For all intents and purposes, there has only been one WWE Universal champion. Finn Balor will be in the record books as the inaugural champion, but because of his injury, Kevin Owens is the one who has carried the title during its first few months as Raw’s top belt.
And in his time at the top of the mountain, Owens has been extremely entertaining. But as far as how strong he’s looked since winning the title in August, WWE has left a lot to be desired.
Owens has been booked the same as most heel WWE champions in recent history: like a coward. And for a guy like Owens who went on a path of destruction while he was NXT champion, this is a bit of an awkward contrast.
It doesn’t necessarily mean his reign has been bad, it’s just not what one would expect an Owens’ world title reign to be.
With that said, it isn’t time for his reign to end just yet. As exciting and fresh as it is to have Goldberg back, he should not take the title from someone who has carried the Raw brand for nearly six months. At WWE Fastlane, Kevin Owens should defeat Goldberg, and these are five reasons why.
#5 The focus should be on building new stars
One of WWE’s biggest criticisms recently has been their inability to build new stars. Sure, they have several Superstars that could be considered “top” stars such as Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, and even Kevin Owens himself.
But nobody, save for John Cena, has the sort of aura that guys like Undertaker, Goldberg, or Brock Lesnar bring to the table. That’s why WWE continues to bring in these part-timers for their biggest pay-per-views, which we saw first-hand at this year’s Royal Rumble.
But instead of bringing in these ageing veterans, WWE needs to keep their focus on building guys up to have the sort of star power that can potentially anchor a show. Giving Goldberg the Universal championship would show that they’re doing the exact opposite of that.
Also read: WWE Rumours: Goldberg to beat Kevin Owens and win the WWE Universal Championship at Fastlane 2017
Kevin Owens is on the cusp of getting to top star status. He’s incredibly entertaining and is one of the best in-ring performers WWE has. But they need to stay the course with him if they want to build him into a star like Undertaker, Goldberg or Lesnar.
If they want him to be the kind of guy who gets an insane crowd reaction when he comes back after retiring, they need to keep building him up to be a big deal.
And that goes for more than just Owens. WWE needs to keep the focus on their full-time talent so they can still have huge stars when the part-timers get too old to step into the ring. Owens defeating Goldberg is the first step towards making that happen.
#4 Part-timers shouldn’t be Champions
On the surface, Brock Lesnar being WWE champion seems like it would be great. He’s a monster who makes every championship match feel like a marquee event. But the simple fact that he’s not on TV enough negates all the good he could do as champion.
WWE needs to have their top champion be someone who shows up week in and week out. If Kevin Owens loses the Universal title at Fastlane, we won’t have that for at least a few months.
If Goldberg takes the title in three weeks, it doesn’t matter if he or Lesnar wins at WrestleMania. Either way, one of WWE’s top champions will be someone who only has limited dates on their contract. That’s not best for business.
Raw’s top champion should be someone like Owens who is capable of wrestling for the company every night. Even though Owens is consistently booked like a coward, he’s still more of a fighting champion than either Goldberg or Lesnar would be.
Look at any Raw main event in the past couple months and odds are you’ll see Owens somewhere in the picture.
Part-time champions are not what WWE needs to spice up their product, especially on Raw which has noticeably been trailing behind SmackDown in terms of quality.
#3 Owens vs Jericho should be for the Universal Championship
If Kevin Owens loses the Universal title at Fastlane, that means he will not have it going into WrestleMania. And that means his inevitable confrontation with Chris Jericho won’t have the culmination that it so badly deserves.
Owens and Jericho have been the undisputed MVPs of Raw since the brand split. They’ve battled overexposure and have managed to be consistently entertaining each week. But it’s clear that their friendship will come to an end at some point.
They’ve gotten on each other’s nerves before and the fans are dying to be able to root for Jericho as a face. This will ideally result in a WrestleMania match between the two, but that match should be for the Universal championship.
They deserve to have a match of that magnitude at the show of shows. This storyline has been brewing for months and is one of the few matches that feels like it has a build worthy of culminating in a Mania match.
It would be a travesty if the two men who have anchored Raw for months aren’t competing for Raw’s biggest title on WWE’s biggest stage.
#2 The United States title should be involved in a different match
If Owens vs Jericho isn’t for the Universal title, it would most likely be for Jericho’s United States title. That’s a colossal waste for not only KO and Y2J who would be competing for a lesser championship, but for the other Superstars who could potentially compete for the U.S. title at WrestleMania. Take Sami Zayn for example.
Zayn competed for the U.S. title on Raw last week and it would’ve been a logical move if he were to win it. If the Owens and Jericho build is paid off in the right way via a Universal title match, that opens up the possibility for someone to take the U.S. title off Jericho before Mania.
Even if it isn’t Zayn, giving the U.S. title to someone else creates another meaningful Mania match. It allows superstars who may otherwise be in a filler match to actually fight for a title.
For the sake of the mid carders who deserve a relatively big WrestleMania match, Owens should retain the Universal title so he and Jericho can fight over that rather than the U.S. title.
The Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal is nice and all, but if we can maximise the number of meaningful matches on the Mania card, then that’s exactly what should be done.
#1 Goldberg vs Lesnar doesn’t need the Universal title to make it a big match
This is perhaps the most pressing reason that Goldberg should not walk out of Fastlane as the Universal champion. He is set to go head to head with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 33 in what is sure to be one of the biggest matches on the card.
Will Lesnar finally get retribution against the one man who has dominated him in his career? Or will Goldberg continue being the man that the conqueror simply can’t conquer? The prospect of having these questions answered is enough to carry this match and have it feel like an enormous deal.
As soon as their music hits on April 2nd, the fans are going to go insane because of the enormous confrontation they would be about to see.
Having it be for the Universal title adds almost nothing to the equation. Raw’s most prestigious title would be nothing more than an accessory in this match. That’s not how things should be.
Instead, the title should be used in a match that it will actually add something to, such as Owens vs Jericho. It’s been said before in this article, but they deserve to fight over the Universal title to culminate their feud, Goldberg and Lesnar do not need it to culminate theirs.
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