WWE Announces Intercontinental Championship Match For Christmas Day SmackDown

Big E vs. Sami Zayn has been confirmed for Friday's festivities.

Dec 21, 2020 December 21st, 2020

Having spent the past several weeks tangling with each other, it’s now been announced that Big E will challenge for Sami Zayn’s Intercontinental Championship on the Christmas Day edition of WWE SmackDown.

Rather than making its talent work on Christmas Day – which wouldn’t be unheard of – WWE will be taping Friday’s episode of SmackDown on Tuesday.

As alluded to, the rivalry between Zayn and E has been rumbling on for the last few weeks. The pair had a non-title match on the December 11 episode of SmackDown, with the smarts of Sami leading him to a count-out victory over his powerhouse opponent. Since then, last week saw Big E crash Zayn’s Sami Awards segment, and it was E pinning the current IC Champ to gain victory for his team in an eight-man pre-show match before last night’s TLC PPV.

Could WWE give Big E fans the perfect Christmas present by having the former Intercontinental Champion reclaim a prize he won back in 2013. After besting Curtis Axel for the title back then, Big E went on to have a 167-day reign as the Intercontinental Champion before losing the belt to Bad News Barrett.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.

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