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What’s the story?
WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins has been on a roll ever since capturing the Intercontinental Championship at this year’s WrestleMania and the Kingslayer has ever since vowed to be a fighting champion - even going so far as to issuing an open challenge for this week's Monday Night Raw, asking opponents to step forward for a shot at the gold.
Well, he got his answer. The Prizefighter Kevin Owens cut a scathing promo on the champ, accepting the invitation with open arms.
In case you didn’t know…
Just a few months ago, Seth Rollins became the third member of the Shield to become a WWE Grand Slam Champion when he successfully captured the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the very first time in his career - but the Architect did have to defy the odds and defeat both The Miz and Finn Balor in a Triple Threat Match to take the gold.
Since winning the title in New Orleans, Rollins has successfully defended the Championship belt in a fatal four-way ladder match between himself, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, and The Miz at The Greatest Royal Rumble event, and on RAW twice - once against Finn Balor and once against Mojo Rawley in this week's open challenge.
The heart of the matter
After his open challenge this past week on RAW saw Seth Rollins defend his Intercontinental Championship against Mojo Rawley successfully, the Kingslayer took to Twitter to say he was "highly considering" issuing the challenge again when the red brand hits London this week.
Well, it turns out we didn't have to wait too long to see who the challenger would be, as Kevin Owens cut a scathing promo on Seth who used his platform to take a pop at the Universal Champion, who has been criticised for not being a "fighting champion" by any means.
ell, the former Universal and Intercontinental Champion had a lot to say on the matter, saying he is indeed THE fighting champion of WWE and, while he doesn't have gold on his shoulder right now, he plans to change that on Monday.
What’s next?
We won't have to wait long to see this match - Owens will seemingly challenge Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship on Monday Night Raw, which emanates tomorrow from the o2 in London.
Author’s Take
Well, Seth Rollins has had an incredible year. It took a while for the Architect to hit the ground running again after a lengthy injury following his WWE Championship run, but Seth has proven to be both the workhorse of the WWE, if not one of the hardest working wrestlers on the planet, with his WWE IC Title reign and his incredible one-hour spell in the Gauntlet Match on RAW - and it looks like, if he defends the title successfully, we may see a lot more open challenges in the future - with the champ showing exactly why he calls the red brand Monday Night Rollins.
