WWE Universal Championship No. 1 Contender’s Match Booked for WWE Raw

Between SmackDown’s move to FOX, NXT’s full transition to USA, AEW’s first live episode and the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view, the first week of October will be one of the professional wrestling’s busiest weeks in recent memory. However WWE doesn’t want Monday Night Raw to miss out on all of the action, and as a result they’ve announced that Seth Rollins will defend his WWE Universal Championship on the Sept. 30 episode of Monday Night Raw (which they’ve dubbed the season premiere). His opponent will be decided via a five-way match on tonight’s Raw, featuring five men who have never held the title in AJ Styles, Ricochet, Shinsuke Nakamura, Robert Roode and Rey Mysterio.

Rollins is already booked to defend his title in a Hell in a Cell match against Bray Wyatt on the Oct. 6 Hell in a Cell event. So it’s highly likely Rollins will either retain the title outright or have the match thrown out if and when “The Fiend” gets involved.

Other matches booked for the episode include Sasha Banks vs. Nikki Cross and Baron Corbin vs. Chad Gable in a rematch from their King of the Ring finals last week.

WWE chose an interesting mix for that No. 1 contender’s match. Roode picked up a pinfall win over Rollins back at Clash of Champions to win the Raw Tag Team Championships for he and Dolph Ziggler, Styles has been in the margins of the world title picture ever since he turned heel and reformed The O.C., Ricochet is coming off of a failed run in the King of the Ring tournament, Nakamura’s reign as Intercontinental Champion just eclipsed two months and Mysterio recently returned to in-ring action after teasing retirement.

Rollins won the Universal title for a second time at SummerSlam when he defeated Brock Lesnar clean via three Curb Stomps. He successfully retained it in an 11-minute match with Braun Strowman at Clash of Champions, only for Wyatt to attack him on the entrance ramp afterwards.

Aside from Rollins’ title defense, the only match that has been announced for Hell in a Cell so far is a Raw Women’s Championship match between Becky Lynch and Banks inside the titular steel structure. Instead of defending the WWE Championship on pay-per-view, Kingston will defend his title against Lesnar on the premiere episode of SmackDown on FOX.