Roman Reigns Is The New WWE Intercontinental Champion
He defeated The Miz, ending the former champion's reign at 169 days.
Nov 21, 2017
Roman Reigns is the new WWE Intercontinental Champion, having defeated The Miz in the main event of Raw.
The Big Dog defeated Miz despite interference from Sheamus and Cesaro, thanks in part to the help of Shield stablemates Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. The babyface duo fought off The Bar, allowing Reigns to hit a Spear on the champion and cover him to take the title.
This is Roman's first reign as Intercontinental Champion, but WWE have already extensively emphasised the fact (on commentary and social media) that this makes him a Grand Slam Champion - meaning that he has held a world title, tag title, and both secondary titles.
Immediately one would imagine that this will factor heavily into the storyline, should his widely-rumoured WrestleMania 34 match with Brock Lesnar take place. Lesnar is, of course, current Universal Champion - a title Reigns has never held.
Perhaps in order to keep the focus solely on Roman's achievements, it was not mentioned that The Miz is already a Grand Slam Champion, having last added the Intercontinental Championship to his collection in 2012.
Similarly, fellow Shield member Ambrose is also in this select group - and only completed the feat as recently as August, when he and Rollins captured tag team gold.
The only other Superstars to have won a world title, tag title, and both US and Intercontinental Championships are Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Big Show, Daniel Bryan, Chris Jericho, and current Raw General Manager Kurt Angle.
Jericho is also one of only two men to have won all eligible titles under the old Grand Slam format (a world title, tag title, Intercontinental Championship, and either the European or Hardcore Championship).
Although a handful of Superstars completed the old Grand Slam (first achieved by Shawn Michaels in 1997), only Y2J and Jeff Hardy managed to win all seven available championships: the WWE and World Heavyweight titles, WWE and World tag titles, and the Intercontinental, European, and Hardcore Championships too.
In modern Grand Slam terms, were Reigns to defeat Lesnar for the Universal Championship, he still wouldn't be the first man to win all six titles available under the modern format. To do so, he'd have to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Championship. Maybe Jimmy and Jey Uso should watch their backs...