What’s the story?
Cage Side Seats reports that the WWE wants both Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman to look strong and go over in their match at Fastlane against each other. As of now, Reigns and Strowman are scheduled for a regular singles match on March 5, 2017, at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, so this rumour may indicate that the finish will be something other than a pinfall or submission.
In case you didn’t know...
Strowman was separated from The Wyatt Family in 2016 via the Draft Lottery and has been portrayed as an unstoppable monster since then. He would often fight squash matches and always look superior whenever he fought someone.
Eventually, he moved on from squash matches and began focusing on wrestlers higher up on the card like Reigns, Seth Rollins, and Sami Zayn.
Reigns has been getting a major push since 2015 when he won the Royal Rumble Match and went on to challenge Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.
Since then, he has become a three-time WWE Champion and a United States Champion, and is now one of the WWE’s top babyfaces despite not receiving the appropriate crowd response.
The feud between Strowman and Reigns began on Raw during the Kevin Owens Show segment, where Reigns and Goldberg hit a double spear on Strowman. Strowman would exact his revenge by interfering in the Universal Championship Match at the Royal Rumble.
The Heart of the Matter
It’s quite hard for both men to go over in a match with only pinfall or submission. Both men would need to be in much different matches or matches against other opponents in order for both of them to go over.
If the goal was just for both men to look strong in the match, that could be done despite one of the men having to lose, but for them to go over is virtually impossible.
What’s next?
There are two weeks until the Fastlane pay-per-view, so there are still many things the WWE can do to set the match up to benefit both men heading into WrestleMania. Hopefully, this alleged issue is resolved before the pay-per-view.
Sportskeeda’s Take
WWE seemingly loves to book itself in impossible situations. This isn’t the first time in recent memory where the promotion has booked itself into a corner and sacrificed the momentum of one wrestler for the other.
A great example of this would be when former WWE Superstars Ryback and CM Punk clashed in Hell in A Cell in 2012. Punk had momentum as a Champion closing in on a year-long title reign, while Ryback had momentum as an unstoppable force.
Both were booked against each other for a C-level pay-per-view and Punk won; robbing Ryback's momentum. Now the WWE finds itself in a similar situation with two men whose momentum they want to keep going, but are now facing each other.
An argument could be made that Strowman needs the win more than Reigns, simply because Reigns is the more established wrestler. However, with no opponent scheduled or even rumoured for WrestleMania, it would seem foolish to give Strowman a win against a major star, only for him to do nothing of note afterwards, while Reigns is heading into what may be The Undertaker’s retirement match.
If the WWE really wants both men to go over, then the match stipulation would need to be changed to something like an iron man match or a Last Man Standing Match. Those are the only situations in which both men could go over and look strong. If the match isn’t changed, then don’t be surprised when you hear that iconic gong towards the end of the match.
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