SK's take on why Roman Reigns will not win the Royal Rumble 

According to a report from Cageside Seats, WWE will not use the Royal Rumble to set up Roman Reigns' coronation at WrestleMania 34. A Superstar from SmackDown Live, most likely John Cena, will receive the honour of winning WWE's annual 30-man battle royal instead.

A Universal Championship match between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome has been on the cards for over a year now and is almost an inevitability.

Even though the Big Dog wasn't deemed worthy of the honour at WrestleMania 31, Vince McMahon seemingly believes that the former Georgia Tech man is now ready to unseat Lesnar.

However, Reigns will not get his title shot through the Royal Rumble, as this year's January extravaganza will take place in Philadelphia — in front of the same rabid audience that once patronised Paul Heyman's ECW and vociferously rejected the Shield powerhouse in 2015.

Instead, Elimination Chamber is a RAW PPV this year, which most likely means that Reigns will earn his WrestleMania 34 ticket via a gruelling Elimination Chamber match.

Vince McMahon also doesn't want to risk a repeat of WrestleMania 32 where the Big Dog won the WWE Championship from Triple H in an underwhelming match that was greeted with apathy.

All of these signs point to the fact that Roman Reigns is simply not capable of being WWE's next top babyface, but McMahon is seemingly hellbent on proving his detractors wrong and positioning the 32-year-old as the heir to John Cena, even if it is to the detriment of the product and the more talented performers on the roster.

As things stand, Reigns is poised to main event his fourth consecutive WrestleMania, a feat only matched by Hulk Hogan who actually closed out 5 successive editions of the Showcase of the Immortals.

You can rest assured that Roman Reigns will shatter Hulk Hogan's record and main event several WrestleManias in the years to come, but the WWE product won't be better for it; the company's decline in television viewership will only continue.

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