The Day The WWE Universal Title Died
Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were relegated to the WrestleMania 33 undercard, having a match Vince McMahon infamously chastised the 'Prizefighter' for during his own Network documentary. But this wasn't an earnest commentary from his boss on his work - he was just another toy McMahon had grown tired of playing with. How could the match be any more than middling when the Universal Championship was lifted from it at such a crucial moment in the story?
An awful night for Owens was made worse when in the lightning in a bottle from Survivor Series somehow struck twice. Bill Goldberg and Brock Lesnar had a total ripper of a sprint, stealing the show and ending their programme of highs on yet another one as Lesnar claimed the gold for the very first time.
It was this at the centre of McMahon's plans. 'The Beast' was back with a belt, and he'd have it for a year until the fans g*ddmn enjoyed g*ddamn Roman g*ddamn Reigns taking it off him, pal. Only they never did, not really anyway, and McMahon changed his mind on that too! The 12 months between WrestleManias had seen Lesnar beat all foes with one F5, only for 'The Big Dog' to kick out of six at the 'Show Of Shows' before losing a match the fans had turned their back on from the opening bell. If all this sounds like a f*cking sh*tshow, fire up the Network and see if the stench still comes through the screen.
And don't leave the autoplay on to see if they fix it at the next pay-per-view. Or the one after that, or the one after that, or the one after that. It got a sh*tload worse for Reigns before it finally got better in August ahead of real life rendering most of this pointless by October. Suddenly a pithy Championship didn't matter anyway - not like it really did before.
CONT'D...