WWE WrestleMania 35 review: Highlights, takeaways and projections

WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush) (c) vs. Finn Balor

With the night winding down, the Intercontinental Championship Match got the unfortunate placement before the main event, which can be tough. But Finn Balor and Bobby Lashley accomplished what they needed to.

The Demon King character and the entrance is always fun but it might be time to wrap it up. If Balor wins every time he breaks the character out, why doesn’t he just do that every time? But that’s logic and this is wrestling, and sometimes the two should never meet. It looked like this might be another squash for The Demon, much like Balor did against Corbin last year at SummerSlam, but Lashley fought through Balor’s early onslaught and got a little offense in of his own. His spear through the ropes to the floor was insane.

Lio Rush’s facial expressions when Balor came at him with The Demon face were money. As annoying as he can be on the microphone, Rush is good at what he does out there.

With all the high-flying we normally see from Finn, he did something different by showing off his power game at the end with his powerbomb to Lashley, which came just before the Coup de Grace and the pin for the win. There wasn’t much to get excited about, or really the time to get excited, but again, this was what it needed to be. Balor is now a two-time Intercontinental Champion.

What’s next: Balor and Lashley have been at it in some capacity for a while, and there’s really no need to take it any further. There’s been talk of moving the Intercontinental Championship to Tuesday nights and bringing in Samoa Joe and the United States title to Raw, which would open up the door for some fun rivalries for Balor on SmackDown Live. Either way, Balor is going to need a new challenger. As for Lashley and Rush, they’ll likely linger in the mid-card until there’s something meaningful for them to do.