Having just fallen short against Seth Rollins, The Miz was clearly in no mood to face Finn Bálor in an immediate follow-up, WrestleMania implications or not. But his plan of having The Miztourage simply jump The Extraordinary Man backfired in four major ways, one after the other: For one, the match was immediately restarted by Raw General Manager Kurt Angle. Two, The Miztourage was ejected from ringside — along with Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, who had tried to even the odds. Three, if there was no clear winner, The Miz wouldn’t be going to WrestleMania at all.

Oh, and four: He lost. Even though Bálor basically out on his feet, he had the wherewithal to counter Miz’s early attempts to pick the bones and the heart to rally. Miz, of course, is too gifted a competitor to roll over, but he faded down the stretch (over a half-hour in the ring will do that to you) and he succumbed to Bálor's chest-caving Coup de Grâce.

Watching backstage, Rollins was less than impressed with Bálor piling on his win, but he had an idea of how he would rebound from his own Elimination Chamber loss and get to WrestleMania: A formal challenge to The Miz for the Intercontinental Title. In the words of Angle, he “might” have a case. But then again, so might Finn.

Finn Bálor responds to Seth Rollins' WrestleMania challenge to Intercontinental Champion The Miz.