Apollo Crews On His New Muscle And Winning The WWE Intercontinental Title At WrestleMania

By Marc Middleton

As noted, WrestleMania 37 Night Two saw Apollo Crews defeat Big E in a Nigerian Drum Fight to become the new WWE Intercontinental Champion. The No DQ match featured tables, drums, brass gongs and kendo sticks laying around the ring.

The finish saw Dabba-Kato, who was brought to TV last year for RAW Underground, make his return with a new gimmick to help Crews win the title. It had been reported earlier in the day that the new gimmick for Kato was being planned, and that his new name could be Commander Azeez (possibly spelled Commador Azeez) or Azez.

It's worth noting that Kato is still listed by that name on the WWE roster as of this writing, and is still listed as a RAW Superstar, while Crews remains a SmackDown Superstar. Kato had not appeared on TV since a September RAW Underground segment, but was drafted to RAW in October, only to disappear from TV until now.

As seen below, Crews was interviewed by Alyse Ashton after the show. He did not name his new muscle, but said we will find out who the man is later. Ashton mentioned how Crews won the title with help from his friend.

"It does not matter. The fact is that I won the Intercontinental Championship," Crews said. "Look at the size of this man, but don't worry about that. You'll find out who this is later."

Crews continued and dedicated the win to Nigeria.

"Right now what matters is that Apollo Crews did exactly what he said he was going to do and that is win the Intercontinental Championship," Crews said. "I beat Big E in his hometown, I beat Big E in front of all of his family, in front of everybody he played high school football with, in front of all of them and the best thing about it is now... now my ancestors can rejoice, now my family can dance. I made them proud, and now I am the Intercontinental Champion. This one... this one is for Nigeria."

Kato, real name Babatunde Aiyegbusi, was born to a Nigerian father and a Polish mother. Both of Crews' parents are from Nigeria.

Stay tuned for more on Crews and his new muscle. You can see the post-match interview below, along with footage from the match:

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