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On October 22, 2018, Roman Reigns, in an emotional opening to Monday Night Raw, vacated the Universal Championship when he explained to the WWE Universe that he is suffering from a recurrence of Leukemia which he revealed he had first battled and won 11 years ago.
It was an immensely difficult moment for Reigns whose health now will rightly take priority in his life. WWE are fully supportive of their star but the fact is that their future booking plans will now have to be dramatically altered
As a result of his diagnosis, Reigns held up the Universal Championship which meant the triple threat main event at Crown Jewel was changed to a singles match between the other two participants, Braun Strowman and former Champion, Brock Lesnar.
This is an intriguing battle. WWE's booking plans had Reigns as Champion for some considerable time. He was expected to retain the title at Crown Jewel and well into the future. A title reign at this juncture for Strowman or Lesnar was simply not in the cards.
However, both men would undoubtedly make for strong Universal Champions. Lesnar only dropped the belt back in August, having held it for a record breaking 504 days.
For his part, Strowman has been in or around the title picture for over 12 months and is one of the most over stars on the entire WWE roster. Fans have been willing him to break the glass ceiling and become Champion for a long time now.
But which man will be crowned Champion at Crown Jewel? Who should win and who will win? Will the person who should win actually walk out of Riyadh as the new Universal Champion? SK analyses what should and what will likely happen.
Who Should Win? Braun Strowman
Brock Lesnar reigned as Universal Champion for a total of 504 days. His reign was mocked on air by WWE, who openly criticised him for only sporadically defending the belt.
While Lesnar sat at home, Raw's superstars had no World title to fight over which proved problematic when booking their shows with no top belt available.
With a UFC return on the horizon for Lesnar, winning the Championship would put the company in exactly the same position, with the title not being defended for long periods. Therefore it seems unlikely that this will transpire.
For his part, Braun Strowman has been the fan's choice for lead baby face on Raw, ahead of chosen one, Reigns for well over a year.
When the Shield member sat atop the food chain in the main events, Strowman had to be content plying his trade as a bit part player in a Tag Team Championship match at Wrestlemania and winning the Greatest Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank contracts.
All of which ultimately meant nothing to him as he vacated the Tag Team belts the next day due to his partner being a nine-year-old fan, there was nothing at stake in the 50-Man Royal Rumble match and he was unsuccessful in his Money in the Bank cash in on Reigns at Hell in a Cell on September 16, 2018.
After playing second fiddle to Reigns for over 12 months, this should be Strowman's time.
Who Will Win? Braun Strowman
He has to doesn't he? From a purely logical standpoint, it appears to be the only booking choice unless WWE decide to go the Double Disqualification route or another method that the two combatants could draw if WWE does not want either of them to win the bout.
However, if WWE really did want to put the Universal Championship on anybody else, then surely they would have booked a substitute when the reigning Champion, Roman Reigns was forced to withdraw from the match and vacate the title.
A win over the dominant Lesnar character will enhance Strowman greatly and erase memories of his chastening defeat to the "Beast" at No Mercy last October, wherein Lesnar beat him in a paltry nine minutes.
Strowman has to defeat Lesnar to win the vacant Universal Championship and he will.
