Who Does it Better? Episode 3: WWE's Current Mid-Card Champions
Mid-card championships have an important role to play in a wrestling promotion. Not only are they stepping stones for up and comers to the main event picture, but they provide an alternative story to that main event.
While the world title picture is often the scene of great drama, the mid-card titles provide an adrenaline rush of pure wrestling and athleticism. Seth Rollins has been demonstrative of that this year.
There are four mid-card titles in the company - the Intercontinental Championship on Raw, the United States Championship on SmackDown, the North American Championship on NXT, and the UK Championship, which is akin to a territorial title for the NXT UK brand, and has functioned as a mid card championship on the main NXT brand.
On this edition of "Who Does it Better?" we're going to compare all four current mid-card champions in WWE: Seth Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura, Ricochet, and Pete Dunne, to see which one of them is the best professional wrestler.
Round 1: Ring Ability
This one is tough, because three of the four mid-card champions have a strong resume of four star matches this year. In terms of sheer athleticism, no one can match Ricochet, but being a great in-ring wrestler is about more than pure athletics. Pacing, sequencing of spots, selling, and other psychological aspects also matter.
When combining all of these things, no one stands out more than Pete Dunne. All of his matches are akin to gritty street fights for survival, as Dunne simply beats his opponents until they're too broken to continue. He's always doing something that looks brutal, whether it's his joint manipulation, his counters, or his own share of acrobatics.
Seth Rollins comes in second. His matches have been well-paced and he's played the fiery fighter perfectly.
Ricochet can make jaws drop, but as yet his in-ring resume in WWE doesn't quite match Dunne and Rollins, though his selling ability is very good.
Shinsuke Nakamura, unsurprisingly, comes in fourth. He's a good wrestler, but has often been accused of being lazy. None of his matches have yet equaled his first in WWE against Sami Zayn at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, and his feud with AJ Styles is regarded as a disappointment.
Verdict:
1st: Pete Dunne (+4 points)
2nd: Seth Rollins (+3 points)
3rd: Ricochet (+2 points)
4th: Shinsuke Nakamura (+1 point)