Penta completed his first defense of the Intercontinental Championship over El Grande Americano during “WWE Raw.”

The bout was originally scheduled to pit Penta against the OG Americano, otherwise known as Chad Gable, but prior to the match he was shown in a backstage segment with Danhausen. As has been the case since last week, Danhausen asked Gable if he wanted to team with him, and Gable said no. So Danhausen opted to curse him, and the segment closed with Los Americanos – Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate – following behind him. 

When the match came to start, it was Ludwig Kaiser’s iteration of El Grande Americano that emerged, and he would go on to challenge the champion. There were moment where it looked as though the impostor was going to take the title, at one point tying Penta to the bottom rope by his mask tassel to lay offense in; he had to untie him to make the cover, allowing Penta to kick out of the eventual pin attempt. 

Penta fought back with high-flying offense and sought to finish things with the Mexican Destroyer, only for Americano to avoid it and land a Death Valley Driver for a close near-fall. And then once more Penta switched momentum with a DDT and set up for a springboard Destroyer, connecting with it at last to get the winning pinfall, and thus the title retention. 

Penta won the title from Dominik Mysterio last Monday, similarly after Danhausen had cursed Mysterio in a backstage segment.