Seth Rollins and his manic mean streak create the perfect foil for Riddle as Cody Rhodes and his injured pec set to miss considerable time, Monday Night Raw is without its top babyface. Enter Riddle, who has taken up that mantle with aplomb and ran away with it.
If his run with Randy Orton and RK-Bro opened the door to superstardom for The Original Bro, then his recent run of singles matches shows that he's strolled right through it barefoot. His one-on-one match with Roman Reigns during the June 17 edition of Friday Night SmackDown was rock solid. Heading into the bout, no one actually believed that Riddle would walk away as champion, but during the match itself, the two forced fans to suspend their disbelief, at least momentarily. Riddle's visible desperation combined with Reigns' underrated and impeccable kick-out timing lead to some catch-your-breath moments.
When the dust settled, The Tribal Cheif had won and Riddle was in need of something else to do. It would have been very WWE-like to pull the plug on the former UFC fighter then and there. His mega-over tag-team partner is injured and he can't wrestle Reigns for the championship again as per the stipulation of their SmackDown match. That's two strikes against him, and losing to Omos in a Money In The Bank qualifying match didn't look like good news for Riddle. Then Seth Rollins hit the ring, attacked a beaten and battered Riddle, and set up a subsequent feud. Which could actually be a perfect fit for these two heading towards SummerSlam.
After losing to Omos on Raw, Riddle is now without a match at Money In The Bank. Unless WWE somehow manages to shoehorn in a new angle for him on SmackDown—which seems quite unlikely—then he won't be on the live event. At least he won't be booked for the event. Rollins is actually in the titular match, and it's not too difficult to imagine him climbing the ladder, beginning to unhook the briefcase before he eats an RKO out of nowhere from an interfering Riddle.
Maybe WWE gets there a different way, but Rollin's post-match attack on Riddle appears to be setting the two up for a long-term program leading to a match at SummerSlam. Given that Seth Freakin' Rollins appears to be angling himself towards a fight with Roman Reigns somewhere down the line, this is the ideal feud for both wrestlers. Riddle, who was just in a WWE main event match against the Tribal Cheif, squaring off with the monster heel who wants to get there. Rollins' character work has been on another level lately and paired with Riddle's knack for garnering sympathy, this should be a good one. The Architect played a huge role in getting Cody Rhodes over during their trilogy. Now let's see if he can do the same for Riddle.