Part 1 of the Draft has come and gone. It was pretty obvious that Roman is staying put…what really threw me off was Cody isn’t jumping over to SmackDown and Bianca is heading there, too (with the Raw women’s title, here we go again!) but I digress.
Who do you think should be the first man to hold the rebooted Big Gold?
0 voters
We don’t know the full roster for Raw. But I voted other because it should be somebody who Roman hasn’t already defeated in his Universal Title run. Having the title being won by somebody who already lost to Roman immediately makes it seem inferior.
Roman beat Drew at Clash of the Castle
Roman beat Cody at WrestleMania
Roman beat Finn Balor twice in 2021
Roman beat Seth Rollins at Royal Rumble 2022
So “other” contenders could include
-Bobbly Lashley
-Gunther
-Sheamus
-Returning AJ Styles
-Returning Big E
-Returning Randy Orton
Of those my preference would be Gunther. Then having the Raw champion wearing two belts and the Smackdown champion wearing two belts would balance them out.
Did you miss the fact that Roman got DQ’d when he faced Seth in STL?
Without watching the product, the correct answer is Me. I thank you in advance for this rebooted version of the glorious big gold belt. 
LOL
Yeah I had forgotten that. But Seth still lost three high profile matches in a row to Cody. Who then also lost to Roman. I would still immediately think the Raw champion is weaker than the SD champion if Seth wins the belt.
I think it should be Cody. Complete the story.
Seth is Teflon.
The story does not need an alternate ending. Respectfully, get outta here with that nonsense.
It will reek of a cop out if Cody settles for the Big Gold. There’s only one true ending. You and I both know it.
Bron Breaker. Who with a win over an established top tier star can feel like one to start the title off. Giving it to a top star will make the top star feel lessened. There ought to be a tier of stars who are above all titles except Romans. Maybe that’s Cody Seth KO Sami. Then there is a new champion for whom the title seems like a big step up. Oppose to a step down. Build the title and Bron up with wins over the next tier of guys until Bron has a top tier challenger where it feels like it’s own championship for him to win before a top tier guy takes the title at a point in time where it no longer feels second fiddle to Roman.
Brock is a wildcard here because as long as he beats somebody to win the title off them it will help elevate the title. He shouldn’t be first. It’ll cheapen it as a hand out.
Drew or Lashley and anyone in that tier will absolutely feel like a second fiddle champion. They present better challengers to a star on the come up to help solidify that guy with wins.
Wanted to come to say the same thing. Giving the title to someone who Roman beat immediately diminishes it. This would be the perfect opportunity to make someone new instantly.
Outside of that it has to go to someone Roman hasn’t beat. A guy like Randy Orton or even a completely rebuilt and repackaged Bray Wyatt might work.
Bray wyatt will never work on any level with any kind of packaging. Its been proven. Maybe if he was in Impact and was in their supernatural divison hed be a star
Define “proven”? I agree that the internet audience tends not to love his stories, but even the dumbest stuff he does tends to get a huge reaction in the arena. Hell, uncle howdy got huge pops despite how goofy that all was.
Seth rollins hell in a cell. Randy orton at wrestlemania. Twice. I can list bad matches all day and there were no reactions during the matches.
Anyways hes an entrance. Give him a normal one and those reactions go away.
Listing two bad matches does not “prove” that a character cannot get over. If that was the criteria, no wrestler is over.
To be clear, I’m not saying every match Wyatt has is a hot match, clearly that’s not true. However, the guy is more then capable of getting over to the average WWE fan.
I said I could go all day. There are no good matches. The reactions he gets are for his entrance only
You’re probably right but I think a heavily edited Wyatt treated more like an actual wrestler as opposed to a b-movie horror villain could work.
His most recent run was an unmitigated disaster and to me proves he needs a lot of editing. But he gets over and sells merch, that’s really all WWE wants in a top guy.
The fact that he has had so many bad matches and been booked so poorly proves my point. Bray has been mega over despite all that. This speaks volumes to how talented he actually is.
He’s had good matches. Daniel Bryan strap match at RR was excellent, Finn at Summerslam was a very good match (for what it was), Bray vs Bryan after Bryan turned babyface prior to Mania 30 was a great match, the Hardy match was awesome (though that was a cinematic match), The Cena match was good (also edited), Shield vs Wyatts was good, and there were a ton of multi man matches he was in that were very good…thats just off the top of my head.
Bray’s problem is that Vince booked him horribly. He’s been booked a bit better under Hunter, but it still hasnt been great. Bray can work if the writing is there, the fans have shown they are into him, with him the key is the writing/booking, but the guy is 100% a talented performer and there is no doubt he connects with the audience. If he’s not your thing, cool.
They should put it on JD Mcdonagh. Why the hell not? The guy can go in the ring, hes solid on the mic. It will immediately make him a big deal.
If they put it on a no-name (I mean to the average WWE fan, not people who post here), rather then elevate him, it likely just devalue the title. Title will come off like the US Title.