Out of all the routes the WWE could have chosen, putting the championship on Sheamus was easily the worst. Sheamus is a good hand who can work with just about anybody but he's been booked into oblivion and fans have been given very little reason to care. Perfect example was on the show itself where they had him look like an utter geek in the 5 on 5 Survivor Series match. First, he gets treated like a total jabroni for his 'get jiggy with these posers' comment and then the New Day leave him high and dry completely killing whatever interest there was in that match. He had absolutely no momentum as a singles wrestler and handing somebody a WWE Championship to give them momentum is one of the dumbest ideas I've heard. It's like the company doesn't practice what it preaches. How often have we heard Triple H say something to the effect that the 'champion makes the championship'? I know this was far from a unanimous decision backstage and wasn't decided until the final hour but they honestly should have just played it safe.
Clearly the idea is that by putting the WWE Championship on Sheamus, there is no way the audience will turn on Roman. I understand the rationale but it's like they're treating the sympton instead of the root problem. Fans can't shake the feeling that Roman is the chosen guy and is in fact the corporate champion. He's been force fed since the Survivor Series 2013 match where he completely annihilated everyone and when they've had moments where fans were willing to buy into him (Royal Rumble 2014, Money in the Bank 2014) the WWE didn't pull the trigger. I think they actually had it right the first time. Roman should have gone over on the show AND foiled the cash-in from Sheamus. Did you hear the pop he received when he speared HHH? The fans were cheering him in spite of themselves and with some careful booking would have been on board. Instead, they've basically made him look like a massive choke artist on two major shows. That's a hard impression to rub out and any momentum he would have had with the fans is slowly evaporating.
Further, it's clear judging by the ratings the Authority angle needs to be phased out and by basically repeating the exact same turn of events from over 2 years ago highlights everything that's wrong with the company. It's still the Triple H show, well after 16 years of having him as the main focal point.
I'm fine with the Brothers of Destruction beating the Wyatts. It wasn't like I went into the show expecting an upset, it was pretty obvious what the deal was going to be and the fans really got into it. It's clear that Taker has a huge match lined up for Mania 32, so giving him a win in a showcase tag team match which really didn't hurt anybody was fine.
Thinking back on it, I thought it was pretty dumb to have Owens and Del Rio involved in the championship tournament. It's an old hat complaint, but I don't think your IC and US Champion should be taking losses clean in the middle, unless they're dropping the championship. I agree with Meltzer here, they should have thrown in Bully Ray (the Dudleyz nostalgia run is over) and Big E (The New Day is the most over act in the WWE right now) and had them do the honors.
