Rollins and ZIggler Steal the Show on Monday Night Raw

Seth Rollins put on a classic main event to close out Monday Night Raw last night in San Diego, wrestling for more than 30 minutes in a match that was contested for the Intercontinental Championship.

The match accomplished a lot. Let’s run it down.

1 — Seeing two wrestlers – especially a credible main eventer like Rollins – treating the title as being so important to him, it makes the championship rise in terms of prestige. You have Rollins, who so desperately wanted the championship back, and Ziggler, who would do whatever it took to keep the belt with him, including employing the use of Drew McIntyre.

2 — It was wrestling! How about that? A really good, fun wrestling match to close out a wrestling show! This match reminded fans that Ziggler can go. Hopefully it reminds WWE management of the same thing. Ziggler has (at times) desperately needed help with his character development, but you can’t question his in-ring ability. If they can finally get the character straightened out — and it feels like there might be something there with McIntyre — this is a good step for Ziggler.

3 — The match set up a tag match for next week’s Raw. Granted nothing was announced, but it seems logical that Rollins and Roman Reigns will team to face McIntyre and Ziggler next week on Raw, after Reigns made the save for Rollins when it looked like McIntyire and Ziggler were going to go for a double-team beatdown after the match. Advanced booking is good (and necessary) in order to stitch and weave each so together.

4 — The match set up a Rollins-Ziggler gimmick match for Extreme Rules, did it not? McIntyre interfered to end the Raw match, which only makes it logical for Rollins and Ziggler to have a cage match at WWE’s “extreme” pay per view, in order to keep McIntyre out of the ring. At least that’s how the feud would have been booked back in the 70’s and 80’s. Instead of having a cage or cell match because that’s the name of the show, here’s an actual, tangible reason to have a cage match. To keep someone else out of the ring. That’s what cages were meant for.

So while McIntyre’s interference at first put a damper on a fun main event, if it was done for the purpose of setting up something bigger — like a cage match — then I’m all for it. Especially after the fun we had watching the Raw main event.