3 winners and 3 losers from Roman Reigns’ exit

October 22, 2018, saw an extremely emotional beginning to the episode as Roman Reigns, the then Universal Championship, announced his battle with leukemia and relinquished his Universal Championship.

He’d fought hard and long to become the champion, and had to give it up so early due to an illness that had reoccurred. The entire WWE Universe has been on Reigns’ side for once.

Since Reigns went on to fight his own battles, a lot has changed on Raw. We’ve seen the part-timer become the Universal Champion once again. We’ve seen the Monster Among Men humiliated in a squash match. We’ve even seen then Raw Tag Team titles change hand twice in those two weeks!

Other than that, many other plans had to be changed by the creative team, as they had to figure out how to take the brand and the pay-per-views forward.

Due to these reasons, we have seen many winners and losers from the decisions that have been taken post-Roman Reigns’ speech and the creatives decisions to get both brands back on track.

Let’s take a look at 3 winners and 3 losers from the decisions taken by the WWE after Roman Reigns’ leave.

#3 Winner – Survivor Series

Survivor Series is just around the corner now, and we just can’t wait for the battle between Raw and SmackDown for brand supremacy. It’s the biggest treat of the year which fans wait for anxiously, as we get to see superstars from both the brands go head to head.

While that was the case last year too, according to reports, Vince had plans to cancel that and make this year’s event different. This was being done to avoid a match between AJ Styles and Roman Reigns, and there were plans to have a Team Corbin vs Team Angle match to determine who will get the reins of RAW.

Plans were changed quickly after Reigns’ announced his illness, and the event was brought back to its original form which will now host matches between the two brands once again.

Even though Reigns’ exit was a very emotional one, it has brought forward a favorable outcome for the fans who can now enjoy their dream matches, as matches between superstars of different brands are more uncommon than those between superstars of the same brand.

#3 Loser - Mid-card Wrestlers

Balor and Mahal are working as hard as anyone else in the locker room

Mid-card wrestlers have been fighting to stay relevant for a long time. Raw has some extremely talented and top-level wrestlers who are trying to prove their worth week after week and fans are noticing the same.

When Brock Lesnar was the Universal Champion, mid-card wrestlers were overlooked much more as they had to only compete for a single Intercontinental Championship, while only Roman Reigns and one or two other wrestlers got a chance to challenge Lesnar for the title.

That too was a one-off occurrence, as the title was barely ever defended on RAW, and only on pay-per-view did the WWE Universe see the Universal Championship.

When Roman Reigns won the title, he defended it the next night against Finn Balor, and then soon after again against Baron Corbin. This was a breath of fresh air for other wrestlers as even though they weren’t booked to win the championship off Reigns, at least they got a chance to stay relevant by fighting for it.

Now with Roman gone and Brock the champion once again, the mid-card wrestlers will be stuck in the same rut as they were before and not even see the championship much, let alone get a chance to fight for it.

#2 Winner – Brock Lesnar

The first-ever two-time Universal Champion

At WrestleMania 33, Lesnar beat Goldberg to win his fifth world title in WWE and became the first man to have won both the WWE Championship and the Universal Championship. Lesnar also became the second person to kick-out from Goldberg's Jackhammer and gave him one of the few clean singles losses of his professional wrestling career.

Roman Reigns beat Brock Lesnar after a lot of effort and a lot of chances at SummerSlam. This ended Lesnar’s title reign at 504 days, surpassing CM Punk’s WWE Championship reign of 434 days as "the longest of the modern era."

Fans were relieved when the title came off Lesnar, as they believed they’d seen the last of the part-time wrestling champion who had decreased the value of the championship. However, things turned ugly once again very soon.

Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman in his title rematch at Crown Jewel after Reigns was forced to relinquish his championship. This resulted in Lesnar becoming the first 2-time Universal Champion after WWE booked him in a squash match against the Monster Among Men.

Lesnar’s victory makes him one of the biggest winners due to Roman’s exit, as he was not supposed to win the championship. Had Roman not have to pull out of the match, the match would have ended Lesnar’s contract for the foreseeable future.

#2 Loser – Universal Championship

The Universal Championship was established in the name of the WWE Universe, the fans of the business, on July 25, 2016. Even though it was created in respect for the fans, it got negative reviews from a lot of places, including the fans chanting slogans against it during shows.

The first champion, Finn Balor, held the championship for a few hours before he had to relinquish it due to an injury. The second champion, Kevin Owens, lost the championship in a squash match to Goldberg. The fourth champion defeated Goldberg for the title and set a new record during his reign.

The man who beat Goldberg was none other than Brock Lesnar, who worked as a part-time wrestler and decreased the value of the championship even more. He later dropped the title to Reigns, who too relinquished it due to an illness, taking the relinquish count to two in five reigns.

Lesnar winning the title again decreases the title’s value even more, as Lesnar is not the WWE Universe’s champion, nor does he care about the fans as a heel. On top of that, he defends the championship once in a blue moon, and that makes the Universal Championship belt the loser while Lesnar is the champion.

#1 Winner – Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar)

Akam and Rezar have been dominating the main roster since their progression from NXT. However, most of their matches have been squashes against weaker wrestlers.

To much surprise, they have quickly become one of the most successful NXT graduates as they’ve already won a championship on the main roster. Not many have even gotten a chance to compete in a championship match, let alone win a belt.

This was only made possible due to Roman’s exit and the disbanding of The Shield, which saw Ambrose turn on Seth Rollins. Had that not been the case, we might have seen Ambrose and Rollins stay the Raw Tag Team champions for a month or so before Ambrose would have turned on Rollins.

As it's no secret that the creatives had to hit the panic button once Roman exited, no one could have imagined that Ambrose and Rollins would win the titles on the same night and that the turn would happen right after that.

Regardless of that, Authors of Pain have surely been the biggest winners from the events that unfolded after Roman’s exit, and have seen success quite early, even though it came in a handicap match.

#1 Loser – Dean Ambrose

Dean Ambrose turned heel the same night we saw Roman Reigns announce that he will be going away for a while to fight his own battle. Had that not happened, we don’t know where The Shield would be standing today.

There have been reports that Ambrose wasn’t initially planned to turn heel the same night, but creatives changed their plans as soon as they learned about Reigns’ exit. Not only did this shock the fans, but also made Ambrose seem much worse as a heel as any other act could have as he chose the most emotional night to turn on his partner.

Even though he has been established as a great heel, we haven’t seen him wrestle since he won the tag titles with Rollins. Two episodes of Raw,and even Crown Jewel in between, went by. This isn’t good for a superstar of Ambrose’s caliber, as the story buildup is actually causing a hindrance in his booking since his return.

Had he still been the tag champion with Rollins, we might have seen him stick by Rollins’ side and the two would have been involved in the Tag Team Champions match, a high-profile match Ambrose has deserved since his return. His title was also lost at the hands of Rollins when he faced the AoP.

Hence, Ambrose has been the biggest loser from Reigns’ exit as his heel turn was premature and took away some quality in-ring time where he could have been the tag team champion for a while and also built on the heel turn angle a bit more.

Edited by Gabby Duran