Which Former Shield Member Will Win World Heavyweight Championship First?

my guess is reigns is a *surprise* entrant rumble winner to fight brock at wm. however i'm still unsure whether he wins, his momentum has stalled quite a lot. ambrose has momentum but idk if he 'needs the title' ala jake the snake or if he's ready for it yet, he's still the guy who is moody or does funny shit like the hot dog cart. rollins otoh is main event already, but he's the second biggest heel when the biggest heel is BORK FUCKING LAZER, so he's still not really main event yet.

oh and the rock could still come back for wm31. taker may want a wm rematch. and bryan still hasn't had his proper run yet, coming back and beating brock will put him back over biiiig. so it could be a looooong while until any of them even get a chance.

picking rollins.

wonder if bryan is ever coming back tbh

This is still Reigns all the way. The ending to HIAC showed that they don't view Ambrose as a top guy, at least not yet. I'm still not sure what the endgame is with Rollins -- maybe Cena beats Lesnar at RR and Rollins cashes in on Cena to win the title, but then what? There's no way Rollins carries the belt into WM.

My money is still on Reigns getting the belt from Not Rollins at Mania. Then Rollins can use the briefcase to challenge Reigns.

BTW it's been confirmed that Bryan needs another surgery (reportedly Tommy John surgery) so there's no way he's back by Mania.

They're really missing a secondary belt right now. If they were in this situation at any point in the last few years then Rollins and Ambrose would be trading the WHC right now and Wyatt probably would have had a short go as well. Returning to one world title was a good move imo but they could do with the Intercontinental belt ceasing to be a useless mid-card placeholder and actually having some value again.

As things stand they've painted themselves into a corner because there are only a few guys who they'd even plausibly have beat Lesnar (Cena, Bryan, Reigns if they're really as into him as reports suggest) without resorting to Money in the Bank shenanigans which would be a bit of a waste of Lesnar's current unstoppable monster heat. Bryan obviously isn't happening any time soon, there are noted problems with Reigns as top guy as things stand and Cena beating Lesnar for the belt now would just be soooooo tired and unoriginal (and is therefore the most likely option by far).

Problem is that in the meantime you've got Ambrose, Rollins, Wyatt all hovering around spinning their wheels a bit. If the IC title was given as much attention as it used to be in the early-mid '90s then those guys would at least have something to do. An IC title scene with those three, Sheamus, Ziggler, Cesaro, Swagger where the matches were treated as semi-mains rather than 8 minute openers, proper feuds, stipulation matches etc. then I'm pretty sure the results would be spectacular. Alas, no one gives a shit about secondary titles or whatever the party line is these days

i watched the osw review of hell in a cell and never knew ambrose did an awkward bit with a dummy on raw. way to make him the new steve austin wwe, that shit looked like it would have made thousands of people never watch wrestling ever again.

also does anyone else kinda get the feeling that the bryan ops are kayfabe and he's #30 in the rumble?

yeah definitely

re bryan - i didn't watch the mannequin bit but i heard it was horrible so i stayed away

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

now that ambrose is feuding w/ bray does that free up seth for the title?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ROLLINS
ROLLINS
ROLLINS

we have a...wiener?!

ilx knew

watching raw and dean ambrose has the worst punches since sable