Seth Rollins vs. Dean Ambrose at WWE Elimination Chamber Is Bad for Business

Seth Rollins has been a fighting champion since winning the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania 31.

He’s been fighting so much, in fact, that he’s hurting his title reign.

Seth Rollins shouldn't defend his title against Dean Ambrose, or anyone, at WWE Elimination Chamber. Instead, WWE should take a page out of Brock Lesnar's title reign, scaling back Rollins' appearances to make fans yearn for more.

After Elimination Chamber, Rollins will have wrestled five pay-per-view matches and nearly a dozen televised sets on WWE programming over the last two months, according to the Internet Wrestling Database:

DATE	EVENT/SHOW	OPPONENT	RESULT	NOTES
3/29/15	Wrestlemania 31 (PPV)	Randy Orton	Loss	Rollins pinned
3/29/15	Wrestlemania 31 (PPV)	Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns	Win	Triple Threat for WWE Championship
3/30/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Six-Man Tag Team Match (Randy Orton-Roman Reigns-Ryback vs. Rollins-Kane-Big Show)	Loss
4/6/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Neville	Win
4/13/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Kane	Win
4/20/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Dolph Ziggler	Win
4/23/15	Thursday Night Smackdown (TV)	Tag Team Match (Dean Ambrose-Roman Reigns vs. Rollins-Luke Harper)	Loss	Rollins pinned
4/26/15	Extreme Rules (PPV)	Randy Orton	Win	Steel Cage Match for WWE Championship
4/27/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Tag Team Match (Roman Reigns-Randy Orton vs. Rollins-Kane)	Loss	Rollins pinned
4/30/15	Thursday Night Smackdown (TV)	Dean Ambrose	Win
5/4/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Dean Ambrose	Loss	Ambrose wins spot in WWE Payback Main Event; Rollins pinned
5/11/15	Monday Night Raw (TV)	Randy Orton	Loss (DQ)
5/14/15	Thursday Night Smackdown (TV)	Ryback	Win
5/17/15	Payback (PPV)	Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose	Win	Fatal 4-Way for WWE Championship

By comparison, it took nearly a full calendar year for Lesnar to compete in five pay-per-view matches. Lesnar also had the good fortune of not having to wrestle on Monday and Thursday nights, nor at house shows week in and week out.

While some fans grumbled about Lesnar’s part-time schedule, it cannot be overstated how much it helped his drawing power. A Lesnar appearance was—and still is—an event, whether headlining a pay-per-view or making a special appearance on Monday Night Raw. 

Rollins, on the other hand, has been force-fed to the WWE Universe since his heel turn nearly a year ago. Every Monday night, fans can tune in to Raw and expect, in order, a Seth Rollins opening sequence, a Seth Rollins mid-show backstage promo and a Seth Rollins matchup to end the night.

It’s not as if WWE Creative is giving Rollins squash matches on Monday and Thursday nights, either. Five of his TV appearances have resulted in losses, and he took the pin in three of them.

In a fourth—May 11’s Raw, the WWE Payback go-home show—Rollins lost via disqualification but was hit with Dirty Deeds by Dean Ambrose, a spear from Roman Reigns and an RKO from Randy Orton.

Eat, Sleep, Conquer? More like Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

A champion needs to look strong, even in defeat. Instead, Rollins has been used to put over his competitors in upcoming pay-per-views.

Bleacher Report’s Ryan Dilbert pointed this out a few weeks back:

"

During Rollins' climb to championship status, WWE showed him to be a man worth fearing. Turn your back on him, and you chance getting a knife plunged into your vertebrae. Since holding the gold, he's been doing more punch-taking than backstabbing. This is weakening Rollins' character. It makes him look like more of a pushover.

"

Consider how Ambrose got his title match at Elimination Chamber. He crashed two Seth Rollins segments on Raw this past Monday to demand a title shot. In the show’s finale, Ambrose manhandled everyone in The Authority and put Rollins’ head on cement blocks until he got his wish.

Ambrose made Rollins look as weak as he’s ever been. This is your WWE heavyweight champion, ladies and gentlemen.

The need to make others look strong at Rollins’ expense is a direct result of his being front-and-center each and every week. By removing Rollins from the equation, WWE can utilize its roster of main event-level wrestlers—Ambrose, Reigns, Orton and others—to make each other look strong, depending on the story they want to tell.

Next week's Elimination Chamber has an enticing card. The Intercontinental Championship and Tag Team Championship matches were enough on their own to justify the two-week turnaround for a WWE Network-only special. Teases for two more potential matchups on May 31—Neville vs. Bo Dallas and a WWE Divas Championship Triple Threat match—came out of Monday Night Raw as well.

Plus, in the mother of all surprises, WWE made a bold move in announcing that NXT champion Kevin Owens will face United States champion John Cena at Elimination Chamber. WWE Creative's work should have ended right there. 

Instead, WWE made a kneejerk decision to put Rollins in a match against Ambrose to capitalize not only on their well-executed recent matches but also on their history as members of The Shield.

Never mind that Ambrose lost his chance to claim the title at WWE Payback a week ago. We won't even bring up how Reigns might deserve this shot even more, considering his recent history with Rollins and The Authority. 

If WWE felt another match was needed, it could have announced a third Elimination Chamber match to crown a No. 1 contender, giving its champion a much-needed break and allowing a story to develop. 

Let Rollins do commentary, which will allow him to build feuds through his excellent mic work. Let him run in and disrupt a match. Keep him off TV entirely for a week and let stories build through his opponents.

As it stands, Rollins is being booked no better than Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus or any other midcard wrestler. The only difference is the hardware he’s carrying around. 

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