Not many superstars win their first world titles at Wrestlemania. Not many superstars have successfully defended his championship against the likes of John Cena, Brock Lesnar and Randy Orton. Not many superstars have the accomplishments that Seth Rollins has. His title reign has seen him do battles with conqueruors, vipers and lunatics and continue to match on with the WWE World title still in his grasp.
At Summerslam, he became only the second man in history to hold a world and secondary at the same time in WWE. Considering the first man to accomplish that feat was the Ultimate Warrior, those are some very big shoes to fill in for the Architect. However, if his title reign so far is anything to go by, he’s well on his way to greatness. However, how much longer does Seth Rollins need to hold the WWE World title itself to truly be considered “the man”? Should Seth Rollins be WWE World Heavyweight Champion… until Wrestlemania 32?
CM Punk and John Cena were the last two men to hold a world championship in WWE for at least 365 days. Considering the intense schedule for WWE superstars and writers, the fortitude of a champion to be able to hold onto the top title for a year is pretty remarkable. So the pressure would be on for Seth to deliver and wave the flag as champion for the WWE. It’s not like he’s only got to defend the title every two months.
However, there’s little reason to believe that Seth couldn’t handle the pressures. After all, he’s wrestling two big matches against Sting and John Cena on the same night at Night of Champions. He’s worked with hard-hitting individuals every week for years. Unless a freak injury strikes down the architect, there’s no reason to believe that Seth couldn’t pull this off. However, just because he can do it doesn’t necessarily mean he should.
One of the main reasons for Seth to hold onto the championship as long as he can is down to his ability to use this success to get himself heat. Jim Ross explained this during his appearance on the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling Podcast a few months ago.
Jim Ross said: “I would not take the championship of Seth Rollins until WrestleMania. At WrestleMania if I have something that I believes work, then that is where he would drop the title. By then he would have had a full year and if he is not over and he is not a “made man” after being champion, then you can’t blame the promotion. He’s like any of the villains on TV whether it is WWE, Ring of Honor, TNA or Lucha Underground. There is not enough of guys that cheat to gain an unfair advantage. Villains must stop working for the “pop” or the “this is awesome”. If I were a villain, in a true sense of the word, that would piss me off to no end. My work should be menacing, dangerous and dirty.”
Seth’s got an explosive and exciting moveset, which is obviously going to excite the crowd regardless of his alignment. Asking him to tone down all of these high flying moves would be a mistake. He’s an incredible in-ring worker and he needs to demonstrate that. However, Seth’s constant rule-breaking will be his saving grace in terms of getting that negative reaction. People have told me that Seth needs to be winning matches clean a lot more often in order to stay strong. That’s fine but if he was booked to beat everyone fair and square, why on earth should the fans possibly boo him?
He can act all cocky if he wanted to but in the majority of his matches, Seth is the smaller man. In a realistic environment, Seth wouldn’t be expected to beat up someone like Brock Lesnar or Roman Reigns in a street fight. If he was to really beat everyone, he’d be more like a fighting underdog. That wouldn’t get him the reactions he needs to get. He’d need some back-up. He’d need to outsmart his opponent. He’d need to cheat. Seth relying on other and breaking the rules to keep his title is exactly the type of thing Seth needs.
The longer Seth holds onto the title due to shenanigans, the more the fans will get sick of seeing him as champion. With this in mind then, should Seth really hold onto the title until next year? He’s already beaten the likes of Cena and Lesnar. If he beats Sting, that will be a legend to add to the impressive list of contenders Seth has beaten. What else could Seth do? Well I think that’s pretty obvious.
With the way Seth has been booked, he’s become the top heel in the entire company. With Undertaker and Brock Lesnar being on the fence when it comes to their alignments, Seth’s truly entered a league of his own in terms of popularity for a bad guy. With guys like Kevin Owens and Sheamus stuck in mid-card feuds, nobody can come close to Rollins. Seth’s status means he can help elevate fresh main event challengers who’ll seek to dethrone Rollins.
Why not have somebody like Cesaro challenge Seth Rollins in a series of epic PPV encounters? Why can’t the “Eater of Worlds” Bray Wyatt step up to the plate? Since WWE don’t seem to mind having bad guys fight bad guys, why can’t Bray fight Rollins? There’s plenty of challengers waiting for Rollins that need that added push to the top. Seth’s already fought the “top guys” of the WWE so why not elevate all of these other challengers? Use Seth’s newly-found stardom to elevate others.
I believe Seth Rollins is destined to main event Wrestlemania 32. The longer he can stay champion, the longer his title reign will benefit everyone. He can elevate new challengers as they step up to challenge him. He can elevate himself, making himself a permanent main-eventer for years to come. He can also elevate the prestige of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship with top performances on the biggest of stages. Seth losing the title in the main event of Wrestlemania, one year after winning it, would be the appropriate ending to Seth’s reign of terror.
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