Seth Rollins alluded to one of AEW’s top stars and champions during his promo on the latest edition of WWE RAW. The Visionary is set to challenge his long-time rival, Roman Reigns, for the latter’s World Title this coming month.
The July 6 episode of Monday Night RAW aired from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. At the start of the show, Seth Rollins marched to the ring to cut a promo addressing his upcoming SummerSlam 2026 bout against Roman Reigns. The self-proclaimed “Revolutionary” is dead set on reclaiming the World Heavyweight Championship from The OTC in their first major PLE singles bout since they clashed for Roman’s Universal Title at Royal Rumble 2022.
In his promo on RAW, Rollins spoke about his grievances against Reigns over the latter being consistently presented and pushed as a top star by the WWE system. This prompted The Architect to bring up the debut of The Shield in 2012, and how the former Big Dog had supposedly been earmarked for greater success compared to his teammates, Seth himself and Dean Ambrose (now AEW’s Continental Champion Jon Moxley), despite the trio arriving and thriving early on together as a group.
“The Shield debuted as a trio. Right? There were three of us. But it was made abundantly clear that Roman Reigns was the chosen one. Roman was gonna be the guy on the marquee. Roman was gonna be the big star. Roman was gonna be the guy who main evented all the WrestleManias. It didn’t matter if Roman Reigns couldn’t cut a promo. It didn’t matter if Roman Reigns couldn’t wrestle his way out of a wet paper bag.” – said Rollins. [H/T- @WrestlePurists on X]
Despite not being named explicitly this time, the erstwhile Lunatic Fringe and the leader of The Death Riders continues to be tied to the evolving rivalry between Rollins and Reigns in WWE. Seth turning on Dean and Roman to break up The Shield is still regarded as one of the Stamford-based company’s most influential programming moments; it moreover paved the way to their eventual singles successes, and was thus evoked as a key element in the build-up to Rollins’ upcoming title match against Reigns.
Jon Moxley teamed with a former rival in AEW recently
The last time he was seen in action, on the July 1 edition of AEW Dynamite, Jon Moxley teamed with Will Ospreay to defeat The Swirl in tag team action. The One True King and The Aerial Assassin displayed remarkable teamwork during the bout, seemingly showcasing the results of their recent training together.
Ospreay has been working with Mox and The Death Riders to rehabilitate his neck enroute to AEW All In: London, and is seemingly an official representative of the group now.
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Edited by Anurag Mukherjee