by David Joaqui,
WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre, has his next opponent set. Randy Orton opened up Monday Night Raw declaring that he wants McIntyre at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship. Although Orton has done a phenomenal job as a heel and even bringing back the patented “Legend Killer” gimmick, he shouldn’t be the one to defeat McIntyre for the WWE Championship.
The question then remains, who should be the one to inevitably defeat the Scottish Psychopath? There are two superstars that would make sense for compelling stories, and this first fantasy match up would make for a “glorious” one.
McIntyre has run through the likes of Brock Lesnar, Big Show, Seth Rollins, Bobby Lashley, and now Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship. WWE has done well by McIntyre and made him a legit champion. He’s not only been made to look strong, but his promos have given him that main event feel that the former 3MB member has never had.
After finishing his storyline with Orton, which will probably span two Pay Per Views, McIntyre will need an opponent worthy of challenging his reign. And there’s no one better than the glorious one, Booby Roode, to do it.
Roode has been off T.V. for some time now and this would be a great way to bring him back. Throwing him into the WWE Championship picture would give him that push he’s deserved since making his main roster debut. In NXT, Roode made himself a main eventer and held the NXT Championship for 202 days. That reign was ended by none other than the current WWE Champion, Drew McIntyre.
After that loss, Roode made his main roster debut to only be dragged down by creative and be lost in the mid-card. WWE can play off that since Roode lost the NXT Championship, he’s been plagued by it. His mind has been in flux and hasn’t been able to right things for 3 years, but he finally figured out what has been holding him back. His loss to McIntyre at NXT: TakeOver Brooklyn.
That is the blueprint to beginning this feud. From there WWE can build off Roode being the catalyst of what NXT was and bringing Raw back to supremacy. He can tell McIntyre how once he left NXT in his hands; things went downhill for the brand. This heated exchange between the two will then culminate at the following PPV, with the glorious one vanquishing the Scottish psychopath.
WWE might be hesitant of this, being that they wouldn’t want to hurt McIntyre’s credibility. But there is a way around this if they don’t want him to lose cleanly. Right when it looks like McIntyre is about to hit the Claymore, Dolph Ziggler appears from underneath the ring to distract McIntyre and give Roode the opening he needs. He hits the glorious DDT and the Glorious Reign begins. That not only makes sense because of the feud McIntyre and Ziggler just had, but you have Ziggler helping his former Tag Team partner. This keeps McIntyre strong while elevating Roode.
If WWE or anyone doubts that Roode as champion might not work, revisit NXT from 2016-17 to see the draw and attraction that he was. From the moment he grazed our television sets he was must-see T.V. Until this day his entrance is nothing less of glorious, pun intended. This is the way to build more main event talent. While Orton has been great, when he’s gone, they will need someone to take on that role. He doesn’t need another title reign. WWE needs to give guys like Roode the opportunity to show why they were brought into the company, to begin with. And that is GLORIOUS.