By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE announced that Sami Zayn has been stripped of the Intercontinental Championship due to being unable to defend the title. A tournament will begin on Friday’s Smackdown to crown the new Intercontinental Champion. Read the official announcement at WWE.com (check out Zayn’s in-character comments on being stripped of the championship below).
Powell’s POV: No specifics were given regarding why Zayn hasn’t been attending the tapings, but he has not appeared on WWE television since WrestleMania. An early congratulations to the person who wins the title on guaranteeing themselves televised non-title losses if recent secondary champion history is any indication. That said, pro wrestling companies are wisely booking tournaments during this stretch of running empty venues because the tournament matches give some sense of purpose to the matches. WWE has yet to announce the tournament format or entrants, but we’ll be sure to pass them along once that information is made available.
I disagree with this decision and no matter what anyone says, I am still undefeated and therefore still the Intercontinental Champion. -SZ https://t.co/SUFsBFeRDB
— Sami Zayn (@SamiZayn) May 13, 2020
I honestly forgot he was the IC champ. The secondary championships in WWE are just so useless right now. They made sense back in the 80s when the champ rarely wrestled on TV. But now the big champs wrestle almost every week, excluding Lesnar of course, so it just makes the secondary champs seem redundant.