The rivalry between Cedric Alexander and Drew McIntyre escalates as the two intensely competitive Superstars go one-on-one.

For a few weeks now, Cedric Alexander has begun to gain some steam by being the one Superstar who’s been able to catch Drew McIntyre on his back foot. McIntyre technically brought that hot streak to an end with a victory over Alexander on Raw, but the WWE Cruiserweight Champion certainly made it difficult, stringing together two impressive sequences that left the towering Scotsman struggling to keep up.

By the end of the match, a crowd that had seemingly resigned itself to the inevitable was completely behind Alexander, and when he executed a Lumbar Check to McIntyre on the outside, it seemed like he might escape with a count-out. The Scot made it back to the ring to keep the action going, only to suffer a top-rope Spanish Fly that left him on wobbly legs. The former NXT Champion claimed victory by a split-second margin, thanks to a Claymore out of nowhere that turned Cedric end-over-end and proved enough to earn the three-count, to McIntyre’s visible relief.

Of course, it’s unlikely Alexander will stay down for long, as he and McIntyre are headed for next week’s rebooted King of the Ring tournament. Given the look on McIntyre’s face at the end of this match, at least one of them was looking like he’d be perfectly happy if they never met again.