Drew McIntyre Beats Dolph Ziggler, Retains WWE Title at Extreme Rules 2020

Drew McIntyre defeated Dolph Ziggler in a match with uneven rules at The Horror Show at Extreme Rules on Sunday night to retain the WWE Championship.

The Showoff was given the opportunity to choose the stipulation and decided against revealing it until the last minute at the pay-per-view. He chose to compete with Extreme Rules just for himself, meaning the Scot was at a competitive disadvantage.

It didn't matter, though, as McIntyre produced a Claymore Kick—his one legitimate piece of weaponry in this match—from nowhere to retain his title. 

The rivalry between the two men began June 22 when Ziggler made a surprise appearance on Raw despite the apparent fact that he was a SmackDown Superstar and had been for some time.

The Showoff announced that as part of the trade that sent AJ Styles to the blue brand, he and Bobby Roode had been moved in the opposite direction. He then went on to claim he deserved a shot at the WWE Championship since he brought McIntyre to Raw in 2018.

McIntyre and Ziggler had a successful run as a tag team on the red brand—and even held the Raw Tag Team Championships—before breaking up near the end of 2018. The Scot beat The Showoff in a steel cage match on New Year's Eve of that year to officially spell the end of their friendship and feud.

They went their separate ways after that with Ziggler on SmackDown and McIntyre on Raw, and they also headed in different directions in terms of accomplishments.

The Scot faced Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 35 and eventually got built up to the point that he won the Royal Rumble in January and then definitively beat Brock Lesnar at The Show of Shows to become WWE champion for the first time.

Conversely, Ziggler primarily tagged with Roode on SmackDown and then entered into a feud with Otis for the affections of Mandy Rose. While it was an entertaining angle, it kept The Showoff away from the main event scene.

Ziggler went on to lose to Otis at WrestleMania 36 and failed in his subsequent attempts to win back Rose's heart, so the move to Raw came at an ideal time for him.

Although there wasn't much belief within the WWE Universe that Ziggler would truly have a chance to beat McIntyre at Extreme Rules, going from a midcard feud on SmackDown to vying for a world title on Raw was undoubtedly a trade up for him.

The match and feud were also positives for McIntyre since there was a built-in storyline given their history together and it was already clear they had plenty of in-ring chemistry from their time as a team.

That was on full display at Extreme Rules, and by virtue of retaining the title, McIntyre is set to enter SummerSlam on August 23 as WWE champion.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).