What if Braun Strowman beats Roman Reigns for the Universal title at Hell in a Cell?

This Sunday, Braun Strowman will challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at Hell in a Cell. The two have a history of bringing out the best in each other, as demonstrated in matches from last year. Moreover, the story of Strowman pursuing Reigns with the Money in the Bank briefcase in hand, and Reigns rallying the Shield to have his back has all added up to create one of the most provocative main event storylines from Monday Night Raw in quite some time.

The general sense is that Reigns’s Universal Championship reign, after having been so long in the making, isn’t going to end quite so quickly. While Strowman is likely a world champion in the making WWE probably won’t pull the trigger this quickly.

But what if they do?

This article takes a look at what might happen to cause a title change, where the storyline could go next, and what that might mean for WWE’s bigger picture.

#5 Bedlam in the Cell

Reigns Cell — More parties might get involved in the Cell, besides Reigns and Strowman

One of the surprising delights of Roman Reigns beating Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam was that the match was anything but a straightforward, traditional main event. It was short, explosive, and underscored by the intrigue of Braun Strowman trying to cash-in Money in the Bank, only for Lesnar to head him off.

Reigns vs. Strowman could be good in its own right, but may be a whole lot more interesting if Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler, and Drew McIntyre insert themselves in the proceedings. Moreover, the more chaotically the match and its final stretches play out, the better protected Reigns can remain for Strowman to take the title off of him.

Of course, even if Strowman doesn’t win the match itself, it’s always possible he could put his briefcase to use in the direct aftermath, still managing to steal the title after more damage has been done. Up next, we take at a look at a rather unique possibility which could very well serve as an unlikely surprise for the WWE Universe.

#4 A crack in The Shield

It has been the subject of much rumor and speculation that this run for The Shield might come to a close when Dean Ambrose turns on his buddies, possibly to exact a long simmering revenge for Seth Rollins having turned his back on him four years earlier. It’s possible an Ambrose turn could go down in dramatic fashion as he costs The Shield a match, or Reigns the Universal Championship.

Another possibility, however, is that WWE build to this schism more organically, and less based on shock value. If Reigns were to lose the title to Strowman just a month after he won it, with The Shield backing him, it would be an immediate cause for dissension in the ranks. Maybe they wouldn’t split off immediately, but after losing the top prize in the business, there’s be reason for Reigns to question his allies, and for them to take issue with him resenting them after they did their best.

#3 First first-time world champion in over a year

Braun Strowman could become the first first-time world champion in WWE since Jinder Mahal

2017 and 2018 have been marked by long world title reigns. This two year period has seen only nine different men hold world championships, and it turns out that number is deceptively high, because if we narrow the lens to only the last seventeen, rather than twenty four months, there have only been five different champs.

Early 2017 saw a flurry of activity that saw first-time champ Kevin Owens drop the Universal Championship, while the WWE Championship moved around between AJ Styles, John Cena, Bray Wyatt, Randy Orton, and Jinder Mahal. It’s noteworthy that, since Owens, Wyatt, and Mahal, we haven’t seen a first-time world champion crowned in WWE, which is a rarity since title changes became more frequent in the 1990s.

There’s little question WWE has groomed Braun Strowman to be a champion, but he’d actually be the first guy to win his first world title in WWE over a year.

#2 Drew McIntyre deferred

The rumor mill suggests that positioning Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler against The Shield is not so much incidental booking as a purposeful way ultimately positioning McIntyre as a Universal Championship contender, and possibly even winning the title. This line of thought makes sense given McIntyre historical anointment as one of Vince McMahon’s “chosen ones” and another leak that McMahon has been hands-on in how McIntyre is booked since his return to the main roster.

McIntyre getting into the title mix, let alone winning, really only makes sense opposite Roman Reigns at this point to preserve face-heel dynamics without flip flopping Braun Strowman any further or having to turn McIntyre. Thus, if Strowman were to take the title at Hell in a Cell, it doesn’t shut down McIntyre’s chance at challenging for the title, but does suggest that the timeline for him might be getting pushed back further to build him up more, or that WWE is deferring his big push in favor of bigger things for Strowman in the immediate future.

#1 Six-way title match

Right now, WWE has cultivated an interesting dynamic in which Braun Strowman is hunting for Roman Reigns’ Universal Champion. He has made an uneasy alliance with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre, not out of friendship, but more so because they have common enemies, and they too would like to get their hands on gold.On the flip side, Reigns’s allies, The Shield, are born more out of friendship and wanting to support each other personally.

Everyone involved in this scenario could reasonably enough be positioned as a title contender, but it would take more work to get Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins there—namely either a falling out with Reigns, or someone else having the title.

To keep this story going and keep the title at the fore, if Strowman wins the belt it would make complete sense for Raw to build toward a Six Pack Challenge between this sextet of main event or main event adjacent stars.