Surprising New Challenger Emerges For GUNTHER's WWE Intercontinental Title
Madcap Moss emerged as the new #1 contender for GUNTHER's Intercontinental Championship on the 2/10 "WWE SmackDown" in Uncasville, CT.
Moss earned a future title opportunity against "The Ring General" by defeating Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar and Karrion Kross in a Fatal 4-Way bout that closed out Friday's show.
Towards the closing stages of the match, Mysterio seemed to gain the upper hand when he hit a 619 on Kross, with both Escobar and Moss recovering on the outside. Just then, Scarlett made a timely rescue by tripping the legendary luchador, following which Escobar returned to the ring to take out Kross with a clothesline. Moss capitalized on the situation by climbing the rope and hitting a lifeless Mysterio with a flying elbow drop before going for the pinfall.
After the win, Moss celebrated in the ring with Emma, his real-life girlfriend. WWE's announcers and social media channels hyped the victory as the biggest of Moss' WWE career, also acknowledging that he had earned the first-ever title opportunity of his young career.
Madcap earns the first title opportunity of his @WWE career.@MadcapMoss #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/P7Z1JYX9cE
— WWE on FOX (@WWEonFOX) February 11, 2023
Moss seemed in line for a big push last year under the Vince McMahon regime, picking up a series of televised wins following his rivalry with Baron Corbin, which he ended with a victorious No Holds Barred Match at Hell in a Cell 2022. However, when Paul "Triple H" Levesque took charge of WWE's creative operations, Moss was seemingly lost in the shuffle on the "SmackDown" brand, wrestling only three matches on television between September 2022 and January 2023. It now appears Moss is once being positioned as an integral member of WWE's blue brand show.
WWE has confirmed the GUNTHER vs. Moss title match for next week's show. Other matches announced for the Elimination Chamber go-home show include Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler vs. Shotzi & Natalya and The Banger Bros. (Drew McIntyre & Sheamus) vs. The Viking Raiders.