WWE: Pete Dunne Needs To Accept Seth Rollins’s Open Challenge

Last week on WWE Raw, Seth Rollins announced an “Open Challenge” for the Intercontinental Championship, and while his first opponent, Mojo Rawley, wasn’t exactly a dream opponent, the match itself was likely the best of Rawley’s young career. Rollins’s open challenges have a chance to surpass John Cena’s, and that’s not a claim I make lightly.

WWE Raw will take place in London, England this week, and Seth Rollins announced that he is “highly considering” making another open challenge for the Intercontinental Championship. Rollins won the title at WrestleMania 34 in a Triple Threat match against Finn Balor and The Miz, and he successfully defended it against Miz at Backlash in a match-of-the-year candidate bout that did its best to salvage the show.

Who could Rollins’s opponent be on Monday? Fans everywhere have been hoping for a Pete Dunne/Seth Rollins match for quite some time, and a fight between them for the IC Title would most certainly qualify as a “dream match”.

Dunne is thinking the same thing, because he quote tweeted Rollins’s statement about a potential “Open Challenge” in London this week.

Last year, we saw Dunne defeat Enzo Amore in London in a Champion vs. Champion match, and the United Kingdom Champ unsurprisingly defeated the Cruiserweight Champion. A match against Rollins would be a thousand times better than Dunne vs. Enzo, and it would have a chance to match Finn Balor vs. Seth Rollins from a couple of weeks ago as one of this year’s best television matches in any promotion.

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Currently feuding with the Undisputed Era after Roderick Strong costed Dunne the NXT Tag Team Titles, Dunne is one of WWE’s most talented and menacing superstars. He’s also one of the best champions in the world, as he’s held the United Kingdom Title for a nearly a year after defeating Tyler Bate for it at NXT TakeOver: Chicago on May 20, 2017.

Rollins aspires to be one of the best champions in the WWE, which is a big reason why he constantly takes shots at Brock Lesnar, who has rarely defended the Universal Championship since winning it last year at WrestleMania 33. Although Rollins vs. Lesnar is the Champion vs. Champion encounter that many are clamoring for, Dunne vs. Rollins would be a much better match, even if it doesn’t make quite the same statement.

I doubt Rollins would lose this match if it were to happen on Monday, but the match would also be a nail-biter and difficult to call when the action starts. Dunne is one of the most protected superstars in the WWE (mostly because Triple H is responsible for his booking in NXT), and he could pull off the upset in London. However, Rollins is “The Man” and easily the hottest superstar in the WWE right now, and it is difficult to bet against a strong IC Champion.

Either way, we need to see this match on Monday. It isn’t often that Dunne and Rollins would get a chance to cross paths, and booking Rollins vs. Dunne would be smart on multiple levels. Beyond the fact that the crowd would go absolutely nuts for this dream match (United Kingdom crowds are probably the best in the world, by the way), but it would effectively “save” a challenger for Rollins.

He can only face so many people on the roster so often as the IC Champion, and if his reign is as lengthy as we are to believe, it’s wise to use non-main roster opponents like Dunne whenever logical. This is especially true in Rollins’s case, because he is the type of workhorse who will likely defend the title at every opportunity possible. Given that Raw lasts three hours and pay per views are now dual-branded, Rollins will get ample opportunities to do so.

Dunne vs. Rollins seems like more than just a distinct possibility on the May 14 episode of Monday Night Raw. It honestly seems like a match worth getting your hopes up for, because it makes so much sense logically.

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I’d say our chances are high of seeing this match on Monday, though I wouldn’t exactly complain if we saw Dunne vs. any of the top Cruiserweights. 205 Live is actually on fire this year, so we’d be bound to get a show-stopper if Dunne vs. Cedric Alexander, Mustafa Ali, or Buddy Murphy were to take place. No matter what, if we see Dunne in a match (or even plural “matches”) this week, we’re bound to come away big winners as WWE fans.