 Another feud was over the WWE Intercontinental Championship between the defending champion Drew McIntyre and Kofi Kingston . SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long stripped McIntyre of the championship and fired him for repeatedly attacking Matt Hardy . Long set up a tournament to determine the new champion , in which Christian and Kingston qualified for the final by defeating Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler . The following week , on the May 14 episode of SmackDown , Kingston defeated Christian to win the tournament and the championship . Immediately following the match , however , McIntyre presented Long with a letter from the WWE Chairman Vince McMahon , which stated that McIntyre had been reinstated to the roster and was still recognized as the Intercontinental Champion . As a result , WWE 's official website announced that McIntyre would defend the championship against tournament winner Kingston . 
