WWE

WWE Hot Take: Seth Rollins Must Lose WWE Title Quickly and in Dirty Fashion

Chris Roling

Sometimes what's best for business isn't the most popular thing.

So it goes inside the world of WWE and out. In the post-WrestleMania haze, though, it looks like Seth Rollins might need to be the first new champion to drop his belt.

And it might as well happen in dirty fashion.

Rollins, after all, won his title in a dirty manner over Brock Lesnar. Granted, Lesnar attacked him before the match to kick off 'Mania. But a low blow is a low blow, no matter how anyone tries to sell it. A "good guy doing whatever it takes" to beat an opponent isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card for questionable actions—and WWE foreshadowed it on the go-home episode of Raw before WrestleMania too.

So in a sense, Rollins should have the same thing happen to him. Most of his career story arcs in WWE have been about his actions and their consequences. His ruination of The Shield, paying for it and rehabbing it was good.

But Rollins' Lesnar arc has never felt like he's received proper comeuppance. He stole the title on a cash-in at WrestleMania and now swiped another in a swift opening match after a cheap shot while the referee was down.

From a booking standpoint, having Rollins drop the belt first makes too much sense. All three titles (technically four) changed hands at 'Mania, and all the fan favorites won. Awesome fan service by WWE, but it leaves things in a rather predictable state.

WWE isn't going to take the SmackDown title off Kofi Kingston right now. And even if Big E weren't hurt, any angle wherein Kingston gives his friends shots or even gets betrayed is dead in the water. Barring something dramatic happening with the impending Superstar Shake-up, there isn't an overly viable threat available to take the title off Kingston. And given his crowd reception, he shouldn't lose it for a while.

Then there is Becky Lynch. She holds both titles and will presumably need to end up dropping one. But the feud being hinted at with Lacey Evans needs some time to marinate. Evans is a legit threat, and it's nice to see WWE doing something with her besides the random walkouts, but it would benefit both if the feud lasted a long time before having a title switch happen.

Giving a title to Evans too quickly when non-NXT watchers don't know a ton about her will draw bad reactions, and not in a good way. If she's sold as a threat over an extensive feud and then wins one legitimately, it goes a long way toward building a credible contender and propping up a SmackDown scene that needs some help—especially after the botched handling of Asuka lately.

And that leaves Rollins.

His win at WrestleMania was predictable. Throwing the match up front to start the event made sense because it set the tone for the entire show, but it also got the necessary title change over quickly and moved on to less predictable outcomes.

While having the universal title back on Raw and up for grabs is nice, it would also be rather boring to just settle into a Spring of Rollins, so to speak. He needs a serious contender, and the guy to take it off him would get a big boost. Rollins is great when he has something to go after—standing atop the mountain as a good guy could end up boring quickly.

It doesn't have to be complicated, either. Maybe AJ Styles comes over from SmackDown in the Superstar Shake-up and takes a "dirty" win to steal it. Styles was told to be more aggressive and ended up punching CEO Vince McMahon in the face, remember?

Plenty of villains or potential villains like Samoa Joe, Drew McIntyre or perhaps a Sami Zayn could use the boost too. There are numerous doors WWE can run through with the main title back on the main program—settling into the bro-based Rollins-Roman Reigns territory or another rehash of Rollins and Braun Strowman or Bobby Lashley would just see viewers tune out quickly.

The nice thing about Rollins is he's done it all. He doesn't need the title. The title needed to be back on Raw on a full-time basis. With the other two titles in fresh-feeling hands that deserve lengthy runs and storylines, it would be interesting (and fitting) to see the so-called Architect drop his new belt quickly to someone who smartly bends the rules in the same way he did while downing The Beast at WrestleMania.

   

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