It is a very big deal that Stone Cold Steve Austin, one of the greatest of all time, publicly gave Seth Rollins his approval as Universal Champion while Monday Night Raw was on the air. Seth’s confidence has clearly risen because of this as evidenced by the promo he cut right before his match with AJ Styles. His confidence level and energy level are simply different in a very positive way. Now his mentality is truly that “I definitely deserve to be champion and I’m going to set the tone for the rest of the company.”
It’s fantastic to see Sasha Banks returning for the first time since ‘Mania. She was sorely missed because she is one of the best female performers in the company. The heel turn was expected and is welcomed because she is a better heel than babyface as evidenced by her NXT days. She will make for a great challenger for Becky Lynch and I guarantee there will be more eyeballs on the women’s division because of her return. The new hair color is also a refreshing change.
I’m unsure whether to be excited about the King of the Ring tournament to begin considering that it hasn’t been all that exciting the last few times WWE has done it (remember King Barrett). A perfect winner of this tournament would be Buddy Murphy, because he doesn’t have any other major championships or accomplishments on the main roster. This could serve in storyline as the accomplishment that gets the attention of WWE management. That is only assuming WWE doesn’t choose to go with the obvious choice, Drew McIntyre.
You’ve got to wonder if Rey Mysterio’s cryptic and emotional promo and his reference to his family is foreshadowing at the in-ring debut of his son Dominic, who is signed to WWE. He and Andrade can churn out great matches like it’s nothing. Also, Keep an eye on Drew McIntyre. A big push for him could be in the works to start very soon. He was protected at SummerSlam and not made to look weak by serving as backup for Shane McMahon.
Side Note:Maybe, since Elias has grounds to argue for a rematch against Ricochet (who has major support from the company), perhaps this could start a slightly more serious push of Elias. It’s also worth noting that Samoa Joe seems to be in the process of a gradual face turn after showing concern last week for Roman Reigns. He still seems to be untrusting of the WWE universe, however.