5 Ups & 5 Downs For WWE Raw (6 Oct - Results & Review)

1. What’s Really At Stake For Rollins

The more they get away from talking about “control of the WWE for the next two decades” and just frame Saturday’s men’s Crown Jewel Championship match as influence and pride, the better the bout between Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes looks.

The lengthy video package Monday night summarized the second part of their story, leading up to and through WrestleMania 40, with Rollins pointing out that he helped Rhodes slay Roman Reigns, despite it costing him his world title and his health. What set him over the edge though, was Cody welcoming Roman back to WWE less than six months later.

Back in The Vision’s locker room, Rollins confronted Paul Heyman to explain the stakes in terms of what would happen if he loses on Saturday. Rather than talk about Cody controlling the future of WWE and other foolishness. Heyman painted an image of Seth losing the locker room, the support of Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed, the belief that his vision for WWE was correct. He would become “a de facto, wannabe secondary champion.” Heyman himself would have to question why he chose Rollins over Roman.

That little nuance worked well. They still were talking broadly about Rollins’ vision for leading WWE, but the match now is more about validating Seth than anything else. Losing would more or less end The Vision in its tracks simply by disenchanting Breakker and Reed and reducing Rollins in fans’ and wrestlers’ eyes.

Those are more real stakes that make sense, which is why this worked well in concert with the video. The match now feels like hit has some serious heft to it, which is difficult to pull off in a “bragging rights” match.