In the latest episode of WWE’s Raw on Monday, Roman Reigns of The Shield captured another title to add to his list. Just one night after Reigns, Dean Ambrose, and Seth Rollins were victorious at Survivor Series 2017 , Reigns was booked for a championship match. While many fans are waiting to see Reigns take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Universal Championship, that will have to wait. It wasn’t “The Beast” that Reigns would face in this new matchup, but instead the WWE Intercontinental Champion The Miz.
As reported by ProWrestling.net , the episode of Raw took place in Houston, Texas, which was the site of Sunday night’s pay-per-view. Early in the show, Reigns appeared along with his Shield brothers as part of a segment to be guests on MizTV with The Miz. However, the host of the in-ring show started demanding that The Shield thank him for reuniting them. After some banter, Reigns challenged The Miz for his WWE Intercontinental Championship. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel suggested that Reigns needed to go through them first, which he did. Miz took off up the ramp to escape harm’s way, but he would be booked to face Reigns with the title on the line.
Believe in The #BigDog . #RAW #AndNew #ICTitle @WWERomanReigns @TheDeanAmbrose @WWERollins pic.twitter.com/dh70Hinc0Y
— WWE (@WWE) November 21, 2017
That match took place as the main event on WWE Raw and lasted over 16 minutes. Towards the final part of the match, Reigns gained some momentum and a near fall after a Superman Punch. Sheamus and Cesaro rushed to ringside to distract Reigns which allowed Miz to hit Skullcrushing Finale for his own near fall. However, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose also came down to Reigns’ aid, clotheslining Sheamus and Cesaro over the crowd barrier. Meanwhile, in the ring, Reigns was able to hit a Spear to get the pinfall victory on Miz.
With that pinfall, Reigns is a first-time WWE Intercontinental Champion. With that title win, it adds the Intercontinental title to Reigns’ other lists of championships which include the tag team titles once with Rollins, the United States Championship once, and the WWE World Heavyweight title three times. It also puts Reigns into the group of Grand Slam Champions, making him just the ninth to accomplish that feat under the current format of the category.
#TheBigDog is now a GRAND SLAM CHAMPION as @WWERomanReigns captures his first #ICTitle on #RAW ! pic.twitter.com/JgUB1x9P5H
— WWE (@WWE) November 21, 2017
One has to wonder what’s next for Roman Reigns. In the past, a WWE Intercontinental Championship reign preceded a bigger title win for other superstars like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Bret “The Hitman” Hart, to name a few legends. It’s quite possible that WWE is priming Reigns for a run at Brock Lesnar’s WWE Universal Championship and somewhere along the way, Reigns will drop the IC title before getting to face Brock.
There’s also that outside possibility that WrestleMania 34 will feature Reigns as Intercontinental Champion battling the Universal Champion with both titles on the line.
[Featured Image by WWE]