What’s the story?
Roman Reigns was brutally attacked by Braun Strowman following an interview segment with Michael Cole. According to the WWE, Reigns suffered injuries to his ribs and shoulder as a result of the beatdown.
In case you didn’t know...
Strowman attacked Reigns several times after he interrupted an interview regarding Roman’s bout with The Undertaker at ‘Mania. During the course of the interview, the beatdown got worse with Strowman putting Reigns through tables, hitting a Power Slam on crates, throwing him off a loading deck, and tipping over an ambulance with Reigns inside.
Strowman and Reigns have been interacting since the buildup to the 2016 Traditional Survivor Series match, but their feud kicked off at the Royal Rumble when Reigns was attacked by Strowman and lost the Universal Championship match as a result.
The heart of the matter
The following is the WWE report of all the injuries that Reigns suffered at the hands of Strowman and what happened when the cameras stopped rolling:
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. —Roman Reigns was brutally ambushed by Braun Strowman on Raw Monday night, resulting in cracked ribs, internal injuries and a possible separated shoulder.
After The Monster Among Men’s initial attack, which culminated in Reigns being thrown off a loading dock while strapped to a gurney, The Big Dog was loaded into an ambulance by EMTs. However, Strowman reappeared and continued the brutality by tipping over the emergency vehicle with The Big Dog still inside it. Reigns was then rushed to a local medical facility in a second ambulance for evaluation. Strowman, meanwhile was forced to leave Long Island, New York’s Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
The impact
Assuming these injuries were kayfabe, this was probably done to let the heat surrounding Reigns die down. On the other hand, this segment could have just been another attempt by the WWE to garner sympathy and appreciation for Reigns.
Don’t expect to see Reigns return to the WWE for at least a week. In actuality, it probably should be longer, but the WWE has been known to break kayfabe swiftly.
Author’s take
It’s pretty obvious that Reigns’ injuries are part of the storyline, but the WWE should keep him off TV for the next couple of weeks to make Strowman look that much more devastating. Reigns’ heat is so strong that Strowman seemed like a conquering hero tonight and the WWE should build on the momentum it captured tonight.
This would be the perfect scenario to have Reigns come back later and turn heel after hearing fans thank Strowman for taking him out, but this has little to no chance of happening. The WWE made a huge impact with Strowman this week and fans can only hope that more segments, matches, and titles are headed his way.
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