Roman Reigns has had a rollercoaster of a year so far. From the get go of 2016, he was receiving his Wrestlemania push, albeit it was a push which left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans. Despite the continuous fan rejection he received, WWE officials decided to see through the storyline anyway, and Reigns defeated Triple H at the main event of Wrestlemania 32, and finally got his coronation which Vince McMahon was seemingly quite desperate to see.
The immediate plans for Roman seem to be the continuation his feud with Rusev. However, it is not expected that this feud will last too long since it is being done in order to help Reigns work back up the card. Though there was initially a change in plans after Balor’s injury, it is now being reported that Reigns will be resuming his feud with the Bulgarian Brute. There is no word on whether he will win the title or not.WWE fans have rejected Roman as the face of the WWE very vocally over the last couple of years. WWE used various ways to go around the fans clear rejection, such as turning down the crowd volume when he was getting booed, and also having JBL constantly say “The fans are very passionate about Roman Reigns”, among other things. However, things all changed when he failed the Wellness Policy. He dropped the WWE World Championship at Money In The Bank to Seth Rollins, and even appeared on Raw the next night, but got suspended the day after that, for a month. After Roman Reigns returned from his suspension, there has seemed to have been a paradigm shift in his position in the card. A newly debuting Finn Balor received his push instead, becoming the first ever WWE Universal Champion. Reigns in the meanwhile began a feud with Rusev over the United States Championship. The fans did not have too much of a problem with this as they were happy to see him in a midcard role, and although he was still getting booed, there were audibly more favourable reactions to Reigns. However, in a bizarre turn of events, the planned match with Rusev at Summerslam did not take place. Reigns instead, the next night on Raw, ended up qualifying for a Fatal Four Way Elimination match to crown a new WWE Universal Champion after the title was vacated by Finn Balor.Reigns was the second wrestler to get eliminated in the match after a returning Triple H took him out and got Rollins to pin him. The match was eventually won by Kevin Owens, in a series of events that saw Seth Rollins finally turn babyface as well. It is clear what is next for Rollins, but the question is, what is next for Reigns?
