Intercontinental Championship: Wade Barrett (c) vs Chris Jericho/The Miz
On Monday Night Raw Jericho presented an edition of The Highlight Reel, with special guest The Miz, to talk about his latest film, The Marine 3. This brought out Wade Barrett to knock The Miz's acting skills in comparison to his own. Barrett got into it with The Miz and his former NXT mentor Jericho, before Brad Maddox came out to say that next week Barrett would defend his Intercontinental Championship against either The Miz or Jericho, who would face off later. Remember, it is that simple to start a feud these days. Depth, what's that? With Barrett on commentary though it wouldn't be long before he got involved, with The Miz sent crashing into him and Barrett retaliating. This lead to both Jerico and Miz hitting their finishers on Barrett. As a result Vickie Guerrero later announced that the match on next week's Raw would be a three-way match pitting Barrett against The Miz and Jericho, for the title. While it is good to see the IC Title actually being involved in a storyline and defended for a change, it continues to be more of a curse than a blessing for Barrett. The first time he had some decent time on TV in an age, and it resulted in him taking a finisher from two different superstars, then being thrust into a match he didn't want. If he loses his belt next week, it has to go down as one of the worst title runs in recent history. It has so far been utterly pointless, and demeaning for a superstar who is supposed to be one of the next big things. However, Wade Barrett and Chris Jericho could have an excellent feud and put on a great match. The dynamic of the former teacher and pupil is tried and tested, Barrett has decent promo skills, and of course Jericho's are some of the best in the business. Jericho has repeatedly shown he is still one of the best in the ring since he came back, and Barrett needs that opponent that can take him to the next level. What this feud does not need is The Miz. If it does persist, I can only assume they are just trying to keep him busy. Prediction: Hopefully this will lead to a Wrestlemania match between Jericho and Barrett for the IC Title. It could see Jericho take the win as a thank you for putting over so many younger superstars since coming back, or it could see him continue in that tradition and giving Barrett a big win. Meanwhile things were not much better for Barrett's counterpart, US Champion Antonio Cesaro. Losing again to Alberto del Rio, the time when Cesaro was built up as unstoppable is a distant memory. He has no apparent opponent for Wrestlemania, and the superstar who beat him last week on Main Event was busy being squashed by Del Rio's opponent, Jack Swagger. And in the Divas division, the Bella Twins made their return, got a bit sassy, attacked some other divas, and garnered little to no reaction. Not as little as Fandango though.