Shinsuke Nakamura wasn’t much of a defending champion, as he had an injury that prevented him from wrestling for quite some time. WWE decided to simply avoid putting him on the show with the belt up for grabs for that time frame, rather than crown a new champion.
Once he was able to, Sami Zayn captured the title and seemed poised to be holding it going into WrestleMania.
Unfortunately for Zayn, his feud with Johnny Knoxville that had been going on for several weeks hasn’t ended. It’s only gotten stronger. They decided to have a match at WrestleMania, but before that took place, Zayn was booked in a title defense against Ricochet.
With a little distraction from Knoxville, The One and Only won the title for the first time in his career.
Currently, there is nothing obviously hinted at for what Ricochet will be doing at WrestleMania. No opponents have been established that stand out, nor have any feuds or storylines begun.
One can assume someone like Sheamus could be randomly inserted into the title hunt after all the times he’s beaten Ricochet in recent months. Plus, this is one of the belts Sheamus hasn’t won yet, and he’s made it a point that he wants to capture it sometime before his career is over. Winning it at WrestleMania wouldn’t look good for Ricochet to play hot potato with this belt, but it would at least check off one of the final boxes for The Celtic Warrior. Maybe Butch (aka Pete Dunne) can team with Ridge Holland on the tag team title front to leave Sheamus free for this.
If not Sheamus, who else? That’s a good question.
Click on the next section for the 24/7 Championship rundown.