WrestleMania 36: WWE Intercontinental Championship - Sami Zayn (c) VS. Daniel Bryan

[Jack-Hammer]

I know this match isn't official but we all know that it almost certainly will be. On tonight's SmackDown episode. Drew Gulak faces Shinsuke Nakamura 1 on 1 and if Gulak wins, Bryan gets a shot at Zayn at WM for the IC title. Strikes me as a little bit weird since Gulak is wrestling the match and if he wins, you'd think the logical outlook of the storyline would be Gulak getting the IC title shot. Of course, logic doesn't always carry a lot of weight in WWE and besides, some would consider it underwhelming if Gulak got the shot because, let's face it, storyline or no storyline, the guy's generally a nobody. I think he can deliver good promos, he's got personality and he can deliver genuinely entertaining wrestling matches that would probably be top notch if he was told to just go nuts out there. However, Gulak has strictly been used for 205 Live or Main Event; when appearing on Raw or SmackDown, it was usually so he'd be ragdolled by someone like Braun Strowman. Gulak could be a genuinely strong upper mid-card player with some competent and consistent booking but he's not there right now.

As for Zayn vs. Bryan, this has the potential to be a show stealing match. We know these two can go in the ring as they've, at various times, been part of some of the best matches in all of WWE over the course of the last 10 years. If the match is given time, if they're told to go out there and let it all hang out and if the shenanigans of Nakamura, Cesaro and Gulak are kept from dominating the match, then this could be a sleeper to steal the show.

[Y 2 Jake]

I dunno. Zayn and Bryan definitely seem like two guys who would know the severity of a situation and decide not to participate. Especially considering Bryan has a pregnant wife.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

Zayn has grown on me since his days on NXT. I'm not the biggest Bryan fan, but if this does go down, I'd like to see Sami win this.

[Jack-Hammer]

Zayn has grown on me since his days on NXT. I'm not the biggest Bryan fan, but if this does go down, I'd like to see Sami win this.

It depends. When you get right down to it, the Intercontinental Championship may well be the most poorly used championship in WWE over the course of the past year. For instance, Shinsuke Nakamura was only the 5th wrestler to hold the IC title for 200 days or more since December 1997 and is only the 7th to hold it for that long in the last 30 years. What did WWE do with him as champ? Jack Diddly, that's what. All that'll be remembered about his run was how mediocre it was. They could've made Nakamura a great and strong champ as a face or heel but, surprise surprise, Vince wasn't interested.

I like Zayn, the guy works hard and does his best with what he's given. However, if they have no real plans to do anything with him as champ either, I'd rather they just have him drop it to Bryan as they'll have no real choice but to do something with Bryan as champion. Bryan has a significant degree of creative control over what he does and how he's used, it's actually in his contract, so if Bryan were to become champion, he wouldn't allow himself to be embarrassed or just outright poorly used. The title needs a strong champion and Bryan is in a far better spot for that than Sami Zayn. Besides, there've been rumors that Zayn may well be headed back to NXT during the Draft/Shakeup; I don't know if it's true or not but I've read a lot of reports saying that Zayn's name has been one of those consistently mentioned on being moved to the Black & Gold brand. He'd be making "main roster" level money while working an easier schedule in an environment where he'll be used well. So yeah, IF he's going back to NXT, dropping the IC title at WrestleMania and possibly having Nakamura & Cesaro turn on him could be what leads up to the move.