Seth Rollins was the right option to face Roman Reigns at WWE Royal Rumble 2022
At the end of last night's episode of SmackDown, Seth Rollins appeared in Roman Reigns' locker room. This is after it was announced that Reigns' Royal Rumble opponent would have to be revealed by the end of the night.
While the match hasn't been made official, it appears the two are on a collision course for the Rumble event in a few weeks.
It's ... @WWERollins!!!!
@WWERomanReigns
#SmackDown https://t.co/6TFyQxD1s3
The match doesn't make sense on paper, with Rollins and Reigns on opposite brands. All WWE has to do is say that Adam Pearce and Sonya DeVille felt Rollins was screwed out of his one-on-one WWE Championship Match at Day 1, so this is their way of making it up to him.
When you look at the SmackDown roster and the fact that Reigns is seemingly on the path for another match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38, Rollins was the best choice for Reigns at the Royal Rumble.
Sweet office bro. twitter.com/wwe/status/147…
While there's no way to confirm this, it feels like where WWE would have slotted in Jeff Hardy to face Reigns. Hardy would have been the perfect placeholder feud to get Reigns from the Rumble to WrestleMania as champion.
Next in line on the babyface chart on SmackDown are New Day, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Cesaro. The New Day is feuding with The Usos, so they would have made the most sense. However, they are coming off two straight losses, so they wouldn't be seen as a threat.
Nakamura is the current Intercontinental Champion. That is normally the stepping stone to someone being a main eventer. However, Nakamura has barely defended the title, and is set to defend it against Sami Zayn soon.
Cesaro already faced Reigns for the Universal Championship last year and lost. He's also coming off of a loss to Sheamus at Day 1 in what was essentially a 2-on-1 match for him and Ricochet.
Drew McIntyre was likely WWE's Plan B after Hardy was released. But he's dealing with a neck injury at the moment. With no credible babyfaces on SmackDown, Rollins is WWE's next best option.
As for the match itself, WWE can build up suspense by stating that Rollins was the last man to defeat Reigns for the Universal Championship. This occurred at Money in the Bank in 2016. Reigns' last Universal Championship reign ended when he had to vacate the title due to leukemia.
In conclusion, WWE plucking Seth Rollins, a heel from RAW, to face Roman for SmackDown's top title shows WWE's inability to build babyfaces. We're getting a WrestleMania caliber main event, which is needed considering RAW's main event match of Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship. It's also someone credible who fans can see defeating Reigns, even though that will not happen.