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#1 Making the Intercontinental Championship all about SmackDown
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The brackets for the Intercontinental Championship tournament were finally announced on SmackDown this week and while most names were expected, one Superstar's inclusion did shock the WWE Universe.
The likes of Daniel Bryan, Drew Gulak, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, Elias, King Corbin, AJ Styles, and Shinsuke Nakamura were announced as the participants for the knockout format tournament. And as you might've noticed, The Phenomenal One is attached to RAW, not SmackDown.
This certainly opens up the possibility of some great matches in the tourney starting with a revisit to the WrestleMania 34 feud between Styles and Nakamura. But can The Phenomenal One be considered as a realistic favorite for the title? For what it's worth, we still don't have enough clarity on how the inter-brand invitationals are going to work and how many times Styles can appear on SmackDown.
So while this could boost ratings for the Blue brand, it certainly takes away from RAW. As long as Styles is in the Intercontinental Championship tournament on SmackDown, ideally, he won't be involved in a serious feud on the Red brand, which will be a serious loss for fans tuning in on Monday nights.
