Predicting When Seth Rollins Will Lose WWE Universal Title

Despite Brock Lesnar announcing ahead of time that he planned to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase for a Universal Championship opportunity last night on Raw, it never came to fruition, and Seth Rollins left with his title intact.

He is still scheduled to defend the gold against Baron Corbin on Friday at Super ShowDown. Corbin holds a pinfall victory over Rollins from several weeks ago, so a new champion being crowned in Saudi Arabia is a possibility.

Despite the threats of Corbin and Lesnar looming large, Rollins should remain in possession of the title at least through the summer. With an abundance of opponents to work with, there is no need for him to drop it any time soon.

After all, Raw is stockpiled with star power coming out of the 2019 Superstar Shake-up, not to mention that talent from SmackDown Live can challenge for Rollins' title as well thanks to the Wild Card Rule.

AJ Styles was perhaps Rollins' most anticipated opponent when he arrived on Raw in April, but WWE oddly blew through that bout at Money in the Bank. Rollins winning clean didn't leave the door open for an immediate rematch, and Styles suffering a legitimate injury soon after didn't help matters.

Once he's cleared to compete, Styles and Rollins should rekindle their rivalry in time for SummerSlam and wage war over the Universal Championship again. There, The Phenomenal One can add another world title to his resume in WWE, and if not, Rollins could be holding the gold for a lot longer than we think.

Aside from Styles, there aren't any obvious choices to assume Rollins' role as Raw's top dog.

Corbin has been pushed fairly aggressively on Monday nights since retiring Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 35. Although he generates good heel heat, fans don't seem to be clamoring to see him positioned as a main event player.

The only other heel with the slightest chance of taking that title from Rollins is Drew McIntyre, who has been one of the best-booked alumni from NXT in the last year. Then again, his recent alliance with Shane McMahon has caused his stock to plummet, meaning it might be a while before he rebounds.

It's worth noting that Braun Strowman has yet to receive the title shot he earned earlier this year, so that could come back into play eventually. Seeing as how he and Rollins have never feuded one-on-one before, perhaps The Monster Among Men will be the one to relieve Rollins of his coveted championship down the road.

Even if that ends up being the case, it shouldn't happen until late 2019. Strowman would have to be built back up first after enduring so much damage in his feuds with Lesnar and Corbin.

In the meantime, Rollins must remain universal champion for the foreseeable future. As arguably the strongest all-around performer on the red brand, he has a tendency to bring the best out of all of his opponents and is Raw's only hope of making it out of the mess it finds itself in.

Above all else, the worst decision WWE could make would be to have Lesnar regain the gold from Rollins. Although it would hurt the credibility of the Money in the Bank contract for him to fall short of cashing in successfully, it's more important that Raw not return to what it was when Lesnar had the title.

To his credit, The Beast Incarnate has been one of the more compelling parts of Raw in recent weeks. On Monday night, he teased targeting Rollins and his title at Super ShowDown, which will likely be another ruse.

SummerSlam would be a fine time for Rollins to lose the belt, but without any potential successors in sight, it would be better for him to reign as champ through the remainder of 2019 and beyond until someone comes along who can carry the torch the same way he has.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is an Endicott College alumnus and aspiring journalist. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.