Before Samoa Joe made his WWE main roster debut about two months ago, it was pretty much written in stone that Seth Rollins would face Triple H at WrestleMania 33 . The match was actually being set up for the past year or so, but Rollins’ injuries kept pushing it back and his most recent injury at the hands of Joe put their match at the big pay-per-view (PPV) in jeopardy. Still, WWE was prepared with a backup plan in case Rollins couldn’t go, and it was a really good one.
Ever since Rollins aggravated a knee injury on an episode of Monday Night Raw close to two months ago, many have wondered if he would be able to take part in WrestleMania 33 . WWE is creating a pretty interesting angle so he can compete, but what if he couldn’t go?
Updated at 9:10 p.m. Eastern – As recapped by the official website of WWE , Seth Rollins did indeed accept the Non-Sanctioned Match against Triple H at WrestleMania 33 , The Hold Harmless Agreement was officially signed tonight on Monday Night Raw .
Sports Keeda is reporting that ex-WWE writer Brian Mann took some time to discuss things with them and WrestleMania 33 was the primary focus. One huge bombshell he revealed is that if Rollins was not healthy enough to compete, the backup plan for Triple H’s opponent was Finn Balor.
Rollins’ injury was actually believed to be a torn MCL when it happened back on the January 30 episode of Monday Night Raw , and it was immediately thought he would miss months again. When it was evaluated and revealed not to be as bad as expected, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t known if he would be able to compete at WrestleMania 33 .
Once that happened, WWE began going through a number of different possibilities for Triple H’s opponent at the big PPV. With so many superstars already involved in other feuds and set for different matches, executives finally came up with the idea of Triple H taking on Balor.
It isn’t really known how the storyline would have worked with a Balor vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania 33 , but WWE would have come up with something. Since Balor has just recently returned to in-ring action at house shows, he has been facing off with Triple H in tag matches and even some singles matches.
Cageside Seats is reporting that the two actually faced off in the main event of Sunday’s house show in White Plains, New York. Balor partnered with Chris Jericho and Sami Zayn to defeat the team of Triple H, Samoa Joe, and Kevin Owens.
At one point in the match, there was a historic moment which saw Triple H hold up the “Too Sweet” gesture which The Kliq and nWo were so famous for. The Bullet Club, of which Balor was a member in NJPW, also did the gesture between its members.
Triple H held it up to Balor, but it wasn’t met with solidarity. Balor returned a gesture, but it was his iconic signal of the gun.
Thank you #WWEWhitePlains … One week until @WrestleMania #Creator #Destroyer pic.twitter.com/h6ofCy06gy
— Triple H (@TripleH) March 27, 2017
The match and especially the moment were said to have a “big, special feel to it,” per Wrestling Inc. , and fans can only hope that this feud happens in the future.
There is very little doubt that Triple H and Finn Balor would tear the nonexistent roof off the place at WrestleMania 33 , but his scheduled match against Seth Rollins should be great as well. One interesting note, though, is that it was actually Rollins who injured Balor last August and forced him out of action for more than half a year.
A Non-Sanctioned Match between Triple H and Seth Rollins is the direction that WWE is taking for WrestleMania 33 , but that wasn’t always the plan. The company really wanted to have a regular match between mentor and student, but Samoa Joe kind of messed that up. Still, if Rollins wasn’t able to wrestle at all, it would have been extremely exciting to see Finn Balor make his WrestleMania debut as the “backup plan” as an opponent for Triple H.
[Featured Image by WWE]