7 Ups And 6 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Sept 19)

1. Rollins Metamorphosis

We’ve seen the slow and steady transition of Seth Rollins from a chickensh** heel and Authority puppet into a driven fighter looking to reclaim glory during the past several weeks, but things accelerated on Monday with a couple nicely placed segments.

First, Rollins faced off against Rusev in the opening bout as punishment for both men interfering in the main event last week. Rollins played the face-in-peril role throughout the match, with Rusev working over the back. It worked well enough that the crowd started a “Let’s go Rollins!” chant during the bout, always a good sign.

Later, Rollins confronted Stephanie McMahon about why she and Triple H had passed him over and chose Kevin Owens as the new Universal Champion. When Steph denied knowledge, Rollins got defiant and said he’d win the title on his own and be a champ that she couldn’t intimidate or control. And of course, we saw Rollins close out Raw with a dive off the top of the cage onto Owens and Rusev.

And just like that, Rollins has become every bit the crowd favorite heading into Sunday’s match against Owens. Nicely done.