When Seth Rollins lost his Intercontinental Championship on RAW, fans hoped his loss meant he was free to chase the Universal Championship. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.
WretlingNews.co reports that current plans have Rollins meeting Dolph Ziggler at the July 15 Extreme Rules pay-per-view. That means that their Intercontinental rematch set for RAW next week will likely end in controversy, forced WWE to book a decisive match for the Pittsburgh show.
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This would come as a bit of a surprise as Rollins has enjoyed a lucrative post-WrestleMania run. Given the multi-man number one contender’s match booked for Extreme Rules, one would think Rollins would have a spot in the match. But if this report proves to be true, it would mean WWE isn’t quite ready to have Rollins pursue the big red belt.
Even more, Rollins being paired with Ziggler mean that Roman Reigns would be the runaway favorite in said number one contender’s match. A rumor surfaced on Thursday indicating WWE still planned to have Reigns and Lesnar meet at SummerSlam and this report of Rollins being out of the picture seems to make the former more likely.
Ziggler’s capturing of the IC title came as quite the shocker Monday. While The Show Off’s resume justifies nearly any opportunity, his pairing with Drew McIntyre appeared to lower his ceiling as a solo star. Instead, Ziggler and McIntyre feel an awful lot like Shawn Michaels and Diesel, but we’re not sure who that makes Rollins.
Regardless, it looks like we’ll be getting a heavy dose of Rollins vs. Ziggler for the next month. And to be frank, it’s a good thing. At this point, Rollins is so hot that his presence makes any program worthwhile. Of course, we’d all like to see him step to The Beast, but clearly, WWE has preserved that opportunity for Reigns and/or Braun Strowman.
Ziggler will have an opportunity to remind fans why he is a 2-time World Heavyweight Champion. The 37-year old was a ghost during his time on SmackDown, but since jumping back to Monday Nights he’s enjoyed a return to relevance.
Ziggler vs. Rollins will be plenty for most fans but the inclusion of Drew McIntyre makes this feud all the more compelling. Rumors have McIntyre making his own appearance in WWE’s main event, but according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE is making a concerted effort to let that happen naturally.
“I think that their mentality on him right now is they see a lot of potential there, but they are trying to slowly make him into a star as opposed to rushing him into stardom,” he said.
“I think he could handle that. He’s a really good wrestler. For him, I think that they want to have him in a position where he’s squashing a lot of people before he gets the big feud and works with whoever,” said Meltzer.
