History has been made on the January 13 episode of WWE Raw as we now have the inaugural women’s Intercontinental Champion in history. Exactly a month after WWE crowned the first-ever women’s United States Champion for Smackdown, the red brand also received a counterpart in the form of another mid-card champion on the women’s roster.
In one of the major attractions of WWE Raw at the SAP Center in San Jose, California, Lyra Valkyria defeated Dakota Kai in the final match of the tournament to win the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. The finish of the match saw Valkyria moving out of the way as Kai was going for a running boot to the corner. Valkyria quickly followed up with Nightwing finisher in the middle of the ring for the win.
As Valkyria earned the clean pin to pull off the victory, WWE Raw General Manager Adam Pearce appeared in the ring to hand over Valkyria the brand new title. Valkyria posed on the turnbuckle amid cheers from the crowd as pyro went off for her further celebrations.
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After coming up short in the history-making match on WWE Raw, Kai shared an emotional moment with her DAMAGE CTRL stablemate IYO SKY and mentioned that this isn’t the end of her journey. Zoey Stark also revealed in a backstage segment that she will be getting the first shot against the winner of the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. But Sonya Deville corrected her and said it could be any member of The Pure Fusion Collective to get the opportunity.
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It was on WWE Raw back in November that the women’s IC championship was introduced, shortly after they introduced the Women’s United States title on SmackDown. In the opener of the tournament to crown the champion, Kai defeated Katana Chance and Shayna Baszler, and then Zoey Stark on her way to the finals.
On the other side, Valkyria defeated Ivy Nile and Zelina Vega in a Triple Threat in the first round and then IYO SKY in the semifinal to set up the final match with Kai. The primary belief was that the final match would be announced on WWE Raw’s historic Netflix premiere episode but it was postponed for a week to keep the spotlight on the inaugural champion.
