New WWE Intercontinental Title Belt Revealed On SmackDown
"Out with the old, in with the new... "
As part of their ongoing attempts to refresh the product, WWE last night unveiled an overhauled design for the Intercontinental Championship.
Whilst cutting a promo alongside incumbent champ Shinsuke Nakamura ahead of his big Triple Threat at Survivor Series, mic-man Sami Zayn announced he had a gift for his Strong Style subordinate. The velvet bag on hand could only mean one thing: a brand new belt.
"Out with the old, and in with new," Zayn proudly shouted, as he held up the freshly minted accoutrement. It looks a lot like a black and gold Cruiserweight belt.
Prior to this latest renewal, the company's oft-forgotten secondary (arguably, tertiary) title has been relatively unchanged - save a few logo modifications - since 2011, when Cody Rhodes introduced a strap in the vein of its most classic iteration. Cody's hope was to rebuild the prestige of the title by visually associating it with a time when people like himself weren't champion.
Current holder Nakamura will face off against his US and North American counterparts AJ Styles and Roderick Strong at this Sunday's Survivor Series, in a non-title match.
The IC title is the second championship to be re-imagined in the past week. On last week's episode of SmackDown, Universal Champion Bray Wyatt magicked his belt into a blue version more befitting the brand.