Well, if you needed a reason to watch WWE Raw tonight, here it is. New Day legend and current Money In The Bank holder Big E has announced he will be cashing in his contract tonight for a shot at the WWE Championship. Of course, as Big E put it himself, he’s going to cash in and win the WWE Championship, but something tells me current title holder Bobby Lashley will have something to say about that.
The announcement came on Twitter earlier today in the lead-up to tonight’s Raw, and it has gotten fans hyped about what is to come. You can check out the fan favorite big man’s words below…
Talk about a cocky move. This just oozes confidence and swagger. The original plan was for Bobby Lashley to fight Randy Orton for the belt tonight on Raw. As far as I know, that’s still going to happen. So, maybe this means Big E will fight the winner. Maybe this means he’s going to use the contract to make it a triple threat match. That last option would be a really dumb decision, but then again, announcing you’re going to use the Money In The Bank contract before you do it is a really dumb decision. Unless, of course, if you win. Then it’s an all-time badass move.
And that’s clearly what Big E is going for. He wants tonight to be a celebration of his talent. He might get that celebration too. Big E is beloved by the fans in a natural, organic way. He looks the part. He’s good on the mic, and Bobby Lashley has had a nice, extended run with the belt. There is a lot of smoke here about a possible legit title change tonight, especially when you factor in AEW.
AEW’s most recent pay-per-view, All Out, was so well received by fans and the press that it has launched a lot of conversation around whether the upstart brand can turn into WWE’s first legitimate competitor since WCW. With the recent signings of former WWE stars CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole, all the momentum is now on AEW’s side. WWE needs something to generate some headlines beyond all the recent departures. A title change tonight, if done in the right way, could generate some of those positive headlines.
The reaction from fans to Big E’s announcement has been one of shock and excitement. There are plenty who absolutely love how self-confident or even arrogant this looks. There are others who don’t care and just desperately want to see the title around Big E’s neck. Both groups are pumped about tonight. Here’s a popular example…
And there are, of course, others loudly complaining about how this seems like an attempt to goose the ratings and beat AEW after all the recent publicity. Many wrestling fans seem to think whatever happens is being directly influenced by the increasing competition from the upstart promotion. Frankly, it’s hard to argue that some of that isn’t going on. Here’s a look at a tweet discussing that…
In the long run, competition is good. WWE was never better than when it was competing week to week for eyeballs with WCW. There were, of course, some mistakes made along the way and some times in which Vince McMahon and company prioritized the short-term over the long-term in order to win ratings battles, but they still produced a ton of amazing events. Hopefully this is the start of something great, whether Big E wins tonight or not.
Let the record reflect, however, that if Big E doesn't win tonight, it was an all-time stupid move to call his shot, and he instead should have just shamelessly beat a weakened opponent like The Miz did. Then again, I'm a whatever you need to do to win kinda guy.
