Could Rollins, GUNTHER and IYO SKY Thrive Lower On The Card?

With WWE’s world title pictures crowded on both Raw and SmackDown, a case can be made that three former or would-be world champions might actually benefit from stepping back into the mid-card for a while — Seth Rollins, GUNTHER and IYO SKY.

Rollins has history with this kind of move. Back in 2017 and 2018, after cooling off from the WWE Championship picture, he spent stretches chasing the Intercontinental and Raw Tag Team Titles, and he revisited that formula in 2022 as a fixture of the United States Championship scene. With his programs against The Vision and Roman Reigns now concluded, Rollins doesn’t have an obvious next step on Raw. A run at Chad Gable’s Intercontinental Championship could give Gable the kind of credible, needle-moving challenger he hasn’t had yet, while giving Rollins something fresh to sink his teeth into short of a full brand move.

GUNTHER presents a stranger case on paper. Less than a year removed from victories over Goldberg, John Cena and AJ Styles, “The Ring General” has nonetheless become somewhat buried in the noise of SmackDown’s packed Undisputed WWE Championship scene — this despite laying out Sami Zayn on the October 3 episode of SmackDown. A temporary pivot toward Trick Williams’ United States Championship would give GUNTHER a fresh runway and Williams a true killer to build his first defenses around, while the world title picture sorts itself out around him.

Then there’s IYO SKY, whose 2026 has been a comedown after a strong 2025. She picked up a Queen of the Ring crown, but she was left off the WrestleMania 42 card entirely, lost to Liv Morgan at SummerSlam to fall out of the Women’s World Championship conversation, and most recently failed to qualify for the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. With no clear path to the top of the women’s division at the moment, putting the Women’s Intercontinental Championship on SKY would give her a meaningful program to anchor — a long-term feud with Raquel Rodriguez, for instance, could fill the gap nicely until WrestleMania 43 season heats back up.

None of this is about permanent demotion — it’s the opposite. WWE has used mid-card title runs for years as a reset button, a way to keep a star protected and relevant while combating fan fatigue or clearing a logjam at the top. Rollins, GUNTHER and SKY are all arguably victims of their own success: each has already climbed the mountain, and each is currently stuck without a clear next chapter at world title level. A deliberate step sideways into the Intercontinental, United States or Women’s Intercontinental pictures wouldn’t diminish any of them — it could instead set up fresher, more compelling programs than simply shuffling them around an overcrowded main event.

Whether WWE actually goes this route remains to be seen, but as the roster gets deeper and the world title scenes more congested on both shows, don’t be shocked if one or more of these three pops up chasing a different kind of gold in the months ahead.