Ever since the Shield broke up, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns have yet to have a big one on one match against one another on PPV. Rollins and Reigns have faced each other in fatal four way matches and were supposed to have one at last year’s Night of Champions until Reigns got injured. However, they’ve never faced each other one on one in a big match situation. The time has come for these two to battle and do it for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. With Roman Reigns becoming the new number one contender on RAW, The question I’d like to ask is… is it the right time for this match to take place?
It’s actually hard to believe that WWE have been this patient with Roman Reigns following Wrestlemania 31. Even though he was a part of the fatal four way title match at Payback, he’s not been in a singles title feud since he failed to win the title against Lesnar. I expected him to be back in the title picture by at least Summerslam.
A part of me is pretty grateful that they didn’t do that as Roman Reigns wouldn’t have been nowhere over enough to validate a main-event feud. That’s not to take anything away from his feud with Bray Wyatt. In the end, that feud will have probably helped both men as main-eventers in the long run. However, it really took a lot of time for this feud to get going. Around Summerslam time, Bray and Roman were hugely over-shadowed by a lot other members on the roster. Roman wouldn’t have been ready for that title shot.
It wasn’t until September time where things really started to pick up for Roman in terms of getting over. This is mostly down to Roman being able to do what Roman did best. He was a wrecking machine that only needed to beat people up to get over. His brawl with Bray Wyatt at the end of the September probably got the pop of the month in WWE programming. It got people interested as the intensity of this feud really started to blossom.
The feud ended as it should have, with Roman getting the victory over Bray. On RAW, Roman’s new-found momentum was put to good use. He beat Kofi Kingston and then won a highly-entertaining main event fatal four way to become the number one contender for Seth Rollins’ WWE World title.
I’ve been talking about Roman for the majority of the article, but now let’s discuss Seth. While Roman’s overness has been rising, Seth’s overness has been diminishing. Having been beaten over and over again on WWE television by a number of wrestlers on the roster and feuding with veterans Kane and Sting, his reign has started to take a tumble. He’s tried all he can in those feud but he’s been booked in a very hard situation. It’s very easy for Seth to put on incredible matches every week but that will only get him so far. If he loses all of his matches except for his title defences, it makes him look weak. Actually, it makes Seth look lazy for not caring enough to win his non-title matches.
However, it appears that WWE have started to rectify this in the last couple of weeks. He’s picked up a number of clean victories against the likes of Ryback and Cesaro on television and beat Kane clean at Hell in a Cell. Now suddenly, Seth is actually showing his strength as champion. The timing for that type of booking for Seth is actually good as Roman’s title match is finally at hand.
Going back to the original question then, is the timing right for this match to take place? It’s a very opportunistic time for this match to take place. With these new found surges in overness for both men, this will probably be the strongest both men have looked in the course of the year. However, the weeks now leading up into Survivor Series is crucial. If Seth and Roman aren’t booked appropriately, then the potential for this match would be hugely stomped on.
The finish to Survivor Series is also crucial when deciding if the time is right. If Roman wins the title, then I’d say this is a great time for Roman to develop a title reign before Wrestlemania (assuming that he’d still be champion at Mania). Seth would also be the right champion for Roman to beat for his first title reign. It’s also a great catalyst for a Seth Rollins face turn, if WWE decided to go down that route.
I just have the distinct feeling that this match will play a big part in the seeds being planted for Wrestlemania. To be honest, I thought that Roman’s title match should have been put off until the grandest stage of them all itself. It would have actually been fitting from a “backstage” perspective in terms of the match. Roman wasn’t ready to win the title at Wrestlemania 31 but a year later, he would have been ready. However, there’s a huge risk in that long-term planning also. There’s a 101 ways for WWE to mess up Roman before that event and it would be very difficult for WWE to maintain Roman’s momentum for a few more months.
Therefore, it might be smarter for WWE to take advantage of this new-found momentum sooner now he’s getting greater reactions. If Roman does win at Survivor Series, the fan backlash wouldn’t be as great as it was at the 2015 Royal Rumble. The reason for this is that the booking of Roman has been significantly greater. If you want proof of that, check out the reactions Roman’s been getting in the last month.
It’s working for Roman. WWE’s finding the right formula for him. I usually hate spur-of-the-moment booking but when you’ve suddenly gotten over the star that you’ve been desperate to get over, it may be best to pull the trigger. I think Survivor Series does actually work well with the recent booking for both men and if WWE left it too late, it could have easily backfired. We’ll have to wait and see in the next few weeks if WWE can continue to momentum on the road to Survivor Series.
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