GUNTHER Defending Intercontinental Title At SummerSlam
GUNTHER will have one of his most daunting challenges yet when he defends his WWE Intercontinental Championship against the recently-returning Drew McIntyre.
At Money in the Bank on July 1st, GUNTHER made his thirteen successful title defense when he beat Matt Riddle. But his celebration was cut short when he was attacked by Drew McIntyre who made it crystal clear he wanted a shot at the IC title.
On the July 24th episode of RAW, the two men went toe-to-toe and McIntyre demanded a title shot. At first GUNTHER seemed disinterested in this proposal by pointing out how Drew failed to win at Clash at the Castle and that he humiliated Drew when they faced off at WrestleMania 39.
And yet, GUNTHER fancies himself a fighting champion and accepted McIntyre’s challenge all the same. With that, this becomes the seventh match confirmed for SummerSlam 2023.
McIntyre hoped to send a message to the champion by beating Ludwig Kaiser. It took McIntyre some time but he eventually got the victory with his Claymore kick.
The action continued after the bell as the champion attacked McIntyre from behind with a German suplex. As Imperium used the numbers game on McIntyre, Matt Riddle came down to try to even the odds but he was overpowered by the man formerly known as WALTER, who dropped him with a powerbomb.
The champion teased doing the same to McIntyre, but McIntyre showed he had his own power game as he avoided a powerbomb through the table and then did the same thing to GUNTHER.
Since there are no scheduled title defenses between now and SummerSlam, GUNTHER will go into that event having been IC champion for 420 days, which will make him the second-longest reigning IC Champion in history.