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After this week’s episode of SmackDown ended on Friday night, the company issued a press release on its website announcing that Seth Rollins is the first member of Team RAW for Survivor Series.
The press release also stated the following:
After being named the first participant for the red brand, Seth Rollins is set to address the WWE Universe as he awaits the reveal of his teammates. By the end of Monday night, the full Team Raw lineup will be complete.
As the first-team pick and the captain of Team RAW, there are a few things that must be playing on the mind of the former Universal Champion who has straight away gotten such a big opportunity yet again.
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In this article, we will look at the 5 reasons why WWE announced Seth Rollins as the first pick of Team RAW.
#5 To give him the spot that was taken away for Crown Jewel
At Crown Jewel, WWE hosted a huge 10-men tag team match in Saudi Arabia, as Team Hogan took on Team Flair and emerged victoriously.
When the match was initially announced on Miz TV, Hulk Hogan immediately revealed Seth Rollins to be the team captain. As Rollins held the Universal Championship at that point, he was seen as a surprise pick with the general perception being that he won’t be defending his Universal Champion at the event.
However, the company had a change of heart probably due to the crowd reaction after the Hell in a Cell Universal Championship match finish and booked Rollins to defend his Championship against “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Crown Jewel. Rollins was later taken off Team Hogan so he could fully focus on defending his Championship, and Roman Reigns was named the captain of Team Hogan instead.
Now that Rollins is not the Universal Champion anymore, the company can once again turn to him and award him the captain of a team, and possibly go the route they were hoping to go with him at Crown Jewel initially.
#4 To give him a chance to redeem himself
Seth Rollins lost his Universal Championship to “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Crown Jewel after a hard-fought Falls Count Anywhere Match. With Wyatt taking the Universal Championship with him to SmackDown, and Brock Lesnar quitting SmackDown to bring the WWE Championship to RAW, things don't look too good for The Beast Slayer.
Rollins had initially won the Universal Championship after slaying “The Beast” Brock Lesnar, and it seems like we’re back to square one, as revealed by Rollins himself during his promo on the RAW that followed Crown Jewel. Now that Lesnar already has a rivalry with Rey Mysterio, the company shouldn’t put Rollins even near the Championship picture yet.
This requires Rollins to redeem himself, and make up for his Universal Championship loss at Crown Jewel without appearing in the WWE Championship picture. Since that is the case, leading Team RAW to victory at Survivor Series could prove to be the biggest way he can redeem himself at this point.
Rollins is the reason why the Red brand lost the Universal Championship to SmackDown, and he could lead Team RAW to victory at the event to bring back some honor to his brand and remain one of the top stars on the roster.
#3 To continue with him as the face of RAW’s men’s roster
RAW is full of some of the best and most talked-about Superstars in the entire industry. As Survivor Series drew near, many names were floating all-around social media as potential leaders for Team RAW.
Among those names were Superstars such as Randy Orton, Kevin Owens, and Drew McIntyre, all of whom would have made great and justifiable captains for the Red brand.
Not so surprisingly, the company went with Seth Rollins to captain Team RAW in their efforts to bag a victory for their brand, as he was the Universal Champion and the top guy not too long ago.
By naming Seth Rollins as the captain of Team RAW without having a few men compete for the position, or waiting until the next episode of RAW, the company has tried to reassure that Rollins is still the most important and top Superstar of the Red brand, and they will continue to keep the spotlight on him until Survivor Series at least.
The Architect is arguably the most accomplished Superstar in WWE at this point, and therefore the company wants to continue with him and his success in building towards the next big pay-per-view.
#2 To continue with Seth Rollins and Adam Cole’s rivalry
Last week when NXT invaded RAW, The Undisputed Era showed up to spoil Seth Rollins' segment which led to Rollins demanding an NXT Championship match against Adam Cole.
Rollins himself is a former NXT Champion, and the match between the two men was really good until The Undisputed Era interrupted to award Rollins a disqualification victory and protected their leader’s Championship in the process.
At this point, it seems like Cole could lead Team NXT at Survivor Series rather than be booked in a Champion vs. Champion match. Since Brock Lesnar is already defending his WWE Championship against Rey Mysterio at the event, it’s highly unlikely that the company will book a Universal Champion vs. NXT Champion match.
Therefore, the best possible outcome of this could be another face-off between Seth Rollins and Adam Cole as the team captains of their respective brands.
Rollins is known as one of the NXT Originals and one of the best NXT Champions, while Cole is leading the entire brand at the moment. The entire thing could work out extremely well while giving us some more great segments and matches in the lead up to Survivor Series.
#1 To set-up a possible heel turn
Last week, when Triple H interrupted Seth Rollins’ announcement regarding his future, the entire segment pointed towards a possible storyline that could benefit Rollins and the company.
Triple H offered Rollins to join him and NXT in their war against the main roster, an offer he did not exactly refuse. Rollins later asked Triple H to grant him an NXT Championship match as he said he’d return to NXT as the Champion if he were to return at all.
Fans have been speculating and waiting for a heel turn from Seth Rollins for a while now, and we could see that happen at Survivor Series during the tradition elimination match.
WWE could allow Rollins to turn heel during the match, and as the team captain, it would make a great spot since not many fans would be expecting the move on such a big stage. On top of that, a loss for RAW during the match because of Rollins’ antics will definitely protect the flagship brand, while potentially awarding the extremely high-profile match to NXT to show that it is not a developmental brand anymore.
The entire script writes itself from thereon, and we could either see Rollins return to RAW the next night as the relentless heel we’ve seen him act out in the past or as a big part of NXT.
