There were some high expectations that came along with Seth Rollins finally capturing the Universal Championship for the first time, and now that his reign is over, we feel like it's time to take a look at the pros and the cons that came out of his run at the top.
While this probably isn't going to be the last time that he holds a world title in WWE, it's certainly going to be interesting to see how this particular reign is looked upon in the years to come. Some will probably love it, and some, undoubtedly, will end up hating it.
10 LIKED - A Change Of Pace
Brock Lesnar as Universal Champion was just so tiresome by the time WrestleMania 35 came around. And to be honest, Lesnar as a champion, in general, feels like an old school way of doing things. As such, when Seth won the belt, it felt fresh – which is the best possible word available when it comes to the weird and wonderful world of professional wrestling.
Seth injected some much-needed ability into the title, and there was a lot of potential for his reign as a result. Above all of that, though, people were just happy that Brock was no longer in the picture (for the time being, that is).
9 HATED - Twitter Seth
For some bizarre reason, Seth Rollins has decided to turn himself into a full-on heel on social media – and Twitter specifically. One of the most obvious cases of this came from his recent back and forth with Will Ospreay, who is widely considered to be one of the most exciting young talents in pro wrestling today.
While they were in the midst of a verbal battle, Seth decided to bring up the fact that he earns far more money than Will does. It seemed like a bad move at the time, and as the days went on, that viewpoint was confirmed.
8 LIKED - Match Quality
You don’t even really need to be a fan of the WWE style of wrestling to appreciate what Seth Rollins can do in the ring. The man formerly known as Tyler Black is capable of some wonderful things, and he exemplifies that on a week to week basis.
Would he be able to do more if he had a bit more of a creative license to do so? Perhaps, but that isn’t the point. Regardless of who he was facing off against, fans could guarantee that the Universal Champion would be involved in an absolute barnburner.
7 HATED - The Corbin Feud
For what it’s worth, Baron Corbin is a much better heel than fans give him credit for. Sure, he doesn’t have the best look and his actual character is pretty nauseating, but he understands how to be a good bad guy and we absolutely love that.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t translated into a successful or even strong feud with Seth Rollins. Things just never really got going in the kind of manner that WWE was hoping for, and while the matches themselves were good, it just got dragged out for far too long.
6 LIKED - Well Deserved Reign
For years now, Seth has been consistently raising the bar for the rest of the main roster with great match after great match. He isn’t a big believer in sitting back and not doing the work, because instead, he wants to go out there and prove himself to the world – and we love that.
As such, this workhorse deserved a run with the belt, and we’re glad that he finally got it. It may not have gone the way that many were expecting, but at the very least, the record books will always recognize him as a champion within the realms of the Universal Championship.
5 HATED - Lesnar’s MITB Run
The Money in the Bank concept is a pretty tired concept, to be perfectly honest, and we can’t picture a scenario in which that’ll change in the next few years. However, it has served as a decent platform for midcarders who want to enter the main event scene; which is why it was so confusing when Brock Lesnar won the briefcase earlier this year.
It just didn’t add up in any way, shape or form, and the fact that he was looming over Rollins from that point on just didn’t sit well with us. It didn’t make sense, and it just seemed like WWE was delaying the inevitable.
4 LIKED - How He Won The Title
As long as Seth won the title at WrestleMania 35, the title match between him and Brock Lesnar was always going to be a success. However, the way in which it actually played out was better than anything we could’ve imagined.
In addition to it going on first, Seth was able to pretty much squash Brock in quick order. It was the kind of win that put him back on the map in a big way, and we were chuffed to see it go down like that.
Brock probably wasn’t, though.
3 HATED - The Becky Stuff
We legitimately love Becky Lynch, and in equal measure, we love Seth Rollins. However, that doesn’t mean that just because they’re dating, we want to see them perform together on WWE programming on a week to week basis.
Yes, it was nice to see at times, but it just didn’t really make sense. Becky shouldn’t need Seth’s presence in her segments, and the same should be true for Seth. In the end, neither superstar was able to gain all too much for it, and they came out of the whole thing looking a little bit silly.
2 LIKED - He Looks Like A Champion
Seth Rollins looks like a world champion, and in the years gone by in WWE, that has virtually been enough to secure someone a world title on its own. Of course, he needs to be able to go in the ring, which thankfully, he can.
You need to look the part in order to be a world champ, and no, we don’t mean that you need to be particularly beautiful or have big muscles. You can look as unique as you like, but you just can’t be too plain.
When it comes to Seth, ‘plain’ isn’t a word we’d ever use to describe him.
1 HATED - He Was On RAW
Would everything have been different if Seth Rollins had been on SmackDown Live on Tuesday nights? Who knows. What we do know, though, is that Kofi Kingston has been a world champion since WrestleMania 35 too, and he has been booked far, far better than Seth has in the last few months.
The titles are completely different and we get that, but let’s face it, Monday Night RAW’s programming has been really poor in comparison to their sister show. As such, it was always going to be an uphill battle for The Architect to succeed.