by The Legend » Jul 13, '18, 2:28 pm
Make Johnny Gargano the IC champion.
Actually, the timing is perfect to make Gargano champ, assuming Dolph keeps the belt at Extreme Rules. Gargano is at his best when he can really pull into an emotional underdog role like he did with Ciampa and even Almas. So here's the beauty of this story, Gargano and Ziggler are both from Cleveland and they both went to the same high school (St. Edward), which is a school famous for wrestling - they just won their 32nd State Championship and have won 11 national championships. Gargano followed Dolph by about seven years.
So here's the story, the WWE have long made Dolph's amateur wrestling background a part of his character, talking about his record at Kent State and having him wear a St. Ed's jacket to the ring on occasion. Have Gargano start showing up on RAW and just subtly have them cross paths backstage, each time Dolph looks just a little bit annoyed. Meanwhile, Gargano goes on a winning streak on RAW, one week Gargano wins a match and then Dolph loses, they pass backstage and Dolph snaps, attacking him and shouting about how he needs to go away and Dolph is going to get rid of him.
The next week they talk about how Dolph used to have records at St. Ed's wrestling program, but Gargano came behind him and broke them all. When there Dolph won two state championships, Gargano won four and just play up how Gargano has surpassed Dolph in every way. It leads to a feud where Gargano does well early, but McIntyre always is there to help Dolph, play up a psychological and mental edge as a veteran of pro wrestling. Then finally after a few matches they get to the final encounter where Gargano finally beats Dolph and takes his title.
Next up, push Ronda Rousey to gold!
Credit to Tim/Everlong for this awesome sig