So one of the new changes since the McMahon family returned to actively “running” RAW and Smackdown is abolishing the so-called ‘automatic rematch’ clause for championship titles. This was evident after Seth Rollins lost the Intercontinental Title to Dean Ambrose and Triple H pretty much said “nobody is going to be automatically handed anything anymore.”
In the past, the automatic rematch clause made some sense; the immediate past champion could have lost on some fluke or mistake by a referee, thus giving justification for a rematch. The current ridiculous situation with The Revival’s faulty finishes in their matches with Bobby Roode/Chad Gable for the RAW tag team titles come to mind.
That being said, the reason why an end to this automatic rematch clause is merited is that, from a booking standpoint, titles can get wrapped up endlessly in feuds between two specific wrestlers for a long period of time. Take the IC title: can you imagine if the belt had continued going back and forth between Ambrose and Rollins? The two don’t really need the strap to enhance their feud. Putting it on Bobby Lashley might actually revitalize the title and give more opportunities for other RAW stars who haven’t had a match in ages.
I can remember the endless back and forth between Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks over the RAW women’s championship in 2016. Not doubting the classics the two women put on during that time, but it seemed in the span of those several months other women were put aside in favour of highlighting just those two female competitors at the expense of everyone else.
So let’s hope this trend of not giving an automatic rematch helps enhance the talent that WWE has on their roster. At least with the fears that a number of them are looking towards the fledging AEW, at least there’s that incentive to start using some talent that have been off TV for some time.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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