Roman Reigns is off Raw. What if he never gets back to the Universal title at all?

What if Roman Reigns never wins the Universal Championship again?

Modified Apr 17, 2019 21:24 IST

Opinions were split going into WrestleMania 35 regarding whether Seth Rollins would defeat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship. One of the prevailing theories was that Rollins winning was the original plan, but with Roman Reigns back in the mix, he’d wind up back in the Universal Championship picture instead, and more likely be the one to beat 'The Beast Incarnate' again.

Rollins did end up winning, and rather than pursuing face vs. face program between the two remaining members of The Shield, WWE has moved Reigns over to the SmackDown brand. As such, The Big Dog isn’t winning the Universal title again anytime soon. But assuming WWE continues to treat the Universal belt as the de fact top title in the company, is it possible that Reigns will never win it again? This article takes a look at the possibility and what it might mean moving forward.

4. Reigns isn’t the guy

Roman Reigns has been projected as the face of WWE, but what if he isn't the guy after all?

WWE fans made a lot out of Roman Reigns being “the chosen one,” and thus balked at his big push when he became a singles wrestler for how forced it felt, and the degree to which Reigns didn’t seem ready for the spot. The powers that be seemed fixed on pushing him on top, including feats like him appearing in four straight WrestleMania main events, being the one to beat Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.

If Reigns never gets his hands on the Universal Championship again, one way of reading it is that WWE no longer sees him as the face of the company. That may not be as big a demotion as it looks like on the surface. It could mean that rather than pushing one guy on top exclusively in the tradition of Hulk Hogan or John Cena, the company is instead spreading the wealth with a few top faces like Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Becky Lynch.

3. Reigns sticks with SmackDown

Maybe Roman Reigns's move to SmackDown isn't a short-term move.

Another possibility for Roman Reigns not recapturing the Universal Championship is that he instead focuses his attention on the WWE Championship. That could mean that The Big Dog’s move to SmackDown in the Superstar Shakeup wasn’t a momentary move to generate buzz, but rather the first step in a longer, larger scale transition. In short, Reigns may stick around the blue brand for the long haul.

The possibility of Reigns taking up residence on the blue brand isn’t as far fetched as it once might have seemed. First of all, Reigns’s health issues make it less certain that WWE will put all of their eggs in his basket moving forward. Perhaps all the more importantly, SmackDown moving to the larger audience allotted by FOX in the fall, means that it could legitimately become “the A show” in a way it hasn’t been historically. Reigns taking up residence there could signal WWE reprioritizing the WWE Championship along with the change of networks.

2. A focus on work rate

Maybe WWE is making a conscious shift toward a more work rate centric product.

Roman Reigns isn’t a bad in ring worker, and there’s a reasonable argument that the hardcore fans who rejected him during his initial big push were being too critical, or else Reigns has since proven them wrong in developing his skills. Even given his improvements, though, Reigns still isn’t a “work rate guy.” Unlike Seth Rollins or AJ Styles, we don’t typically expect for him to deliver excellent matches bell to bell, or at least not without an opponent who can do the lion’s share of the work to get there.

If Reigns isn’t top again—or at least isn’t on top of Raw—it could signal a more seismic shift to go back towards faces of the company of yore like Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, with Reigns still a part of the company but not the centerpiece as WWE seemed to be setting him up to be.

1. Reigns as an Andre the Giant type figure

Andre the Giant never had much need for titles in his role. Perhaps WWE is casting Reigns in a similar direction.

Andre the Giant was a legend of wrestling who notably never spent very much time as a world champion. In the traditional thinking of the business, Andre didn’t need a title, because he was over as a legitimate giant whether or not he held one. Moreover, his role was more that of side attraction who could work a spectacle of a match while more traditional and technical wrestlers headlined cards more permanently.

Many pundits have suggested that, in Braun Strowman’s failed attempts to capture a world title, WWE is casting him in this sort of Andre the Giant role—a placement that feels even more on the nose after he won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. If Reigns, too, is kept out of the title picture, it could signal that he’s also being treated as both a special attraction outside the main event scene and potentially as a guy who doesn’t need the title to be over with fans.

Edited by
Mustafa Ismail