At Sunday night's WWE "Extreme Rules" 2017 pay-per-view, the Wwe Intercontinental Championship was on the line. The current champion Dean Ambrose would have his work cut out for him in a match where he couldn't be disqualified or he'd lose the title. That certainly came into play throughout the bout as the champ had to try to keep his cool against the crafty challenger, The Miz.
With Maryse also at ringside, could Dean Ambrose make it out of Royal Farms Arena with the IC title belt?
Did Dean get DQ'd?
During the match, Ambrose nearly got in trouble early. On the outside of the ring, he and The Miz had an exchange where a steel chair came into play. Ambrose got caught several times by the referee nearly about to use the chair to bash Miz. However, the heel challenger blasted Ambrose with a big boot to drop him to the floor.
Later in the ring, things got hectic once again when The Miz was able to remove a turnbuckle cover from one of the ringposts. Ambrose nearly shoved Miz face-first into the turnbuckle but stopped himself short of it.
That allowed Miz to deliver a flying dropkick for a near fall on the champion.
Who won the match?
As the match went forward, Maryse decided to stick her nose into things. Miz's wife got onto the apron to start arguing with the referee. Both Ambrose and Miz stopped themselves short of knocking into her near the ropes. With the referee distracted for a bit by Ambrose, Miz concocted a plan where he told his wife to slap him. She did so and the referee saw it. However, Ambrose was able to beg the referee not to call for a DQ. Instead, the ref threw Maryse out from ringside.
Maryse went to the bottom of the ramp but kept arguing with the referee. Wisely, The Miz shoved Ambrose into the referee, causing him to fall out of the ring.
As the referee looked up from the outside he saw Ambrose was the "perpetrator." The referee started walking around the ringside area to go call for a disqualification. Ambrose kept pleading with him the entire way.
With Ambrose's back turned, The Miz was smart enough to grab the champion and hit the Skullcrushing Finale for the big pinfall win. With that, The Miz captured the WWE Intercontinental Championship for his seventh reign. He now trails only Chris Jericho in their total number of Intercontinental title reigns. Will he catch up to Y2J?
For now, The Miz and Maryse are likely to bask in the glory of the latest win at the "Extreme Rules" PPV. Stay tuned to WWE "Raw" to see if Ambrose gets a quick rematch for the title he lost.