WWE makes questionable claim for WrestleMania Intercontinental title ladder match - Cageside Seats

An Intercontinental Championship match was made official for WrestleMania, but WWE may be stretching the truth to get there. Champion Penta defeated Kofi Kingston to retain the title Monday on Raw. After the match, he said he spoke with Raw GM Adam Pearce and confirmed he will defend the title in Las Vegas in a ladder match. Later, Michael Cole added details, saying Pearce had been putting the field together through matches on Main Event, WWE’s YouTube show on Thursdays. Cole then named the participants: Je’Von Evans, Dragon Lee, Rusev, and JD McDonagh. While Evans and Lee have appeared on Main Event in recent weeks, Rusev last competed there on Feb. 5, defeating Joaquin Wilde. McDonagh, meanwhile, has not wrestled in 2026 or appeared on Main Event. On March 12, Evans beat Lee in the show’s only match. Last Thursday, Lee snapped a three-match losing streak against NXT’s Brooks Jensen. While Main Event commentary has discussed wrestlers improving their standing for Mania, no matches were explicitly billed as title qualifiers. With WrestleMania less than two weeks away, WWE appears to be leaning on Main Event’s low visibility to name Penta’s challengers on short notice. The approach mirrors the title’s own fictionalized origin. In 1979, Pat Patterson was crowned the first champion after winning a tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2021, Bruce Prichard said on his podcast, Something to Wrestle With, that WWE sought to replace its original North American Championship with something bigger. However, there was no tournament. Instead, WWE made the story up to introduce the new title.