4 WWE Superstars who have defeated Roman Reigns clean

Roman Reigns has had quite a career thus far, and he's only been on the main roster for five years. He's been a cornerstone of WWE since the day he first appeared, starting with The Shield and running roughshod through any and every tag team and stable that challenged them.

Once Seth Rollins broke the group apart, he went on to have an incredible singles career that continues to this day. A career that has featured losses that are few and far between, the Big Dog typically comes out on top in most of the matches he's in.

But there have been a few exceptions. And no, we're not talking about matches where Reigns loses thanks to factors outside of the ring.

This countdown is going to focus on something that has only happened a handful of times. We're going to list four instances when Roman Reigns lost cleanly in one-on-one singles matches.

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#4 Cesaro in Florida Championship Wrestling 2011

Cesaro looks off into the WWE Universe

Yeah, we really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel here. Roman Reigns simply doesn't lose that much in one-on-one bouts. So in order to complete this list, we had to go all the way back to when Reigns started his career as Leakee, Florida Championship Wrestling.

Reigns lost several singles matches in FCW, which is no surprise since they were his first matches in his wrestling career. He lost to the likes of Leo Kruger aka Adam Rose, Damien Sandow, and Vance Archer, among others. But the only active WWE superstar to beat Reigns in FCW is none other than current Raw tag team champion, Cesaro.

The match took place on November 3, 2011, and as per ProFightDB, the match ended with Cesaro winning via pinfall. And there's no reason to assume it involved any sort of shenanigans, since Reigns losing was apparently par for the course at this early stage of his career.

#3 Seth Rollins at Money in the Bank 2016

Seth Rollins lines up Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank 2016

Roman Reigns' first true, clean loss on the main roster came at arguably WWE's best pay-per-view of 2016. After Rollins returned from his torn ACL at Extreme Rules, he challenged Reigns for his WWE title.

And although Rollins is a formidable foe, people probably didn't expect him to beat Reigns clean as a whistle in the middle of the ring. But that's exactly what he did.

Sadly, this may not have even happened if not for Reigns' violation of WWE's wellness policy. It was revealed the day after Money in the Bank that Reigns would be suspended for 30 days, which was the likely reason for WWE pulling the plug on what was expected to be a lengthy title reign after just a couple months.

But it did happen, and it was the beginning of Reigns finally becoming vulnerable. Whenever Reigns was in a singles match before this, it felt like there was no way he would lose clean, since he never had before.

But this match did a lot for his career, as it actually served to make his matches from that point forward more interesting. It was finally no longer a guarantee that the Big Dog would come out on top.

#2 Finn Balor on RAW, July 25, 2016

Finn Balor stares down Roman Reigns on Monday Night RAW

Following in Rollins' footsteps, Balor was the second man to ever beat Reigns clean one on one. This one occurred on one of the best episodes of RAW in recent history. It was a show that featured an incredible Women's title match between Charlotte and Sasha Banks, the legendary Braun Strowman vs James Ellsworth squash match, and it was capped off with a main event that had a shocking result.

There's no question that WWE was and still is high on Finn Balor. He was NXT Champion and one of the top picks in the WWE Draft, so he was always destined for big things on the main roster. But even knowing that no one could've anticipated just how fast his rise to stardom on RAW would be.

After winning a fatal 4-way earlier in the night, Balor defeated Reigns, 1-2-3, in the middle of the ring. He did something on his first night on RAW that had only been done once before.

That's a remarkable feat for Balor. Even though Reigns had just returned from his suspension and didn't really have any momentum back yet, it's still a big deal that WWE put an up-and-comer over their supposed golden boy.

#1 Braun Strowman at Payback and Great Balls of Fire

Braun Strowman attempts to slam Roman Reigns into the ambulance at Great Balls of Fire

Now we come to the first and only man to ever beat Roman Reigns clean twice. "The Monster Among Men" Braun Strowman has defeated Reigns at Payback and Great Balls of Fire this year. If there was anyone who could realistically beat Reigns, it's this behemoth. But that doesn't mean anyone expected him to do it more than once.

Strowman is in the midst of a mega-push. It's not necessarily one that will culminate in a Universal title win, although it could at SummerSlam. Rather, it's a push that is establishing him as one of the most dominant superstars WWE has ever seen.

That's why his victory over Reigns at Payback was less surprising than Reigns' other clean losses. However, that didn't make it less significant for Strowman.

And WWE doubled down when Strowman defeated Reigns in an ambulance match at Great Balls of Fire. A lot of people were expecting Reigns to come out on top in this one, but Strowman dodged a spear and Reigns launched himself into the ambulance, allowing Strowman to secure the victory.

Of course, Reigns got some revenge after the match, but it doesn't matter. The record books say Strowman has two clean victories over a man who has only suffered three other such losses since joining the main roster. That's an impressive feat.