Earlier this year Titus O’ Neil got suspended by WWE for grabbing Vince McMahon by the arm at the end of Daniel Bryan’s retirement speech. The moment can be seen for a brief moment during the WWE Network’s exclusive extended coverage of Daniel Bryan’s retirement and in quite a few fan videos.
The whole scenario was bewildering, especially with the original suspension(10 days into Black History Month) being 90 days long, the same as that for a second Wellness Policy violation.
WWE later gave in to an outcry on social media by reducing the suspension to 60 days. What makes this situation even stranger is that Titus O’ Neill is a valued asset for WWE. He’s one of the faces of their charity work and got great exposure last year when he got named Celebrity Dad of the Year.
Since his suspension, WWE fans have firmly gotten behind O’ Neill in protest of WWE’s heavy-handedness. With Titus O’ Neil’s suspension finally over, it’s time to look at possible angles Titus may get involved in on his return. Will WWE cash in on his current popularity?
In this article I look at 5 possible angles for Titus O’ Neill on his return:
5: Prime Time Players reunited
Given Titus’ age, WWE might not be keen to go for a major push with him, which is understandable. However, Titus cannot go back to the aimless singles run which he was on before his suspension. Squashing Tyler Breeze week after week isn’t impressive anymore.
What WWE can do however, is to reunite the popular Prime Time Players. The former tag-team champions are really good and over with fans. As individuals, neither Darren Young nor Titus O’ Neal have seen a decent singles push.
Reuniting the PTP can give them a chance to reinvigorate them for a while and they can be solid players, no pun intended, in WWE’s new look tag team division. PTP were really hot for a bit in 2015 and the feud with The New Day was really entertaining.
4: Midcard Champion
When Titus returns to WWE television, his popularity amongst fans will be at the highest it’s ever been so far in his career. WWE can capitalize on this by giving Titus a higher position on the card a run with the US Championship which has been floundering recently under the weight of Kalisto’s lackluster run.
Titus would in no way go on a long run with the belt in this angle, but he is a powerhouse and a pretty good grappler and he can have interesting feuds with a number of talented newcomers like Sami Zayn and Baron Corbin. The ultimate goal of this angle would be to raise Titus higher on the card and elevate the younger talent who feud with him.
3: Heel turn
Hear me out with this one.
Titus is almost 40. How much good can a long push for him do when the likes of Sami Zayn, Baron Corbin, Apollo Crews and various NXT talents are waiting in the wings? A heel turn however could give Titus a storyline where he puts over younger talent.
Titus can come out to the ring when he makes his return and berate the fans for not doing more to help him overturn his suspension. He can tell them that he wrestled for their entertainment every night, and the only time they cared was when he got suspended.
In other words, they only cared about him because they wanted to protest against Vince. While Titus berates the crowd, a fan favourite like Apollo Crews can come out and defend the fans, thus starting off what should be a pretty interesting programme.
However, since Titus is one of the faces of WWE’s charity work, the heel turn can’t last very long. At the end of his feud with the babyface, Titus has to acknowledge that he was wrong and thank fans for sticking by him.
2: Align with Shane McMahon
Titus O’ Neill got, in no uncertain terms, screwed by Vince McMahon. He did everything to promote WWE’s cause outside of the ring by when the time came, Vince threw him under the bus.
What would be better in the reality era than Titus coming back and aligning with Shane McMahon in his quest to take control of WWE. He could also possibly be joined by other disgruntled wrestlers like Cesaro and Dolph Ziggler.
Vince could get his cronies like the League of Nations to take out Shane before Titus and co. appear to save the day. It could lead to an interesting feud which could culminate at a major PPV with both Shane and Vince at ringside.
1: Help end The Authority
Imagine this scenario. It’s Survivor Series 2016, and the teams for the 5-on-5 match are set. It’s Triple H and his League of Nations lackeys versus a team of disgruntled superstars who want to end The Authority led by Roman Reigns.
While Titus cannot lead the team himself, he definitely deserves to be a part of it. The Authority did nothing when Vince suspended Titus so there would definitely be kayfabe reasons for him to be against them.
Being a part of the team to end the hated Authority storyline will elevate Titus. Whether he should be given an all-out push following this is doubtful regarding his age but Titus can be a solid upper midcard wrestler for WWE. Titus has the charisma, the physique and the in-ring ability to deserve a solid singles run in the future.
With art, it’s always best when it imitates life so now should be the time for WWE to capitalize of Titus O’ Neill’s burgeoning popularity and also at the same time save face for how terribly they handled the Titus situation.
