WWE Announces Date Of GUNTHER’s Next Intercontinental Title Defense

The WWE Intercontinental Title will be up for grabs as GUNTHER defends the championship against the former champion, Ricochet.

For the last month, WWE held the Smackdown World Cup tournament in conjunction with the FIFA World Cup because FOX airs the soccer/football World Cup, so WWE felt like they should do their World Cup of sorts. The winner of the Smackdown World Cup would get an Intercontinental Title match.

The finals of the Smackdown World Cup tournament took place on the December 2nd edition of Smackdown with Ricochet facing Santos Escobar in the main event. The two men had a very competitive match that went over 20 minutes. While Escobar came close to winning, Ricochet managed to get the win with a 630 Splash off the top rope.

GUNTER was also victorious on Smackdown after defeating Kofi Kingston in a non-title match.

At the end of Smackdown, Ricochet was presented with the Smackdown World Cup trophy by the entrance area. That led to GUNTHER walking out there with the Intercontinental Title on his shoulder and the two men had a staredown to end the show.

During Smackdown, it was announced that GUNTHER will defend the Intercontinental Title against Ricochet on the December 16th episode of Smackdown in Chicago.

GUNTHER has held the Intercontinental Title since beating Ricochet for it on Smackdown on June 10th, which means GUNTHER has held the IC Title for the last six months. During his reign as the Intercontinental Champion, GUNTHER has defeated future Hall of Famers like Sheamus and Rey Mysterio while Braun Strowman appears to be a future opponent since that rivalry has been teased over the last month.