WWE to Address Sami Zayn's Intercontinental Championship Reign This Week

It's been more than two months since Sami Zayn pinned Braun Strowman to become the [...]

By Connor Casey

It's been more than two months since Sami Zayn pinned Braun Strowman to become the Intercontinental Champion. But as fans have likely noticed, the champ hasn't been on WWE television for most of that reign. Zayn's last match came on the first night of WrestleMania 36 (taped in late March), where he picked up a victory over Daniel Bryan. He hasn't been back on SmackDown since, and reports recently came out that he chose to stay home during the latest SmackDown tapings.

According to a new report from POST Wrestling's John Pollock, WWE will address the status of Zayn's reign as IC Champion on this week's SmackDown. This came from the same report where Pollock broke the news that WWE was weakening its brand split again, this time with the "brand-to-brand invitation."

WWE has already announced this week's SmackDown will feature a MizTV segment with Mr. Money in the Bank Otis and an appearance from NXT Women's Champion Charlotte Flair.

If Zayn does get stripped of the Intercontinental Championship, it will be the latest title to be affected in some shape or form by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic was what prompted Roman Reigns to opt out of his WWE Universal Championship match with Goldberg at WrestleMania, causing Strowman to be inserted into the match and take the title off the WWE Hall of Famer. Meanwhile over in NXT Timothy Thatcher has subbed in for Pete Dunne in NXT Tag Team Championship matches alongside Matt Riddle.

And then there's the mess regarding the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Since current champion Jordan Devlin is unable to leave Ireland during the pandemic, William Regal decided to crown an interim champion via an eight-man round robin tournament similar to New Japan's Best of Super Juniors. As of now Kushida and Akira Tozawa lead their respective groups with two wins apiece.

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