WWE Rumors on Seth Rollins, Ronda Rousey's Schedules and Drew McIntyre's Return

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.

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Rollins to Miss Raw for Movie Filming

Seth Rollins will compete to become the inaugural WWE world heavyweight champion next weekend at Night of Champions, but he reportedly won't be present for the final build toward the match.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), Rollins was off from this week's Raw and will be absent again from next week's Raw due to filming commitments for the movie Captain America: New World Order.

The movie, which is set to release in May 2024, represents the highest-profile acting gig of Rollins' career.

Two weeks ago, Rollins won a Triple Threat match on Raw and then beat Finn Balor in the main event to secure his spot in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia.

AJ Styles then won a pair of matches on SmackDown to establish himself as Rollins' opponent at the event.

Last month, WWE head of creative Triple H introduced the World Heavyweight Championship as Raw's world title and suggested it will be a work-horse title, whereas Roman Reigns only defends the undisputed WWE Universal Championship on occasion.

Rollins was immediately viewed as a strong candidate to win the new title, and he enters Night of Champions as a heavy favorite to do so.

With Rollins unable to appear live on Raw this week, WWE did a pretaped interview segment to ensure he still had a significant role in the show, and it could do something similar next week as well.

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Rousey Reportedly Planning to Take Time Off

Ronda Rousey returned to WWE programming on Monday night's episode of Raw after having been out of action since WrestleMania 39, but her comeback reportedly may be brief.

According to Meltzer (h/t Upton), prior to WrestleMania, Rousey had been planning to take time off "at a certain timeframe" and the storyline of her and Shayna Baszler pursuing the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships was supposed to end "well before that."

Meltzer noted that if Rousey is still planning to take time off at around the same time, WWE would have to speed up the angle and make her and Baszler tag champs soon.

Rousey and Baszler teamed at WrestleMania in a Fatal 4-Way tag team match referred to as a Women's Showcase. They won thanks to a Rousey armbar, but she was barely involved in the match beyond that due to a preexisting injury.

She did not appear on WWE programming in the weeks after WrestleMania while healing up, but Rousey and Baszler returned on Monday's Raw by attacking Raquel Rodriguez, who is one half of the tag champs.

Rodriguez and Liv Morgan had been scheduled to defend the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships on Raw against Chelsea Green and Sonya Deville, but it didn't happen since Morgan wasn't medically cleared to compete.

The severity of Morgan's injury is unclear, but it seems WWE is moving toward Rousey and Baszler winning the titles whether Morgan is able to wrestle or not.

Rousey has been a singles star throughout her WWE career, having held both the Raw and SmackDown women's titles, but she has a chance to put some much-needed spotlight on the women's tag division.

Even if she and Baszler only dominate the tag team scene for a short period before Rousey takes a hiatus, having a star of her caliber involved could go a long way toward making fans more invested in the women's tag division.

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Creative Team Reportedly Holding Up McIntyre's WWE Return

Drew McIntyre has not been on TV since WrestleMania 39, and a creative issue is reportedly to blame.

According to Meltzer (h/t Upton), WWE and McIntyre are working out "what they want, what he wants and when they agree to it" from a creative perspective before he returns to action.

McIntyre was last seen at WrestleMania when he competed in a Triple Threat match against Gunther and Sheamus for the Intercontinental Championship. Gunther won and retained the title by pinning The Scottish Warrior.

Since then, rumors have run rampant regarding McIntyre's future in WWE, as his contract is reportedly set to expire some time in early 2024.

WWE and McIntyre are not known to have come to terms on a new deal yet, and Meltzer (h/t Upton) recently reported that McIntyre is "working with the idea there's a good chance he's finishing up" with WWE.

That could of course change if WWE increases its contract offer between now and the time his deal is up, but every indication is that McIntyre's WWE future is very much up in the air.

Even so, it is difficult to envision WWE allowing a commodity such as McIntyre to walk away, as he has consistently been among the company's top stars since returning in 2017.

McIntyre won the 2020 men's Royal Rumble match and went on to become a two-time WWE champion. It has been quite some time since he has held a title, but he has remained a top-flight babyface for the past few years.

In the recent WWE draft, McIntyre was moved from SmackDown to Raw, so his absence may be a case of WWE wanting to debut him on the red brand in the most impactful way possible.

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