Sami Zayn earns Intercontinental title match on WWE SmackDown

Sami Zayn won a gauntlet match on tonight’s SmackDown to become the new number one contender for the Intercontinental title. 

Tonight’s show had a 12 Days of Christmas gauntlet match, where Ricochet and Zayn were the final two participants. The finish came after Zayn got the knees up following a Ricochet shooting star press attempt and connected with the helluva kick for the win. As a result of his win, Zayn earned a future title shot against current Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura.

The start of the match had Angel defeat Mansoor and Erik of the Viking Raiders. Shanky then came out and defeated Angel. Ivar of the Viking Raiders hit a diving splash to defeat Shanky. Sheamus then came out and defeated Ivar.

After Sheamus took out Drew Gulak in seconds, Cesaro came out. Sheamus was able to get the win after interference from Ridge Holland. Cesaro got a measure of revenge revenge after laying out Holland during Sheamus’ next match against Ricochet, which allowed Ricochet to roll up Sheamus for the win. After Ricochet defeated Humberto and Jinder Mahal, Zayn arrived as the final entrant.