Seth Rollins Will Appear On ‘Raw’ Tonight, But He’s Still Not Cleared To Wrestle
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins suffered a rib injury during his Universal Championship main event with Kevin Owens at last Sunday’s Clash of Champions show, and according to Cageside Seats, while he will be on tonight’s episode of Monday Night Raw, Rollins still isn’t cleared to wrestle as he’s still recovering from the rib injury.
“Seth Rollins will appear on Monday Night Raw tonight but likely won’t get physical again this week while recovering from a rib injury.”
Today's rumors https://t.co/aElgtmMy18
— Cageside Seats (@cagesideseats) October 3, 2016
Luckily for both WWE and Rollins, an MRI shown on WWE’s official YouTube page showed that the former WWE champ’s rib injury wasn’t as serious as it looked, so he should be good to go within the next couple of weeks.
Rollins’ next WWE pay-per-view match won’t be until October 30 at the Hell in a Cell show, where he’s rumored to be taking on both Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match for the Universal Championship, and since the title match will be the show’s main event, it’ll probably take place inside the Cell.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the original plan for Hell in a Cell was a triple threat match, but Finn Balor was going to be the third man in the match instead of Jericho. Of course, Balor suffered a pretty severe shoulder injury the night he won the Universal Championship, and he probably won’t be back in the ring until next spring, at the earliest.
If the rumor is true, then WWE is sticking to the idea of a triple threat, which could lead to Owens and Jericho splitting up and feuding over the title until the end of the year. Speaking of rumors, there is also a rumor going around that Jericho will be leaving WWE after the October 30 pay-per-view, so an Owens and Jericho split may not lead to anything in the near future. In fact, a match between the two may be saved for WrestleMania 33 next spring.
Many are expecting that Kevin Owens will hold onto the Universal Championship for quite a while, possibly through WrestleMania 33. If that’s the case, then WWE will have to find something else for Seth Rollins to do until Triple H — who will probably be Rollins’ opponent at WrestleMania 33— returns to television, which may not be until the end of January. Sure, they could have Rollins continue to challenge Owens for the title, but that would probably get old really fast.
The build towards the rumored triple threat match will likely begin after this Sunday’s No Mercy pay-per-view, which is, of course, a SmackDown show. Why would WWE wait until after the SmackDown pay-per-view to announce the main event for the next Raw pay-per-view? Probably to avoid confusion, as they probably don’t want fans to think that the Owens vs. Rollins vs. Jericho match is taking place this Sunday night, instead of on October 30.
#TheMan @WWERollins is LIVE at @USBankArena in Cincinnati for Monday Night #RAW! pic.twitter.com/AudF3kpjIh
— WWE (@WWE) September 27, 2016
Last week, the story was that Rollins wanted to get in the ring and get physical, but WWE wouldn’t allow him to. So, they’re clearly using his rib injury to get him over as a baby face. Expect them to do more of the same on tonight’s show.
WWE is still in the process of making Rollins a full-fledged good guy. Originally, they were going to do a Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns double-turn, where Rollins would end up as Raw’s top hero, while Reigns would be made into the show’s top villain. But, WWE ended up scrapping the idea of a Reigns heel turn, and they decided to have only Rollins turn. So far, the Rollins turn hasn’t been a huge success. But, that’ll probably change in time if WWE books him the right way.
[Featured Image by WWE]
