3 Potential contenders for Finn Balor’s Intercontinental Championship after Andrade

While Finn Balor’s first reign as the Intercontinental Champion did not last too long when he was involved a rivalry with Bobby Lashley, he’s been able to do a good job in his second reign as champion.

His most interesting rivalry after winning the title for the second time came against Andrade, and after their match at Super ShowDown, where The Demon managed to successfully defend the title, it seems like Balor will be moving on to another challenger soon.

With the Wild Card Rule in effect, the number of men who could challenge Balor has almost doubled, and Balor is now no longer restricted to defending the championship only on the blue brand.

WWE is currently building towards its next pay-per-view called Stomping Grounds, and it's more than likely that they will build towards a new challenger for Finn Balor’s title.

Who will step up to The Extraordinary Man in the coming weeks? We'll take a look at the three possible options.

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#3 Buddy Murphy

Buddy Murphy had a great run as the Cruiserweight Champion

Becoming a top superstar in WWE requires a lot of talent and courage, and Buddy Murphy has all that and much more which has helped him compete on 205 Live and NXT in the past.

After the Superstar Shake-up, Murphy was moved to SmackDown Live and has been waiting for his first rivalry on the blue brand. He teased a feud with his former 205 Live nenemesesli moving to the main roster but the feud hasn’t really played out yet.

Murphy was the Cruiserweight Champion heading into WrestleMania 35 and was a worthy champion for almost six months before losing it to Tony Nese at the Showcase of the Immortals.

Balor works extremely well with other lightweights and athletic Superstars, and Murphy could surely get a huge boost if he gets into a rivalry with the Intercontinental Champion for the title.

Murphy has a tendency to play a really good heel character, and their feud will surely go a long way in forming Murphy's first impression for the fans.

#2 Cesaro

These two superstars can work really good matches together

The Swiss Superman is arguably one of the best in-ring competitors in WWE over the past decade, and he has not received as much praise as he deserves in the past few years.

Cesaro and Sheamus worked extremely well as The Bar, and the two men had a lot of success on both Raw and SmackDown. Now that WWE has split the two men and drafted Cesaro to the Raw roster, it’s time Cesaro starts ranking up a list of singles championships as soon as possible.

With the 'Wild Card Rule' in play, Cesaro has the opportunity to challenge Balor for the Intercontinental Championship on SmackDown, as this face-heel chemistry could work extremely well.

At this point in his career, Cesaro is WWE Championship material but needs to win a mid-card title to get back in the zone before going after the top title. A rivalry against WWE’s top babyfaces could do him a world of good and make him a dominant force once again.

#1 Randy Orton

Randy Orton's 210-day reign was arguably the greatest of modern time

The first championship Randy Orton ever won in WWE was the Intercontinental Championship. With that said, he has been without a title for some time now and seems to be interested in winning back the Intercontinental title.

Randy Orton has been one of WWE's biggest stars for over a decade, and the veteran somehow manages to find relevance and bring much-needed prestige to his rivalries due to his reputation.

His win against Triple H at Super ShowDown was a huge boost to bring him back to the spotlight, and he could now be eyeing gold as one of the top men in the company.

Randy Orton and Finn Balor haven’t had a rivalry yet, and a feud between these two men will surely increase the viewership, and bring more attention to the Intercontinental Championship.

One way to spice things up will be if Balor assumes his Demon King alter ego, and we get The Demon vs. The Viper for the Intercontinental Championship at a pay-per-view.

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