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What's the story?
At Clash of Champions, Mojo Rawley was given the opportunity to take on his former Hype Bros tag-team partner Zack Ryder, and former football player wasted no time in making a statement by putting his partner away
Now that he's restarted his singles career there are new rumours circulating via Cageside Seats suggesting that Mojo Rawley is in line for a big push into SmackDown LIVE's upper mid-card.
In case you didn't know...
Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder had been a tag-team for quite a while after teaming up as the Hype Bros in NXT. However in the last few months they had embarked on somewhat of a career slump that they couldn't get out of, and a couple of severe beat-downs at the hands of the Bludgeon Brothers was the last straw for Rawley, who attacked Ryder in the ring and cemented the breakup of The Hype Bros, leading to their Clash of Champions match.
The heart of the matter
It's easy to forget that in singles action Mojo Rawley has won the Andre the Giant Battle Royale, and is one of the only people on SmackDown LIVE to beat former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal clean, so he's certainly no joke as a single's competitor, as Zack Ryder found out at Clash of Champions.
With that in mind, the news that the WWE is looking to push Rawley to the upper mid-card of SmackDown LIVE shouldn't come as a shock, as Cageside Seats reports that Mojo Rawley has impressed them of late.
Mojo Rawley’s online promos for his match with Zack Ryder on Sunday got a ton of praise from all over the place, and could have him in-line for a mid-card push.
Here are the promos in question
What's next?
Despite the decisive victory over Ryder, Rawley's recent Twitter activity suggests that perhaps the two former partners aren't done with each other yet. Rawley praised Zack Ryder's 'fight', and seemed to encourage Zack Ryder's anger.
He also hinted that there might be another match between the two former partners by retweeting a tweet from a member of the WWE Universe suggesting that Mojo may have won the battle, but that Zack Ryder will win the war.
Author's take
I was partially invested in the Hype Bros storyline, just like I was partially invested in the Hype Bros in general. However, the work both men have put into social media to develop this feud, and the really good match they put on at Clash of Champions has me eager to see what happens next. I'm still not particularly high on Mojo Rawley but this is a good start to turning me around.
