The Wrestling Matt

When Roman Reigns unified the WWE Championship and Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38, Raw had no champion. It was clear WWE had no intentions of ending Roman’s legendary run anytime soon. For me, it made Raw a skippable show.

Thankfully, WWE realized this and decided to bring back the Heavyweight Championship. Let’s quickly talk about how beautiful this title is compared to Romans’s new belt, which looks like mustard. I honestly miss the blue Universal Title at this point.

To crown a champion, a tournament was held, and Seth Rollins came out on top. Fans became skeptical quickly; everyone loves Seth, but his last title run was highly controversial. He went from one of the best Heels in the business to a generic babyface who acted like an idiot.

I enjoyed that entire run because I see Seth Rollins as a generational talent, and he has had such a fantastic character arc. He went from someone who would cheat however he could to someone fighting to prove himself. I love redemption arcs in all forms of storytelling.

The damage from that run was so devastating that Rollins had to redesign his character to the visionary persona we see today. He slowly earned the fans’ trust, and when the time came to crown a new champion, he was the man. Get it because he is married to Becky Lynch, also known as “The Man.” I know you are here for the comedy.

The next question became, what story will they tell with this title run? They need to do something interesting to make it different from what Roman does.

Seth’s first few major defenses were against Finn Balor, a member of the judgment day. This meant Rollins had to deal with outside interference during his matches. Like his last title run, Rollins is a babyface, but with a heels intelligence. Instead of fighting four-on-one, he got out of dodge.

This seems like a definitive version of Seth, incorporating multiple personalities from his career.

The title reign started like any other, but it got interesting when Rollins started feuding with Nakamura. It was based around Rollins having an injured back, a surgery he has been putting off, again blurring the story with reality.

We see this a lot, an injury mentioned in a feud. However, the injury is usually dropped from the storyline after a feud ends. To my surprise, the back injury kept getting mentioned. Now they had me hooked.

Next up was a match with Drew McIntyre at Crown Jewel. Seth came out on top, but throughout the match, Drew had moments of sympathy for Seth’s injury. This allowed Seth to capitalize and get the win. It is a creative way of protecting both wrestlers and progressing the story.

The next night, Rollins offers a match to Sami Zayn for the Heavyweight Championship on Raw. Sami Zayn accepts but reluctantly, saying, “I want to beat a champion that is not compromised.” I got chills when Sami said that. Seth Rollins’s reaction was even better. He smiled and said we are always hurt, somewhat disregarding the comment.

Seth won that night, but the cracks on his title reign are starting to show. He can’t keep up. Not only that, but Seth is also in denial about it.

I hope this story continues for a long time, with Seth refusing medical help and pushing himself to that next title defense. Imagine if it gets to the point where fans want him to lose the belt for his benefit.

Rollins is so good at showing this in his matches. He understands how to sell, even after a match. Surprisingly, a lot of people don’t do that. If I was beaten with a chair for 20 minutes straight, I’m sure I would not be jumping around celebrating, either.

It’s time to wear my tinfoil hat and theorize how this will play out!

It is almost obvious Gunther is taking that title off  of Seth at WrestleMania 40. I might be biased because I’m going, and I want to see that match. We still have a lot of time until we get to that.

I hope they continue building on Seth’s real-life frustrations about all of the attention on Roman. Roman is healthy and has a team to protect his current 1,160+ day reign as champ. Meanwhile, Seth fights alone and a lot more frequently, still as a babyface but one cutting corners to stay on top. This makes Rollins the perfect foil to Roman. After all, it’s implied that Roman fears Rollins.

Regardless of what they do, I’ll be happy if I see Rollins delivering his Curb Stomps weekly. It just looks so beautiful.