6 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (March 11)

3. IC Title Ping-Pongs Again

Bobby Lashley Lio Rush
WWE.com

For a title that has such a rich history, the Intercontinental Championship sure gets around a lot.

After winning the IC title just three weeks ago, Finn Balor on Monday lost it back to the man he beat for it, Bobby Lashley. Lashley had only held the title for five weeks, defeating Dean Ambrose, who had held it for four weeks.

That’s some Attitude Era-level title reigns there. (You have to go all the way back to WrestleMania 32 in 2016 and Zack Ryder’s one-day reign to find a shorter IC title run.)

Balor as champ was looking to be a nice marriage of title and performer, so why have him continue his heatless rivalry with Lashley? This is clearly leading to a rematch (though not automatic) at WrestleMania 35, right? Or we’ll get the ubiquitous multi-man ladder match that WWE loves for Mania these days.

Regardless, this felt like an unnecessary title change that just keeps people spinning their wheels instead of progressing.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.