September 5, 2022 Observer Newsletter: Huge weekend preview, Goro Tsurumi passes away

One of the biggest weekends of the year, one with three major events from WWE and AEW, likely not coincidental, is upon us.

WWE has Clash at the Castle on 9/3 at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. For such a major event, it’s really a one-match show with Roman Reigns defending his Universal title against Drew McIntyre.

Reigns goes in with a two-year run as champion. With him wrestling The Rock as the current WrestleMania plan, it doesn’t need to be a title match. But they’ve kept the title on him for so long that most figured it was because they didn’t want to beat him prior to the match. The reality is that McIntyre could win, and lose it back before Mania and they could still do Reigns vs. Rock, and/or the Money in the Bank winner.

The advantage of McIntyre is obvious. They would have a champion who would appear on television once or twice a week, on every PPV show and on the house show circuit. With a new regime that may want to rebuild house shows and maximize television numbers, a champion in play full-time would help. But Reigns is also the biggest star in the company, and Levesque likely comes from the school where the champion should be the biggest star because if he’s not, you’re really devaluing the title itself.

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