Report: Seth Rollins was supposed to lose the IC Title to Elias
Elias has been one of WWE’s breakout stars in 2018, and he was reportedly scheduled to win the IC Title from Seth Rollins before the creative team’s initial plans were blown into the wind.
Over the course of 2018, Seth Rollins has helped continue The Miz’s legacy in building the Intercontinental Championship, and while Rollins has cooled off somewhat, he remains one of WWE‘s most popular superstars due to his incredible performances night-in and night-out.
While Rollins has been Raw’s MVP in 2018, Elias has arguably been the show’s breakout star, especially when it comes to the mid-carders in the Men’s Division. Elias has taken the WWE by a storm with his music, quick wit, and fast-improving in-ring skills, which included an excellent Pay Per View match with Rollins himself.
Per a report from WrestleVotes, Elias’s rise in WWE was going to get him rewarded with the Intercontinental Championship, which would have been his first title in WWE, but creative’s plans were thrown for a loop due to Roman Reigns’s heart-breaking cancer diagnosis.
Interesting tidbit for those who like this type of thing: prior to all of RAWs creative plans going up in flames last month, the original Ambrose heel turn angle was to see him cost Rollins the IC title. Who was scheduled to win the strap you ask? Elias.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) November 29, 2018
According to the report from WrestleVotes above, Dean Ambrose was supposed to cost Rollins the Intercontinental Championship in a match against Elias, presumably on an episode of Raw. Ambrose, of course, turned on Rollins the night Reigns’s cancer was announced to the world, and he has used Reigns’s cancer to obtain heat in this rivalry with Rollins.
At TLC, Rollins and Ambrose, who had an apparently amazing (and untelevised) match at Starrcade, will battle it out for the Intercontinental Championship. Rollins recently defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in an exhilarating champion vs. champion match at Survivor Series, and he also beat Dolph Ziggler this week on Raw in another IC Title match between those two.
Though Rollins vs. Ambrose has been slow to get off the ground due to poor writing, it should accelerate and become Raw’s top feud (by far) once they get in the ring at TLC. The best is yet to come for these two, with Rollins looking like a possible candidate to defeat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title.
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Elias is working with Finn Balor and Braun Strowman against the heel trio of Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, and Baron Corbin. While Elias, who continues to have back-and-forths with Lashley and manager Lio Rush, isn’t in a prime position right now, the report that he was initially set to win the IC Title is another example of how high WWE is on the magnetic Pittsburgh native.