WWE Champion-less After Flipping Disaster

This image of Seth Rollins, aka Wrestling Jesus, courtesy of  http://www.ambwallpapers.com/seth-rollins-hd-images/ is designed for fans to use as a computer wallpaper.

Let's start things off by acknowledging that professional wrestling is scripted. We all know its story lines are usually scripted. That’s why the WWE refers to wrestling as “Sports Entertainment.” Even though it’s scripted, the performers are still athletes. In fact it's kind of ironic when you consider the people who criticize them for being in a scripted sport probably never made it to a high level in any sport, but almost all of the WWE’s roster did. The WWE consist of former NFL players, former collegiate wrestling champions, and a man who won the UFC Heavyweight Championship in his 4th fight. The wrestling world has some certifiable badasses, and one of them is the man nicknamed Crossfit Jesus, aka Seth Rollins.

Rollins was last week’s WWE Champion, and he's really good. His comparable athlete is the NBA's MVP winner Steph Curry. He's capable of doing anything in the ring with what seems to be little effort, just like Steph drops 40 points on the court, seemingly with no effort. Rollins also won the physical version of MVP when he won the world championship at the biggest wrestling show in the world. Where things went south for Rollins and the WWE was while on a tour of Europe, he tore his ACL, MCL, and medial Meniscus.  We won't see Seth Rollins in a wrestling ring for 6 to 9 months. 

I don't want to sound cold, but this injury may be worse for the WWE as a whole than it is for Rollins himself. He was the company. He was everywhere from the opening segment, backstage segment, to wrestling in the main event. His production is nearly irreplaceable. Add in the fact that there are faults with their other big draws, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, The Undertaker, Daniel Bryan, and Finn Balor, and WWE may be in trouble. 

Lesnar was in a very public contract negotiation with WWE about 7 months ago. His current contract only requires him to work a limited amount of dates per year. Those limited dates have to be used strategically though. WWE can't afford to go into Wrestlemania season without the company’s number one draw because they used all his dates before January. The silver lining for WWE is John Cena is almost as big of a draw as Brock Lesnar, and he'll be back in December. Right now, The Undertaker is in the same situation as Lesnar. You definitely can't go into Wrestlemania season without the man who's appeared at 23 of them. 

Here's where things get kind of interesting: the last two major draws the WWE has are Bryan and Balor. Bryan is currently waiting for the WWE to clear him of an injury he claims to be completely healed from. Bryan seems to be a sensible man, and I have no reason to believe he isn't recovered. The case seems more like the WWE fearing another injury, but Rollins's own injury may force their hand to clear Bryan. Balor is not injured, but is in WWE's developmental territory in Florida. Unlike a lot of the talent in developmental, Balor is experienced and already established globally. The only thing WWE needs to do for Finn to make the jump to the main roster is write him into a story.

In a perfect world the WWE uses this time without it’s biggest stars to build up some of the younger talent on the roster. Maybe this will force WWE to write compelling stories for their talent to partake in to cover up that their roster is slightly depleted. Maybe they find a hidden gem on their roster that they never knew could shine. However they’ll most likely panic, and make one really bad decision like bringing back a hero of wrestling's past.

With Seth Rollins injured, and forced to  be stripped of his title, the WWE will need to produce a new champion. As of now, WWE is going with the plans to crown a new champion at their upcoming Survivor Series pay-per view. Anyone following WWE can take a really good guess at who the next champion will be, but who knows what will happen in the crazy world of pro wrestling. I mean Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock has been moved to the active roster. As for Rollins, he has nothing to worry about. He may have played a bad guy, but all the fans loved him. When he returns he will be the biggest good guy the company has ever seen. I mean he already has garnered another nickname Wrestling Jesus.