10 Ways To Fix WWE's Universal Title
4. Better Match Finishes
Producing better match finishes goes hand in hand with protecting the champion, but the point is just as pertinent on its own. The Universal Title scene hasn’t had a clean win since the title’s very first match, when Finn Balor defeated Seth Rollins at SummerSlam. Every subsequent match has been wrought with controversy, and the Universal Championship hasn’t become a belt held by the best wrestler in the world, but he who’s most effective that circumventing the rules.
This is a company-wide problem. Raw is an overbooked circus of non-finishes and distraction roll-ups these days, and it’s one of many reasons why nobody’s getting over. Few wrestlers win on their strength of their performance alone, and the practice has severely diminished each of Raw’s post-Brand Split pay-per-views.
WWE should make the Universal Title less about the circus, and more about the wrestling. Shenanigans will always have a place in the sport, but the lack of conclusive main event finishes is becoming a joke at this point. Bad finishes take the gloss of otherwise excellent matches, and with Raw severely lagging behind SmackDown in the quality stakes, that’s exactly what they don’t need at the moment. The Universal Title contenders are supposed to be the company’s strongest athletes, and it’s about time they were given a chance to show that.