Sol Ruca already has a name in mind for her first Women’s Intercontinental Championship defense, and it belongs to the woman who started the title’s lineage.
Speaking with TMZ’s Inside The Ring, the new champion said she would welcome a defense against Lyra Valkyria, the inaugural Women’s Intercontinental Champion, calling it a test she wants to pass.
“I am 100% down. I am a fighting champion,” Ruca said. “I would absolutely love to defend the title against Lyra. She’s the first person to ever hold this title. It would be a great matchup and it’ll definitely test myself against another former IC champion.”
The pitch carries extra weight because the two are already on a collision course. Ruca opens her Queen of the Ring tournament run against Valkyria, with the bracket set for the June 1 episode of Raw, so the path to that title program may run straight through the tournament.
Ruca won the championship by defeating Becky Lynch at Clash in Italy on Sunday, May 31, at the Inalpi Arena in Turin, ending Lynch’s third reign at 43 days. It was her first major title win since moving to the main roster.
Now she’s framing the reign around volume. Ruca said she wants to defend the title as often as possible and floated using it as a platform to elevate the brand that developed her.
“If it was up to me, I would absolutely love to bring some NXT girls to try and defend this title and put them up on the main roster and see what they got,” she said. “I want to do right by this title, and I want to make myself and all my followers proud.”
Her stated benchmark is not a modest one. Ruca told the show she wants her run remembered as the best the title has seen.
“I want them to think that I’ve had the best Intercontinental Championship run of all time,” she said. “That’s the goal.”