After spending a number of months building up to Sheamus turning on WWE Champion Drew McIntyre to set up a feud between the two, the promotion finally pulled the trigger on it during last week’s episode of Monday Night Raw. It came as Edge was making clear he doesn’t have plans to decide on a WrestleMania 37 opponent anytime soon, and we later learned he won’t decide until after Elimination Chamber.
Seems like a perfect setup for McIntyre vs. Sheamus for the title at the big pay-per-view, right?
That seemed to be the plan, as the two agreed to the match and television was literally all about getting to that point. Then, this week’s episode of Raw featured Shane McMahon returning just to tell Adam Pearce he’s great and also wanting to be there for the announcement that actually McIntyre is defending the WWE championship in an Elimination Chamber match against Sheamus, yes, but also Randy Orton (who just lost a long feud with McIntyre over the title), AJ Styles (who also just lost a title match against McIntyre), The Miz (who was also in that Styles match due to cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and lost, only to be given that contract back under strange circumstances), and Jeff Hardy (who hasn’t even been on television lately and was instantly beaten by Styles right after the announcement).
If that wasn’t bad enough, get in on how they explained this a short time later:
To his face, Pearce told Sheamus “we’re just trying to give the biggest main event we can.” Somehow, McIntyre vs. three guys he’s beaten multiple times over the past six months and another guy who hasn’t done much of anything is a bigger draw than McIntyre vs. Sheamus which, whether you’re interested in it or not, actually has a story behind it.
I, for what it’s worth, am one of the folks who isn’t into the McIntyre vs. Sheamus story, but a brutally physically encounter between the two would have made for a hell of a show, especially with the story they’ve put behind it. Instead, we’re getting just another gimmick match.
Tough scenes for Sheamus on this one.