10 WWE Stars We Expected To Be World Champion By Now

5. Seth Rollins

Stone Cold Steve Austin Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

Seth Rollins being Intercontinental Champion is as much a by-product of Brock Lesnar's Universal Title reign as it is his own effort in 2018.

After one too many injuries, 'The Architect' isn't quite the performer he still professes to be, but the carefully-massaged perception that he's all that and lots more has worked enough to ensure that he's one of the hottest stars on Monday Night Raw.

He has some great matches, a lot of good matches and even more long ones. These things conspire to create the veneer of superstardom in the modern age, and a Shield gimmick as a fallback ensures that something will always get him over even if "Burn It Down" is eventually doused.

Promoted as one of Raw's elite performers (if not the elite performer), Seth still hasn't managed to snare one of the top prizes since his blink-and-you'll-miss-it run in 2016, but 'The Big Dog' finally getting Universal Championship might yet open up a door for his stablemate.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett