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Since his WWE debut in 2012, Roman Reigns has become a staple of marquee matches at WrestleMania. The current WWE Universal Champion currently has the seventh most WrestleMania main events in WWE history, something which no doubt will increase over the coming years.
From world championship matches to showdowns against some of the greatest superstars in WWE history, Roman Reigns' WrestleMania opponents list is a who's who of WWE Superstars.
Roman Reigns has performed at seven WrestleMania events since making his debut on the grandest stage of them all at WrestleMania 29 in 2013. Since then, Reigns has gone on to boast an impressive record of five victories and two defeats at the showcase of the immortals.
Let's take a closer look at Roman Reigns' 5 best WrestleMania singles matches.
#5 Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker (WWE WrestleMania 33)
WWE had very specific plans when booking The Undertaker to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33. The Phenom was incredibly banged up, required an upcoming hip replacement surgery and felt that it was finally the time to retire as an active in-ring performer for WWE. It was therefore decided that The Undertaker would square off against Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania 33 with Reigns leaving victorious and The Undertaker putting over the young talent as he faded off into retirement.
By defeating The Undertaker on the grandest stage of them all, Roman Reigns became only the second WWE Superstar in history to defeat The Undertaker at WrestleMania.
However, the match itself left a lot to be desired. It was painfully obvious for those in attendance and watching at home that The Undertaker was incredibly limited to what he was able to do physically because of his various injuries. Undertaker moved with a significant limp and struggled to get through a variety of spots during the match.
The culmination of the match saw The Undertaker botch an attempted tombstone reversal spot, leading to Roman Reigns calling an audible and spearing his legendary opponent for the victory. The post-match scenes of The Undertaker placing his trademark hat, gloves and trenchcoat on the ring canvas were emotiona and the best thing about the match. In fact, The Undertaker was so disappointed with his performance that he came out of retirement the following year to face John Cena at WrestleMania 34 and redeem himself for this lackluster performance against Roman Reigns.
#4 Roman Reigns vs Triple H (WWE WrestleMania 32)
WWE was determined to get Roman Reigns over as "the guy" in WWE by 2016. After the WWE Universe refused to get on board with Reigns' monster WWE push in 2015, officials had to change plans at WrestleMania 31 by having Seth Rollins leave the event as WWE World Heavyweight Champion by cashing in his Money In The Bank contract.
In the minds of senior WWE officials, this gave them an extra 12 months to continue to get Roman Reigns over with the WWE audience and position him as the new face of WWE. This involved Reigns feuding with members of the McMahon family such as Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon and Triple H over the World Heavyweight Championship.
This led to Roman Reigns challenging Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of WrestleMania 32. Despite a capacity crowd of 101,763 in attendance, the match largely fell flat.
Once again, the WWE Universe wasn't fully on board with Roman Reigns as the new top babyface in WWE. Despite the best efforts of Vince McMahon, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, fans weren't happy with being told they had to like Roman Reigns by the corporate WWE machine.
Therefore, despite a decent match between Roman Reigns and Triple H, the crowd was largely disinterested, with sections booing when Reigns eventually defeated The Game and became the World Heavyweight Champion for the second time.
#3 Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre (WWE WrestleMania 35)
WWE WrestleMania 35 was a big moment for Roman Reigns. The Big Dog announced in October 2018 that he had been diagnosed with leukemia and was forced to vacate the WWE Universal Championship while stepping away from WWE.
After successfully going into remission, Reigns returned to WWE television in February 2019 to a standing ovation and quickly entered a feud with Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley and Baron Corbin as a member of The Shield faction.
After returning to the ring in a six-man tag team match at WWE Fastlane, Roman Reigns was challenged to a singles match at WrestleMania 35 by Drew McIntyre. This would mark Roman Reigns' first singles match since his return from leukemia.
The match itself was largely uneventful, lasting just 10 minutes. However, the match between Reigns and McIntyre was almost irrelevant as the moment of Roman Reigns returning to WrestleMania after a life threatening illness was the main story to be told here.
Roman Reigns completed his triumphant return by defeating Drew McIntyre and hitting his Scottish rival with a spear to pick up the victory.
#2 Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar (WWE WrestleMania 34)
WWE has booked Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar as the main event of a WrestleMania event on two separate occasions. The second encounter between Lesnar and Reigns took place at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2018.
Heading into the event, Brock Lesnar had been the WWE Universal Champion for 12 months after defeating Goldberg for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 33 the prior year. This match between Reigns and Lesnar is certainly very interesting, because if you watch it back, it's a very good match.
The match tells the story of Brock Lesnar brutalizing his opponent, cutting Roman Reigns' head open to cause blood to flow down the Samoan superstar's head, and he grows increasingly frustrated as he is unable to put Roman Reigns away. It is only after the sixth F-5 that Brock Lesnar is finally able to defeat Roman Reigns and retain the WWE Universal Championship.
However, the match is perhaps best remembered for the crowd hijacking the presentation. The WWE Universe believed that Brock Lesnar's WWE contract was set to expire, with Lesnar reported to be once again heading back to UFC. Therefore, many assumed it was a formality that Roman Reigns would win the match and become Universal Champion. Once again, fans began to turn on Reigns as they felt WWE was "forcing" them to cheer for the corporate champion. Venting their frustration, the crowd chanted "boring," "this is awful" and "CM Punk" during the match.
In reality, Brock Lesnar had signed a brief contract extension with WWE and would remain with the promotion until at least the summer. Therefore, Lesnar retained the title, much to the surprise of the WWE Universe. It was an unfortunate situation for both performers as a good match was completely ruined by disgruntled fans who were frustrated with the promotion, not the wrestlers in the ring.
#1 Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar (WWE WrestleMania 31)
WWE's attempt to anoint Roman Reigns as "the guy" came at WrestleMania 31. Reigns won the 2015 Royal Rumble match in January that year. The WWE Universe were furious at WWE's constant pushing of Roman Reigns as the new top babyface and were not taking to Reigns being presented as the face of the company.
After Reigns' Royal Rumble victory, fans had threatened to cancel their WWE Network subscriptions, cancel their WrestleMania 31 tickets and stop watching Monday Night RAW and SmackDown altogether. Nevertheless, WWE persisted with pushing Roman Reigns as the company's next top talent, booking him against Brock Lesnar in the main event of WrestleMania 31 for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Brock Lesnar's WWE contract was set to expire after WrestleMania. Therefore, many assumed it was a formality that Lesnar would drop the title to Reigns on the grandest stage of them all. However, just days before WrestleMania it was announced that Brock Lesnar had signed a new multi-year WWE contract. So, with Roman Reigns struggling to get over with the audience, the outcome of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania suddenly became less clear cut.
The match between Lesnar and Reigns had the crowd heavily invested, cheering Lesnar and booing Reigns in a physical and stiff contest. At a point where both superstars were down, Seth Rollins suddenly appeared and sprinted to the ring. Rollins cashed in his Money In The Bank contract and hit a curb stomp on his former Shield partner to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in what was iconically described by Michael Cole as "the hiest of the century."
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