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Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins stood tall at the end of WWE RAW as the RAW Tag Team Champions. Allow that to sink in for a moment!
Would you have assumed at the start of the show that this would be the case by the end of the program? For the shocking appearance by Bray Wyatt and the strange union between Randy Orton and The Revival, this was the biggest development by far.
Why did Vince McMahon choose to put the titles around Braun Strowman and Seth Rollins' waist, you ask? Let me try and answer your questions in the pages that follow.
As always, I invite you to leave a comment in the section right below...
#5 Two top singles stars will always defeat a cohesive team
Except for brief periods of time, when The Hardyz, The Dudley Boyz, and Edge & Christian were tearing things up or when The New Day and The Usos were making tag team wrestling exciting again, tag team wrestling has always been an afterthought in WWE.
I had a chance to catch up with Scott Dawson of The Revival and asked him what he felt when Strowman and Nicholas became the Tag Team Champions:
What were my thoughts about that? Oh man. Probably the same thoughts that you had and everyone else had. I'd say it was a slap in the face. That was one of the things where I had to swallow my pride a little bit and Dash and I have talked about it; that's one of the things that adds to the chip on our shoulder.
This is just the truth of things in WWE. Two tag team superstars, even if they're Champions, will never defeat two singles stars who've come together to form a formidable dream team.
See WWE RAW Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE RAW Results page
#4 Leading to a Universal Championship program
So, Paul Heyman recently informed us that Brock Lesnar was out of the Universal Championship program for good. Lesnar will make a return when he does, but I wonder if he really needs a Universal Championship program when he eventually comes back. Any program that he returns for is guaranteed to be a big deal anyway.
In any case, WWE is not even making the fact that Strowman vs. Rollins is the Universal Championship match subtle. Strowman has been eyeing the Universal Championship whether it's in the backstage area or even up the ramp, while he holds another title. The fact that the two men are Champions will get them to interact more, leading to the eventual feud I presume.
One unfortunate side effect of this is that the RAW Tag Team picture will take a backseat for now. The actual tag teams may be forgotten in the process of building up the Universal Championship picture.
#3 Giving Strowman a chance to turn heel
It is really hard for a big man to be a babyface, in my opinion. Maybe it would have been possible back in the day when the 'staged' element of pro wrestling wasn't public, but not anymore.
While Rollins and Strowman could always battle each other as two babyfaces, it is very clear that this is not a direction that Vince McMahon necessarily likes. WWE has often been described in the interviews I've conducted as a battle between 'good and bad', and I can definitely see a heel turn from Braun Strowman coming our way.
In fact, the title change may make the heel turn even more effective. We all remember the heel turn from Dean Ambrose shortly after Rollins and he won the titles, on the same night that Roman Reigns announced that he was going away to battle a real-life opponent.
Let's hope this heel turn is better than the Ambrose one turned out to be!
#2 To have both Strowman and Rollins compete twice at Clash of Champions
We have a long way to go until the next WWE pay-per-view event comes our way. This will happen on the 15th of September and will be dubbed the Clash of Champions. It's become a fairly popular WWE staple by now and as you guys are well aware, every single title will be defended at the show.
Which is why it is all too likely that Rollins and Strowman may have to compete twice during the course of the night. This is especially true if both the Universal Championship and the RAW Tag Team Championships are defended in separate matches. It will make for some really compelling moments, and show how the gas tank of the two men holds up, competing twice on the same night.
Maybe Strowman launches an attack after the tag team match. This allows him to defeat Rollins quite easily!
#1 To have Seth Rollins enter the history books
Seth Rollins has a unique feat that I believe nobody in modern WWE history has been able to match. I wonder if the plan is to have him cement his legacy in a very unique manner indeed.
Seth Rollins was the WWE Champion and the US Champion back in 2015, during the infamous feud with the legendary John Cena. Later on, he'd hold the Intercontinental and the RAW Tag Team Championships at the same time, even though his partnership with Dean Ambrose would not last long.
It does seem like his RAW Tag Team Championship run with Braun Strowman will not last for very long. But it also gives him the distinction of being a double champion on three different occasions in the last five years, in WWE.
I believe that this record will only become stronger in the coming months and years.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
