Seth Rollins going down with an injury, even if it’s for two months, will further cause an imbalance on WWE Raw.
When Finn Balor went down with a shoulder injury after SummerSlam, WWE panicked and flipped Seth Rollins to a babyface within two weeks. There had been no build toward this, other than Triple H Pedigreeing him in the controversial Universal Championship match. It pushed Rollins into a spot that his character wasn’t ready for and that the fans weren’t ready to accept — being a babyface.
Over the next five months, the Architect would scratch and claw his way through Raw by having disappointing feuds with Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. He would be paired up in matches with either of these two throughout the fall and into the winter, while Roman Reigns wouldn’t be too far off with how many times he faced Owens and Jericho too. Reigns and Rollins lingered around these two because there was simply no other babyface qualified to take on the top heels of the Flagship Show.
To show how thin the Raw babyface singles group is, the only others are Mark Henry, Big Show, and Sami Zayn. That’s not good.
Then there’s what happened on the latest episode of Raw. Rollins went down with a knee injury that may or may not keep him out of WrestleMania 33. It’s a devastating loss for the match card, and especially for Rollins, as he looked to overcome the first knee ailment that caused him to miss WrestleMania 32. This leaves yet another spot up in the air for the Show of Shows, but more importantly, it’s going to hurt Raw for the next two-plus months.
Without Rollins, the top babyface is Reigns, who pretty much has held this spot for the past two months after overcoming the wellness policy suspension from 2016. The only issue is with the crowd reaction Big Dog receives, he’s treated like anything but a good guy. He’s not a bad guy either — he’s the guy everyone scolds. But given Rollins’ injury, you can bet we’re going to see more of Reigns.
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After that, it’s Zayn, who isn’t going to receive a marquee WrestleMania match and is probably destined for the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. So count him out for taking on a major role.
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This leaves WWE with two options — rely on Brock Lesnar and Goldberg, or hot-shot someone into a face role. There’s a good chance they do both, but will either of them help Raw?
Lesnar is actually going to be around often for the next two months. As of now, he’s set to appear on three episodes of Raw in February and March. While the Beast Incarnate’s presence may help mask not having Rollins, it’s not like we’re going to see him in the ring anytime soon on Monday nights. The last time he even came close to wrestling on Raw came during the post-WrestleMania 31 episode, which happened to be against the two-time WWE Champion himself, until he ran away from the ring.
The glimmer of hope for Lesnar stepping into the ring on Raw should be represented by all the appearances he’s set to make. In those six times he shows up, with Rollins likely out for each one of them, how can WWE not at least attempt to have Lesnar work a match? Whatever he does isn’t going to be an instant classics, especially given how WWE has to work him back up to face Goldberg at WrestleMania 33. Let him have a match with Zayn, whose character has a knack for taking a challenge head-on. The result will be obvious, but there’s potential here by getting Lesnar into the ring and having fans glued to their screens to see his first TV match in years.
Bam Smack Pow
On the other hand, there’s Goldberg. He’s probably not wrestling, unless it’s a pay-per-view and a particular one that’s coming up. WWE has him advertised for February 6, February 27, Fastlane on March 5, and then four episodes to play around with. If there’s a title reign in his future, there’s actually a chance he could wrestle on TV next month, but that still doesn’t solve Raw’s problems. He’s not going to be around enough to fill a void and leave Raw a bit dry.
The second option is for WWE to flip someone to a face, a la Seth Rollins after Finn Balor’s injury. It’s not going to be clean and probably won’t resonate with the fans much, but it’s something that could happen sooner than later. Chris Jericho is the ideal candidate for this and has had tension with Kevin Owens.
Given where we’re at with this developing feud, diving straight into the inevitable Y2J face turn within the next two weeks would feel rushed. Fans are probably going to cheer for him either way, but what has he done over the past month that should make the viewer want to root for his character? It’s a similar predicament to Rollins, which isn’t a positive. However, he’s the most likely of any of Raw’s notable babyfaces to potentially go through with this.
A dark horse, desperation move would be Braun Strowman. He received cheers for challenging Owens last Monday because he had a legitimate gripe for wanting a title shot, which the champion wouldn’t grant. It would be hard to believe that WWE would turn the Mountain of a Man to a face after all the work put into him as a heel, as they may have to go through just as much to establish him in the opposite role.
Take Samoa Joe out of this as well. He’s not turning after injuring one of Raw’s biggest stars one week prior.
The forgotten name in this is Finn Balor. He had planned WrestleMania 33 as his target return, but if this is going to be the match card, then it doesn’t sound like WWE expects him to be back in time. If Balor had come back before Rollins went down, maybe we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He and appearances from Lesnar and Goldberg could have made up the absence, along with the occasional Undertaker sighting.
Beyond all this is an underlying issue which Erik Beaston of Bleacher Report recently covered — can Rollins be the future of the WWE? It’s a fair question to ask, because with two knee injuries within 15 months, can he be relied on as a top member of the roster? If WWE deems he can’t with this latest injury, then that’s only going to make Raw’s problems worse after WrestleMania 33.
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There’s going to be no perfect replacement for Seth Rollins on Raw. If anything, the none of the options are ideal and they won’t seem natural. The only issue is there’s no way of avoiding this with the biggest time of WWE’s year approaching.