#3 Roman Reigns
Either Roman Reigns is winning the Universal Championship here or he’s being booked to look like he absolutely should have, if not for something that screwed him over.
Judging by how WWE has responded to the fans’ reaction of Reigns over the past three years, it’s obvious there’s no stopping this train because they aren’t listening. Call it persistence, call it stubbornness, or call it a brilliant long term plan that has yet to be executed and we are not privy to, whatever the reasoning, Reigns is always booked strong.
On a personal note, I don’t dislike Reigns as much as most people, but I can't support the notion of him going into WrestleMania either defending or challenging for the Universal Championship, particularly when a much more interesting feud between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens is so easy to do instead.
However, I’m not the one in charge of the creative decisions, and it seems as though that’s what we’re getting, so it’s just a matter of when Reigns obtains that title.
Does he defeat Owens here at the Royal Rumble or is that too obvious, meaning that WWE will try to swerve us by having him lose and then capture it at Fastlane?
If it leads to the same end result, WWE might as well pull the band-aid off fast and just have him win it here so the foul mood that will come out of that decision will have an extra few weeks to dissipate. The closer to WrestleMania they pull the trigger, the more it will weigh on that card’s morale.
Reigns is going to win this match or be the spiritual winner in every sense of the word.
