The talk of the week more than everything else is Seth Rollins being injured and turned on by Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. We've yet to see the full response from this, but now that we know that Rollins is likely to undergo shoulder or torn rotator cuff surgery and will likely be out for many months, it is clear WWE has to pivot not just for Survivor Series: WarGames, but for WrestleMania, too.
WWE was invested in Rollins being the champion heading into that show. They even spelled it out numerous times. Obviously, that is no longer going to be the case, and it's doubtful a plan B was ever discussed. Now, a new plan A will have to take shape. What should it be?
It goes without being said, but it should be noted, that we don't know what other plans WWE has in mind for anyone else. At this point last year, we weren't aware whether or not John Cena would be fighting for the world title, for instance, let alone the heel turn. Many things can change many things, and this is going to knock down a lot of dominoes. Thankfully, we're far enough away from WrestleMania season that WWE won't be forced to just book something on the fly with a few weeks notice. There is still time to craft something with a proper build.
At the moment, we have an injured heel champion, his heel wife is seemingly no longer in the group as well (why would Becky Lynch be aligned with the guys who attacked her husband?), and two heel tag team partners with a heel manager with one decisively picking up the title belt, all while CM Punk just won a No. 1 contender's match against two of the other top babyfaces on Raw.
It's a very confusing situation to say the least, and given how WWE spent something like 4 weeks dawdling and stalling for a plan when Naomi had to vacate the Women's World Championship, it wouldn't shock me if this is a total mess until December. However, I hope that isn't the case.
If I'm on the WWE Creative team, I'm sitting down with the rest of the writers and I'm looking at a white board with these things written on them:
- Saturday Night's Main Event - November 1
- WarGames - November 29
- Saturday Night's Main Event - December 13
- Royal Rumble in Saudi - January 31
- Elimination Chamber and whatever else in February and such
- WrestleMania 42 - April 18/19
Then, I'm looking at a spreadsheet of all the roster between Raw and SmackDown, and I'm creating a second white board with a list of the top world titles, midcard titles, and some question marks for big stars on both brands, and starting from that list comparison.
The first thing I'm doing is saying "Once we figure out some plans, we need to announce a draft." Shaking up the rosters as a whole will allow for some flexibility to move people around and fill in some weaker spots. But you can't just arbitrarily announce that on Friday Night SmackDown and then not already have a plan in mind of who you want to move where. Work backwards from Mania. Who do we need to book and who do we have?
I think it's safe to say unless there are other injuries, the overall biggest names to settle on are Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Gunther, Bron Breakker, and a handful of others. For the most part, the women's division isn't greatly affected by this, as I still think AJ Lee beats Becky Lynch for the Women's Intercontinental Championship and goes on to drop it to Roxanne Perez at WrestleMania, so we just need to book that sooner rather than later and likely just get Lynch off television so there's no question about her stance in The Vision.
Lynch versus Lee at SNME in November. Big match, title change, done. Since there will undoubtedly be a women's WarGames match at Survivor Series, if Lynch is going to be in that, put her and Lee on opposite sides, team Lynch with Perez, Raquel Rodriguez, and The Kabuki Warriors I guess against Lee, Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, and three others. Then, let Lynch stay home a bit until the Royal Rumble. One element is out of the way.
CM Punk winning the #1 contender's match shouldn't be tossed aside, but he shouldn't be outright awarded the title, either. One of the problems as well is that I don't think you can justify having Punk go up against Jey Uso and LA Knight AGAIN for the vacated title, as that renders his victory moot. At best, you're probably looking at Punk against Bron Breakker, which isn't particularly special. Then, you're up against another issue: Breakker against Punk, Knight, Uso, and Reigns has already been done to death and does not have any real hook for WrestleMania, but if you give the belt to Punk, suddenly, Breakker's whole turn doesn't feel as strong.
Somehow, you need to solve the Punk element, give Punk something good to do for Mania, incorporate Reigns into the picture, and likely put the title on Breakker, without positioning Bronson Reed as an underling, nor just booking the same matches we've gotten for months for another 6 months and then try to act like it's special. Breakker vs Reigns at WrestleMania just will not be a big enough deal and will come off like WrestleMania 32 again where it's just "whoever we have left" even though it's only one person injured. It just happens to be the guy you wanted to have carry this, unfortunately.
As much as I hate to say it, because I don't think it's right that he's back in the company at the moment, I think the best case scenario is for Breakker to win the title and to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 42. Again, I don't condone having Lesnar on the roster at the moment at all, given the lawsuit, but that's one of many political and ethical and moral things WWE has been up to lately that I wholeheartedly disagree with, and they clearly do not care about ethics, given their association with this administration, the way they handle their releases, etc etc etc. To put it even more transparently, if I were on the WWE Creative team and I said "this isn't right", they would say "I don't give a shit. What ideas do you have for Lesnar?" and they would just ignore me at best. I would never win an argument about that, so we can't just sweep that under the rug. Lesnar will be on the card, regardless of how I feel.
So we might as well use him to put someone over, because I'm well past the point of protecting Brock. He doesn't need it and hasn't for 10+ years. The only way to build the next generation is to actually pull the trigger on them and not to have cold feet and keep recycling the same acts.
I would say most likely, announce on Raw that Rollins is injured and has to relinquish the title. Punk says he deserves to be the champion, but Adam Pearce doesn't want to just give it to him. Instead, book Breakker against Knight and Uso in yet another No. 1 contender's match with the winner facing Punk at SNME on November 1st for the vacated title.
Breakker comes out of that with the belt. If you can swing it, have that be because Lesnar helps out, as per Paul Heyman's request. Then, for WarGames, one side can be Breakker, Reed, Lesnar, and two allies—maybe you bring someone like Austin Theory into the group (if he's healthy and can return), or this is where the 2025 WWE Draft comes into play and you can grab someone from SmackDown or NXT to bolster the ranks. Alternatively, if you need to, partner up with the MFTs. However, this is exactly why WarGames shouldn't be a thing that comes around every November and should ONLY be pulled out when necessary. They've never learned their lesson from Hell in a Cell, and I'd be beating that drum so hard. At this point, clearly, we're not getting the scheduled match, so it's going to be yet another year where it's a mishmash of wrestlers that aren't aligned and they're just tossing in someone like Drew McIntyre or whatever for the sake of it. That sucks.
SNME in December is largely the John Cena show. If Breakker defends the title at all, they're almost assuredly going to have it be against the same usual suspects. Blah. Boring. I would rather it be against someone new, but that's likely asking for too much. The same for Royal Rumble, which is probably yet another Breakker vs. Reigns match or something.
I'm assuming Gunther is the last opponent for Cena and that he beats him at SNME in December. Roll that into The Ring General winning the Royal Rumble and challenging Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Come Elimination Chamber, Brock Lesnar wins against an all star group like Reigns, Punk, whoever you have available, and earns the title shot against Breakker, who beats him at Mania.
As far as what to do with some of the other names, is there any chance The Rock can be convinced to come back and actually FINALLY have his match with Roman Reigns, non-title? Not likely, I'd assume, but I don't want to see Reigns against Punk again, and it's going to take a lot of work to set up some other opponents for those two that isn't jsut retreating the same ground as before. But the priority is the World Heavyweight Championship. Once you settle on that match, the rest of the puzzle pieces can start fitting together.