Seth Rollins beating Bobby Lashley for the United States Championship on WWE Monday Night Raw was one of the most well-done professional wrestling segments of 2022. The tension was immediately palpable when Brock Lesnar's music hit out of nowhere, and what transpired next was true booking greatness. Stories progressed, the Beast Incarnate was an outstanding swerve, and in the end, The Visionary left with a title he deserved to win. It was the culmination of months of excellent character work by Lashley and Rollins, with Lesnar becoming the catalyst for a title change few saw coming. Fans will be hard-pressed to find a better recent episode of Raw, and the US Championship segment is a huge reason why.
A hallmark of Triple H's booking has always been his ability to catch the audience leaning one way and delivering a twist of some sort. The Game almost conditions fans to expect a particular outcome, and then he lands a right hook while snapping the fingers on his left hand as a distraction. His stories have nuance and layers, which starkly contrasts the one-dimensional, predictable angles Vince McMahon produced later in his career. Triple H has McMahon's inclination for creating a spectacle, but his leanings are a bit more professional wrestling and a little less sports entertainment. Make no mistake, the Lesnar, Lashley, and Rollins segment was very sports-entertaining. But the long-term storytelling involved smacks of independent shows and pre-2022 AEW.
Rollins & Lashley Both Saw Character Progression On Raw
Bobby Lashley has been a tremendous United States Champion. With all due respect to the recent runs of Theory and Finn Balor, The All Mighty returned a ton of prestige to the title. Part of that was Triple H's clear and concentrated effort to make the secondary titles matter again, but Lashley still had to play the part. It wouldn't have worked if someone like Baron Corbin or Ricochet held the championship. Not because they aren't talented wrestlers, but because they don't have the same WWE pedigree as Lashley. Whenever a former World Champion holds a secondary title, it boosts importance. Bobby's work with the title in 2022 might be the best since John Cena's legendary open-challenge run back in 2015. With all that in mind, WWE managed to protect his momentum on Raw while crowning a new champion in Rollins.
Lesnar beat the breaks off of Lashley. It wasn't one F-5 and done. It was multiple finishers, suplexes, and a brutal-looking arm bar. Rollins using personal attacks to goad Lashley into defending the belt despite the assault was another step for his snake-like heel personal, while Bobby still looks tough. It sets up a possible match between Lesnar and Lashley for the Crown Jewel show, and that bout could likely be the second-to-last fight of the night. Despite losing, the US Championship, Lashley got bumped up the card. Meanwhile, Rollins gets to spend some time as WWE's fighting champion.
More Seth Rollins Matches Is Always A Good Thing
Seth Rollins might be WWE's MVP this year. His feuds have been stellar, making every face he's worked with look better while getting himself over as a weasely heel. It's a character few in the business can play better than The Architect, and his recent penchant for using personal and real information against his foes is a fantastic wrinkle. He's not reinventing the wheel by doing so, but the conviction with which Rollins delivers his insults is a cut above the rest. Sure, fans serenade him on his way to the ring every week, but by the time he's done speaking, fans want to see him get punched square between the eyes.
He's the perfect heel, and the United States Championship falling to him gives one of Raw's top faces a genuine bad guy to slay. Seth Rollins will do or say anything to win a match, as seen on Monday night against Lashley. He leveraged the man's service history against him and taunted him until he took the fight. That's low, even for Rollins. This, of course, comes just a few days after he and Matt Riddle seemingly blew off their feud at Extreme Rules. That feud was made personal by the end of it, and it's likely we'll see more of that kind of fire from Rollins moving forward.
Who Should Seth Rollins Feud With Next?
It's clear what's next for Lashley, but if Rollins and Riddle are genuinely done for now, then the former Shield member will need a new program. The first name that comes to mind is Kevin Owens, a former Universal Champion, US Champion, and Intercontinental Champion in his own right. He's been flirting with the main event scene since Triple H took over the book and has been protected quite well. The Prize Fighter gimmick is back, so a feud with Rollins make all the sense in the world. It doesn't seem likely that Owens will be getting near Roman Reigns for the time being, so fighting for the US Title would be the next best thing. Especially with how well the championship has been presented on WWE television over the last few months.
Even if it isn't Owens who gets tabbed to wrestle with Rollins, WWE deserves a ton of credit for handling the US Title change on Raw. It was equally unexpected and exciting, dropped in the middle of a Monday night show packed to the brim with other surprises and strong matches. Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves came into their own as a two-man booth during this segment as a bonus, putting a bow on an outstanding US Title change that made everyone involved look like a million bucks.