Jinder Mahal set a new precedent two weeks ago when he became the WWE Champion and basically the new face of SmackDown. It wasn’t a secret that WWE were trying to break into the Indian market but I think the vast majority of people thought he may just remain No. 1 contender and battle Randy Orton multiple times in losing efforts to get over.
Nevertheless, Jinder Mahal shocked the world and WWE went ahead with the unthinkable as he pinned Randy Orton in the centre of the ring and won the most prestigious championship WWE has to offer. He’s gone from being a part of a jobbing stable to WWE Champion, just by working a little harder in the gym!
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I’m glad that WWE decided to go ahead with this and pull the trigger because it’s something new and fresh, and if reports are to be believed, he is to have a long title reign.
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Brock Lesnar is currently nowhere to be found. He won the Universal Championship in April at WrestleMania and will defend it for the first time at WWE Great Balls of Fire.
So who on Raw could take on a role similar to Jinder Mahal and go from zero to hero in a single night? Just one opportunity to reach the top of the mountain? This article will look at five wrestlers who are good enough to do so but are unlikely to ever get the chance.
We start with a former Bullet Club member...
#5 Karl Anderson
Karl Anderson is a fairly new player in the world of WWE. Having already won the WWE Tag Team Championships with Luke Gallows as part of The Club, he has shown he has the potential to carry a division and I feel he could transfer those skills to the Universal Championship and carry the brand.
He has been in a tag team for quite a lot of his career and it’s about time he had some singles action. Karl Anderson is a much more talented wrestler than he is allowed to really show in his current position in WWE and propelling him to the top of the mountain would give him a chance to show off these skills.
The best part about Anderson becoming Universal Champion would be the matches with his former colleagues from New Japan. AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor just to name the main ones. Granted, they aren’t all on the same roster at the moment but at any moment a superstar shake up could change that.
Anderson would have no problem carrying the brand thanks to his experience in the main event of the tag team divisions across the world. Give him a chance to work on his own as the top guy on Raw and watch the crowds lap him up.
#4 Austin Aries
The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived could well be the Greatest Man Who Ever became Universal Champion out of the blue. Austin is looking quite likely at the moment given his recent tweets about reassessing his career. It suggests that he could well be on the way to the main event scene of Raw.
This would be amazing. People wanted Austin Aries in WWE for the longest time as he dominated TNA and Ring of Honor, becoming the World Champion in both promotions.
He is a proven main event star but is currently at a really low point on the WWE ladder. It’s not what I expected of a wrestler of this immense talent. I actually thought he would dominate the NXT roster for a while and maybe even get to the top of the mountain before his call up, but 205 Live presented an opportunity and he took it.
I’m not sure it was the right move and I think if he was to win the Universal Championship, people would be quick to take to him, he could progress his character a bit more than he has been able to so far, and it would create a plethora of dream match opportunities for the very lucky modern-day crowd.
One man might not be so happy with this selection though…
#3 Neville
The King of the Cruiserweights could become the King of the Universe by being the first English-born WWE Universal Champion. He’s the only entertaining thing about WWE 205 Live currently as the show and the wrestlers that compete on it have not been handled and built the correct way.
He has a muscular physique which serves him well as he flies through the air with the greatest of ease. Since he became hell he has added a completely new dimension to his character and it is a lot easier to get invested in his storylines and his matches.
Pairing him with Austin Aries has been a good decision as there are not many other people that can hold the audience’s attention at the moment as the division is still evolving. There’s not much more that Neville can do to his character to improve it at this stage, he is flying high and giving his all every time he performs.
I feel like this determination and dedication would allow Neville to take the next step, given the opportunity and have a run as Universal Champion.
King of the Universe has a good ring to it.
#2 Matt Hardy
With the Hardy Boyz rumoured to be splitting up very soon, Matt Hardy may well be making his way to the main event scene. During his last run with WWE, it was his brother Jeff that tasted all the success, but when Matt left the company, he was the main event guy, he was the man of Impact Wrestling.
With his #BROKEN gimmick, he dominated the rosters of other companies and once he broke Jeff too, they dominated the tag teams of most of the major wrestling promotions of America. The gimmick was so over, even if you were a casual wrestling fan, its popularity was hard to avoid.
If he were able to sort out the legal issues surrounding the trademark of the #BROKEN gimmick, then he would be able to debut it in WWE and it would be the perfect character to finally take him to the Universal Championship.
It would be extremely entertaining and as this is probably going to be Matt Hardy’s final run in WWE given his age, it would be a fitting run for a man that has put his body on the line for the company for 20 years.
DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!
#1 Goldust
We recently saw a couple of promos from Goldust where he seemed to go back to his roots with his love for film, gold and just general weirdness. When the Attitude Era was in full swing, I always thought Goldust’s character was one of the most interesting. I often wondered why he was not getting a shot at the WWE Championship.
The fact that he has never actually been WWE Champion/WWE Universal Champion is quite strange given his tenure and the multiple iterations of his gimmick over the years. He did have the chance once against Shawn Michaels in a ladder match but came up short.
He is no stranger to a captivating promo and his quest for the Universal Championship would write itself. I mean, he loves gold! He’s in arguably the best shape of his life at the moment and he could go in main event matches where he needed to.
It would be good to see him go up against the current crop of contenders and the storylines you could make based on his gimmick alone are in abundance. He has been in the lower mid-card pretty much since he made his return and I think it’s Goldie’s time to shine!
