5 realistic contenders to defeat Seth Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship

Seth Rollins has successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship on four televised WWE shows in the last fortnight, but who will be next to hold the prestigious title?

Having defeated Finn Balor and Mojo Rawley in back-to-back weeks with the championship on the line, “The Kingslayer” issued another open challenge for the upcoming episode of Raw in London, which has been accepted by Kevin Owens.

Assuming KO doesn't win the match, here are five realistic contenders who could take the title from the Shield member:

---

#5 Baron Corbin

Baron Corbin is a former United States champion

Baron Corbin has been a constant presence on WWE programming ever since he joined the main roster in April 2016, and recent reports have suggested that he is in line for a renewed push on Raw in the next few months.

Realistically, “The Lone Wolf” isn’t going to challenge for the Universal Championship this summer, nor is he likely to win the Money In The Bank contract for the second year in a row, so perhaps he’ll begin to target Seth Rollins in the not-too-distant future.

The former United States champion previously challenged for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 33, where he lost to Dean Ambrose on the kickoff show, but he would be a much more worthy holder of the title if he were to win it now.

#4 Drew McIntyre

Drew McIntyre has recently aligned with Dolph Ziggler

Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler have impressed plenty of people with their unlikely alliance on Raw in recent weeks, defeating Titus Worldwide and Heath Slater & Rhyno in tag matches while cutting some of the most believable promos fans have heard in months.

The expectation is that Drew will emerge as a major star on the main roster again, possibly even challenging for the Universal and WWE titles further down the line, but the first natural step would be for him to target the Intercontinental Championship.

The former NXT champion previously held the IC title for 161 days during his first run with the company, when he was nicknamed “The Chosen One” and touted as a future world champion, but he then suffered a significant demotion down the card as a member of 3MB and he hasn’t held singles gold on the main roster since.

Now that the Scot has built his way back up the WWE ranks, he has shown that he is perfectly capable of producing some show-stealing title matches with Seth Rollins.

#3 Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens defeated Seth Rollins in Universal title matches in 2016

It has been confirmed that Kevin Owens will answer Seth Rollins’ latest Intercontinental Championship open challenge when WWE visits London for Raw on Monday.

KO has lost five straight pay-per-view matches and is bound to get back to winning ways (and winning titles) over the next few months, while “Monday Night Rollins” will be a strong candidate to challenge for the Universal Championship again towards the end of the year, so his time as IC champion is likely to be limited.

Will Owens win the title at the first time of asking this Monday? Probably not, but as much as The Miz claims to be the sole person who made the IC title relevant again, KO did a fine job as champ during his two reigns in 2015 and 2016, so he’d be a good choice to succeed Rollins at some point.

#2 Sami Zayn

Sami Zayn will surely be in the mix to win a title this year

It’s crazy to think that Sami Zayn received his call-up to the main roster three years ago but he is yet to hold a title in WWE (excluding the NXT Championship).

For that reason alone, it’s about time the man formerly known as “The Underdog From The Underground” was given the opportunity to hold a title on the main roster.

Like 95 percent of the male Superstars on Raw, the chances of Zayn challenging for the Universal Championship any time soon are slim-to-none. So, unless he and Kevin Owens enter the Raw Tag Team division, that only leaves the Intercontinental Championship as a potential target.

Zayn is unlikely to win clean against Seth Rollins but there’s no doubt that a battle between the two has Match of the Night written all over it.

#1 Jason Jordan

Will Jason Jordan target Seth Rollins on his return?

And finally, the most likely contender to win the Intercontinental Championship from Seth Rollins, however unpopular it would undoubtedly prove to be, has to be Jason Jordan.

The dysfunctional duo briefly held the Raw Tag Team Championships between December 2017 and January 2018, only for Jordan’s oblivious incompetence to cost them the titles in their battle against The Bar at the Royal Rumble.

It looked like WWE was heading towards a Rollins vs. Jordan match at WrestleMania 34 but, sadly for JJ, he missed the event due to a neck injury and he hasn’t appeared on Raw since.

Now that he is set to return, don’t be surprised if WWE picks up where they left off by having the former American Alpha member defeat Rollins for the Intercontinental title.