Views From The Turnbuckle: Does Seth Rollins Stand A Chance Against Brock Lesnar?

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of WrestlingInc or its staff.

The upcoming match between Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is a pretty unique scenario for a championship match. Seth Rollins, the champion, is being presented as someone that is clearly inferior to the challenger Brock Lesnar.

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The booking of Seth Rollins has raised the eyebrows of some WWE fans. Despite the fact that Rollins holds the most prestigious belt in the company, he has been booked as such a cowardly champion that he hardly comes across as a dominant competitor for WWE. Since winning the world championship, Rollins has skated through his challengers without showing any form of supremacy. He has clutched onto his championship through either interference by other members of The Authority or by good fortune. Even in his victory over Dean Ambrose at Money in the Bank, a match Rollins won without outside interference or any other form of chicanery, Rollins won the match only after both men unhooked the championship and fell of the ladder, with the championship happening to bounce towards Rollins.

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I would actually argue that if the plan all along was for Rollins to come across as a chicken s*** heel, then the booking has been very strong leading up to this match. In order for a heel to have a lengthy title reign, they normally have to ascertain one of two characters: that of a dominant, unstoppable force or of a cowardly champion that doesn't win matches as much as he survives them. Yokozuna was a dominant heel champion, he spent most of his championship matches physically controlling his opponent before putting them away for good. JBL was a cowardly heel champion, he spent most of the match being physically beaten, only to find out some way to sneak away with the title. Given Rollins' physical size, charisma and speaking ability, WWE chose the right character for his skill set.

The payoff for the craven heel is that eventually they encounter an unstoppable babyface who everyone is certain will lay a tremendous beating on the champion. JBL met that babyface in the form of John Cena, who crushed JBL and turned him into a footnote in Cena's rise to superstardom. Rollins will meet that foe next Sunday in the form of Brock Lesnar, the monstrous icon whose magnificent beatdowns have become most-watch television. All fans have wanted to cheer for Brock Lesnar, they were just waiting for an excuse to do so. Unleashing him on the top heel in the company, someone who the fans loathe and his primed for an ass-kicking, is just strong booking.

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So far, Rollins has been presented as having seemingly no-shot at leaving Battleground as the champion. Yes he left Lesnar laying a couple of weeks ago, but that was only with the help of three other men and multiple finishers being applied to Lesnar. On Monday, Rollins faced off with Lesnar, teamed with J&J security and armed with axe handles, and Lesnar destroyed them. Rollins only avoided a massive beating by staying true to his character and fleeing the ring and exiting the arena. The implication given was pretty clear: Under anything close to an even battle, Rollins is going to get annihilated by Lesnar.

On a side note, I am a big fan of Rollins and company using axe handles as weapons. A pet peeve of mine is when wrestlers use actual weapons in matches. Getting hit with a steel chair or a ladder or even a Kendo stick is one thing, but it destroys all levels of believability when Sting pulls out his baseball bat and starts cracking guys with it. If you were to hit someone in the abdomen with a baseball bat, that person is suffering broken ribs at the minimum. The biggest offender is Triple H and his sledgehammer. If you were to hit someone over the head with a sledgehammer using any significant amount of force, they wouldn't just be out for a three-count, their head would explode like a watermelon at a Gallagher show.

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Anyways, getting back to Lesnar vs Rollins, if we took everything WWE presented at face value, it seems highly likely that Lesnar is going to regain his world championship next Sunday. However, there are some reasons to believe that Rollins is going to win at Battleground (or at least avoid losing the championship).

The first reason is that this match is happening at Battleground, a show that in the past has been a B PPV if there ever was one. With Summerslam looming next month, the main event of that show would presumably be set up based on what happens at Battleground. If Lesnar destroys Rollins, then Rollins would likely get his rematch at Summerslam agains the champion Lesnar. Of course, if Lesnar kills Rollins and grabs his championship, fans would figure that Rollins has no chance of beating Lesnar at the next PPV. Rollins avoiding a title loss at Battleground, either by a screwy pin, DQ, count-out, etc. and then forcing a rematch against Lesnar at Summerslam, presumably in some form of stipulation match, would be a much more exciting match for Summerslam.

The second reason is that while Rollins' character is largely based on him being the champion, Lesnar doesn't really need the championship at all. If Lesnar reclaims the title, he is likely going to disappear for months at a time, just like he did last year, and that is route WWE doesn't have to go. Lesnar is just as effective as a special attraction whether he has the championship or not. Brock shows up and beats people up, whether he has the gold around his waist or not doesn't really mean all that much.

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Lastly, things are just a little too obvious in WWE right now. Rollins has built his character on being a master manipulator and a terrific schemer, even if The Authority put him in this match to see if he can deal with an elite challenger, it is likely that Rollins has a couple tricks up his sleeve to prevent him from losing the title. Lesnar could destroy Rollins in a similar fashion to the way he defeated John Cena at Summerslam last year. But unlike last year, a Lesnar dominating victory would be what everyone expected, so I expect Rollins to finagle a way to extend his title reign for at least another month.

Here are my star ratings for WWE "Beast in the East" (I did not see the main event, not like it mattered)

Chris Jericho vs Neville-****1/4- A very good match. Jericho hung right in there with Neville despite the fact that he is over 40 and doesn't wrestle as often. A good showing for Neville even though he came up short, Jericho really is great at making guys look good.

Nikki Bella vs Paige vs Tamina-**- Kind of a random match. I didn't care for the finish; Paige hits the Rampaige, the most punishing move in the Diva's division and Nikki kicks out at two, yet Nikki wins the match with a forearm shot?

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Brock Lesnar vs Kofi Kingston-**3/4- As entertaining as a squash match can possibly be, Lesnar is just a crazy force, there is nothing even close to him in wrestling today.

Finn Balor vs Kevin Owens-****1/4- A very good showing, and Johnny Ace did a terrific job booking this as a very puroresu match, with a lot of high-impact moves and a strong finish.

Here are my star ratings for New Japan's Dominion Show:

Mascara Dorada, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi and Sho Tanaka vs Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Yohei Komatsu-**1/2

The Young Bucks vs Roppongi Vice vs reDRagon-***1/4

Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma vs Yujiro Takahashi and Bad Luck Fale-***

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Katsuyori Shibata-***

KUSHIDA vs Kenny Omega-****1/4

Togi Makabe vs Tomohiro Ishii-***1/4

Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson vs The Kingdom-***

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Toru Yano-***1/4

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hirooki Goto-****1/4

Kazuchika Okada vs AJ Styles-****1/2

You can follow Jesse Collings on Twitter @JesseCollings

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