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Kangaroo Court: Who will become the 2nd WWE Universal Champion?

Published

7 years ago

August 28, 2016

Welcome to the Fight Booth PW Kangaroo Court, where this week, we will make a case for and against each of the four men who we will see vying for the title of WWE Universal Champion tomorrow night in Houston, Texas. This also gives me a chance to be completely bi-polar. So, without further ado, let’s begin with “The Man” himself – Seth Rollins.

Major Accomplishments:
2-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion
WWE Tag Team Champion (w/ Roman Reigns)
WWE United States Champion
NXT Champion
ROH World Champion

A Case For:

Seth Rollins and Finn Balor put on one hell of a show in Brooklyn in a match that would crown Balor as the inaugural WWE Universal Champion. Unfortunately, Balor would be forced to relinquish the title on the following night due to an injury suffered upon taking running powerbomb into the barricade from Rollins. This means Balor will be out for 4-6 months, giving Rollins the opportunity to become the 2nd champion tomorrow and bash Balor on the mic for being too “frail” and “weak” to be a WWE Champion for more than a night, giving Balor the opportunity to come back and unleash “The Demon King” on Rollins when he’s healthy and we are back where we began.

A Case Against:

Out with the old, in with the new. Rollins already had his run at the top – it’s time for some new blood. “Death to The Shield, long live the new flesh.” (shout out to David Cronenberg).

Giving Rollins the title just over one week removed from his loss to Balor makes him a second-rate champion of the highest order. He’ll always be second place with the strap until Balor comes back and right now, RAW needs a strong world beater type to close out each show. If we get another version of Rollins as a weasel champion right now it may force a lot of viewers to tune out. We’ve already seen this movie – let him get the title back when he becomes a face again. Until then, give somebody else a chance at the top spot.

Major Accomplishments:
• 3-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion
• WWE Tag Team Champion (w/ Seth Rollins)
• 2015 Royal Rumble Winner
• 2-time WrestleMania headliner

A Case For:

Immediately after dropping the World Heavyweight title to Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank, Reigns served a 30-day suspension for his first violation of the WWE wellness policy. He’d come back to headline in a triple threat match at Battleground against his former Shield brothers, Rollins and Dean Ambrose, and he’d take the pin as expected. He’d go on to put Finn Balor over the following night on RAW before beginning a feud with Rusev that we thought would be on the RAW mid card. Instead, Reigns has remained very much at the top of the card, headlining multiple shows and even going on immediately before the main event at SummerSlam (even though the match with Rusev never officially started it was interesting to see the two men booked after something as important as the inaugural Universal Championship match). These are all things you guys know though – so let’s just get right down to it and make a case for Reigns to add another major accomplishment to his already impressive list.

Reigns is a guy who is as polarizing as they come in the world of Sports Entertainment. You could say he’s taken the mantle from John Cena, but not even Cena had to deal with these kinds of reactions this early in his career. You could blame it on the “Reality Era,” but in the case of Reigns it’s more like the “Social Media Era”. The fans rule the show on social media and in the arenas when it comes to their disapproval of Roman Reigns and they want everyone to know about it. These are the kinds of reactions that Vince thrives on. There’s a reason Reigns has yet to make that full turn everyone is clamoring for – the right time just hasn’t presented itself. There’s no better time than now for Reigns to become the top villain on Monday night’s and unleash every inch of hell he’s been holding in on every major city in America and beyond for the next couple of years. Making him a 4-time champion in such a short period of time will make the fans hate him even more. And that could just be what’s best for business at this juncture.

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A Case Against:

Anybody but you, Roman. Reigns doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near a major title for a little while. He should take the pin tomorrow night and he should continue to take losses inside of the ring for at least the rest of this year. Reigns needs to be knocked down as far as possible in order to make his rise back to the top all the more special. We should go as far as to have Reigns lose to Heath Slater on WWE Main Event before letting him get back into the title picture. Make him go away and have him come back with a new theme and a new look. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and a little makeover wouldn’t hurt so much either.

Major Accomplishments:
2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion
NXT Champion
ROH World Champion

A Case For: I’ll never forget what an old friend told me when we first started talking about Kevin Owens. Keep in mind, this was just before Owens came up to NXT.

“Man, that Kevin Steen, mannnnnn, that Kevin Steen is a mu**a fu**a!”

That delivery had me cracking up, but the statement itself had me nodding my head in agreement. That’s the Kevin Steen (we’ll go back to calling him Owens from here on out for the sake of staying in the present) we saw in ROH and that’s the Kevin Owens we saw during his run with NXT. He betrayed his best friend in cold blood to become the NXT Champion. He came up to WWE to beat up John Cena and then after that he had a couple of nice little runs with the IC title. Since then, the “Mu**a Fu**a” or for lack of a better term, the “Prizefighter” character has gone away. Instead, we’ve gotten a fun villain who can crack us up and wrestle his ass off to boot night in and night out. Right now, he finds himself in a cute little love affair with Chris Jericho. And while that’s all well and good – what happened to that mean mu**a fu**a, that world beater that would destroy anything in his path to get more money for his family? It’s time to bring him back. Putting the WWE Universal Title on him and having him double cross Jericho to set up a nice little feud over the next couple of months would do the trick.

A Case Against: I can argue for and against just about anything in this world but this one is going to be tough. Now just seems like the right time to put a world title on Kevin Owens – doesn’t it? The only argument I can come up with against it is to have him continue on tagging with Jericho in a program with The New Day. Owens and Jericho are beyond magical together as friends and/or enemies.

Major Accomplishments:
None, yet

A Case For:

Word around the campfire is that Vince is very high on Big Cass right now and has been for a while. The 7-footer out of Queens proved to us that he could fly solo after Enzo Amore suffered a concussion at Payback that put him on the shelf for a handful of weeks. Cass proved that he can hang with some of the best inside of the ring and with a mouthpiece like Enzo, it means Cass can just concentrate on beating people to a pulp for now. Also, has the big man ever been pinned in WWE? I can’t think of anyone else on the current roster who can say that other than Braun Strowman. And with Enzo by his side – this dude is teflon.

A Case Against:

Too soon. As much as they love him now, the fans will turn against Cass after a couple of weeks with the title around his waist. Nobody is teflon in this game. The days of the “big men” carrying the mantle are over in WWE. Cass needs to prove that he can wrestle with the top guys for more than just a couple of minutes before he becomes a made man. He can only be protected for so long.

This court is now adjourned. Submit your verdict below.