pattern of small reigns between superstars and that could be the case in WrestleMania season. As much as we hate to say it, Braun Strowman may have just won the title to transition it into another top heel. He doesn't even need to be pinned.

All it takes is a multi-man match for someone else to be pinned.

#1 To defend it at WrestleMania 36

The Monster Among Men standing tall

We would love this idea. It would give Strowman at least a couple of months (if not more) with the title and he can have a good spot on the card. Since it's the "midcard" title, we can expect it to be a multi-man match to get many superstars on the card.

This would be one way to transition it into someone else, but walking into WrestleMania as the Intercontinental Champion isn't the worst position. Since Drew McIntyre is getting the WWE Championship opportunity against Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns is expected to challenge "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship, Strowman was never going to get that spot anyway.

What's the next best option? Since WWE isn't willing to invest in a solid non-title storyline for Strowman, the best alternative is for him to defend the Intercontinental Champion at the show of shows.

Perhaps WWE wanted to get the title on a big babyface heading into the grandest stage of them all.